SOULOWORKS/Andrea E. Woods & DANCERS

SOULOWORKS/Andrea E. Woods & Dancers

Press Quotes

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Andrea E. Woods as performer with Bill T Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company

 

Dances with Brahms, performed with delicacy by Andrea E. Woods... resplendent in curved, fluid posturings.  Her magisterial presence brought to mind the great days of Judith Jamison.   

                                                -Phyllis Goldman, Backstage

 

Dances with Brahms, a solo that manages to celebrate and reveal its performer...Ms. Woods, a dancer of special softness and acuity, shares the stage with a Roman bust but it is really all her, the music, angles and soft curves navigating lush waters.  

                                                -Jennifer Dunning, The New York Times

 

 

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SOULOWORKS/Andrea E. Woods & Dancer

“This show (The Amazing Adventures of Grace May B. Brown) touches the heart, stimulates the mind, uplifts the spirit.”

            The Herald Sun

 

...I would pay to see Woods do most anything... This virtuoso possesses a pure elasticity that transcends conventional dance techniques.

                                                       - Wyatt Townley, Kansas City Star

 

Andrea E. Woods' solo, Uhuru Kwanza (Freedom) with superb accompaniment by pianist Randy Weston, was proud and self-possessed, embodying the strength, spontaneity and grace that makes her a standout in Jones'  company.

                                                       - Janice Berman, New York News Day

 

(Lincoln Center Out-Of-Doors) There were discoveries like the bold, evocative dances of Andrea E. Woods...Ms. Woods' dances looked like rituals for beautiful, young, black goddesses...      

                                                            - Jennifer Dunning, The New York Times

 

Sweet   has all the celebratory lushness one would expect from a piece based on The Song of Songs... a rich, colorful and complex work... an evocative soundscape.                                

• Susanna Sloat, Attitude Magazine

 

“Sweet Willie Mae”, an innovative ensemble romp . . . what seems like chaos one minute turns into perfect unison at a blink... we still could have asked for more.

                                                            - Lynn Felder, Winston- Salem Journal

 

“blues wimmin: evidence of freedom, prelude to protest”  Most eloquently, Woods danced the very musical phrasing of Billie Holiday’s “Lady Sings the Blues”, moving her arms fluidly in unison to Holiday’s sweeping fluid blue notes, so that the dancer and music merged.   When Bessie Smith sang. “I got the world in a jug, the stopper’s in my hand”, Woods twirled a suitcase around triumphantly, balanced it over her head in an evocative gesture bespeaking strength and freedom.

                                                            - Seth Rogovoy, The Berkshire Eagle

 

Woods is a marvelous mover.  Dancing for Bill T. Jones may have helped mold her beautiful slippery style . . . but everything she does looks original.

            - Deborah Jowitt, The Village Voice

 

The high point of the evening ( Philip Hamilton Vocalscapes, Joyce Theater) in terms of dance was Andrea Woods’ solo, Lagos Lullaby, backed up by singers Mary Wormworth and Treva Offutt, who soothe and incite her as she pulls dancing through her body like silk and ties it off with arresting vigor.

                        - Deborah Jowitt, Village Voice

 

Andrea E. Woods may be essentially a solo performer--as Souloworks, the punning title of her enterprise, indicates--but she has a steady partner in the rhythmically cut, boldly angled video footage she creates as accompaniment.

-Tobi Tobias, Village Voice 5/16/05

 

Andrea E. Woods' long flexible back and powerful, velvety leg thrusts  or sinkings into plié made some spectators whoop, but her Epitaph  was no showpiece, it was a strong, somber dance based on a Countee Cullen poem

                                                            - Deborah Jowitt, Village Voice

 

...into this frenzy stepped Andrea E. Woods, like a soothing mother of peace.  Cool and calming, her long limbs moved with fluidity and ease in Epitaph.

                                                            - Cynthia Thomas, Houston Chronicle

 

Uhuru Kwanza (Freedom)  ...a work of utter conviction.  She proved to be a dancer of emotional depth and technical assurance.  Her sense of balance, in itself was absolutely breathtaking.

                                                            - Jennie Schulman, Back Stage

 

Ms. Woods created a moving work in Keva, The Journey .  Dancers performed Woods' stirring choreography with all the reverence due it.

                                                            - Jennie Schulman, Back Stage

 

The solo with which Woods opens Rite is a marvel of shape-shifting...folding over, jutting hips, stirring the air with arms that swing bonelessly from her shoulders.  Her dancing, like Obo Addy’s music hints at African origin but looks completely invented.                                                 - Deborah Jowitt, Village Voice

 

Andrea E. Woods embodied totemic female energy in Rite.

• Chris Dohse, Village Voice

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Andrea E. Woods choreographs like a calligrapher. Arms swoop, curve and arc in a secret language, punctuated by fingers and feet, elbows and knees that add fillips of commas, a steady dash of an arm or an angular bent-kneed bracket.                      - Lisa Traiger, Washington Post

 

“The Book of Regret”... an exquisite example of two people creating a universe utilizing biblical language.

                                                            -Alice Richardson, Amsterdam News

 

“Sweet”, Andrea E. Woods created a seamless, earth ritual for four dancers

                        -Jennifer Dunning, The New York Times (unpublished)