Alexa Capareda (@acapareda)

is a choreographer, producer, dancer, educator, and artist. She began studying ballet in her native Philippines, eventually trained in Austin and Montreal, and danced professionally with Balet Bratislava in Slovakia. Alexa has worked in Austin since 2013 with Performa/Dance, Frank Wo/Men Collective, ARCOS, Magdalena Jarkowiec, Jennifer Sherburn, BLiPSWiTCH, Transitory Sound and Movement Collective, Austin Camerata, and LOLA Austin. She has collaborated with sound artists Steve Parker, Brent Baldwin, and Henna Chou, and visual artists Tom Suhler and Susan Scafati. 

Alexa is Rehearsal Director for Ballet Austin TWO and the Butler Fellows and has restaged and choreographed multiple works for BA2 and the fellowship program. Maria and the Mouse Deer, her new ballet for BA2 based on Philippine folk stories, was awarded a Grants for Arts Projects award from the National Endowment for the Arts. 

Alexa has presented work at the Blanton Museum, Big Medium, Fusebox Festival, Austin Dance Festival, and Barnstorm Dance Festival. She was a prizewinner at the 2013 Festival of Choreographic Miniatures in Serbia and recipient of the 2017 Austin Critics Table Award for Excellence as Dancer.  She has a BA English, minor in Theater and Dance from UT-Austin. 

Alexa set an 8-10 minute choreographic work entitled - Mycelia, on members of tbd. dance collective.

Inspired by mycelia and intelligent interconnected networks, the piece experiments with ways we interact/communicate with, and tether to, each other.

Paul Lansky's compositional style is often process-based, featuring concise rhythmic ideas that overlap and create intricate complexity. Two illustrative examples highlight this approach:

1. In the first example (exemplified by the first movement), Lansky employs patterns of varying lengths among the players. For instance, if Player 1 and 2 follow patterns of seven notes, while Player 3 and 4 use patterns of eight, they will converge every seven cycles (reminiscent of 8th-grade algebra). This technique, akin to Steve Reich's music, compels the listener to perceive strong beats or grooves in different places. The mind adjusts by following one idea over another, resulting in a sense of resolution when the cycles synchronize.

2. The second example involves using different beat divisions simultaneously. In movement V, players divide the beat (pulse) into 4, 5, and 6, creating a rhythmic mass that swiftly resolves itself. To some, this may even sound like an improvised performance.

These two techniques generate musical chaos with a continually shifting pulse and groove, allowing for two realities: the reality of the written score (understood by the performers) and the reality perceived by the audience. When the Omaha Percussion Group programmed Threads we were drawn to the notion that the internal processing we engaged in could generate an energy conducive to choreography. TBD, in a performance for Omaha Under the Radar, agreed to perform with us and created a visual work that adds another layer of rhythmic sophistication, akin to Lansky's compositional style. This enhances the experience for both the performers and the audience.

I highly recommend listening to the full recording (I suggest So Percussion's performance, for whom it was originally composed) before attending the show. This allows you to appreciate the dual experience for yourself. The beauty of process-based and post-minimalist music lies in how each additional element significantly alters your perspective through repeated interaction.