Performance Release | Urban Souls Dance Company

Urban Souls Dance Company returned to CAMH last year with a new Dance Theater installment, Re/Written in Stone: Ideas on the 28th Amendment, a response to the exhibition Nari Ward: We the People. Watch the release of Urban Souls’ Founder and Choreographer Harrison Guy as he uses the Black dancing body to explore America’s attempts and non-attempts at Freedom.

About Urban Souls Dance Company
Founded in 2004, in Houston, Texas, Urban Souls Dance Company (USDC) was conceived with the initial concept of bridging the gap between urban life and dance theatre. Urban Souls Dance Company’s primary purpose is to promote as well as encourage diversity and individuality through all aspects of dance. While effectively engaging audiences, Urban Souls promises to tell real life stories by boldly blending technique, passion, and African American culture.

About Harrison Guy
Harrison Guy—the Artistic Director of Urban Souls Dance Company (USDC)—has captivated audiences across the nation through his inspirational and unique works of passion, beauty, and activism that are rooted in African American culture. Guy began his dance journey in La Marque, Texas at Ruth Elgin Dance Studios. Building on his love for social dance and hip-hop, Guy studied Dance at Prairie View A&M University, Texas, under the artistic direction of Kenneth Epting and Paula Williams. He went on to study at The Houston Metropolitan Dance Center, Texas; Sam Houston State University, Huntsville, Texas; Deeply Rooted Productions in Chicago, Illinois; Dallas Black Dance Theater, Texas; and The Ailey School in New York, New York. In 2004, Guy debuted his dance company, Urban Souls Dance Company at the city-wide dance festival, Dance Houston. Since the inaugural performance, he has led Urban Souls to win the Dance Houston Award, and Best Artistic Achievement honors in both 2005 and 2006. In 2008, Dance Houston presented USDC with two awards; Best Choreography and The Audience Pick Award. Urban Souls was also awarded Best Choreography at the Houston Black Dance Festival in 2008. Guy has gained a reputation for creating soul stirring works that shift the consciousness of the audience. He has facilitated a cultural exchange in Kigali, Rwanda and was commissioned to create a work at Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee, in the spring of 2015 to honor one of America’s most prominent composers, John Harbison. In 2016, Guy launched Houston’s first African American Dance Festival. Guy is a current recipient of the Idea Fund Grant where he is working to synchronize the efforts and energies of Houston’s Black creatives with the Black Arts Movement Houston.

©Contemporary Arts Museum Houston, 2020.

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