Denise Szykula, Founder, Director and Chief Choreographer
recounts the origin of the suite of dances called
STRIKING OUT

"Through the years I have worked with music composer Dana Newhouse. When he needed to pinpoint a place in the dance in regards to the music, he would say, "You know when the dancers do this.....?"
No not familiar!
Dana is very coordinated, but he is a weight lifter. hiis muscles have been developed in a very different way than a dancers muscles. But, I found the movement oddly beautiful.
I asked him to be part of an experiment.
I taught him movement and he taught it to the dancers. The result was like nothing I had ever seen before, but realized that I had been looking for.
When I left the experiment rehearsal, I kept thinking, this reminds me of something. Then I realized it reminded me of anger. It was uncontrolled and violent.
Then I wrote STRIKING OUT -Striking Out in anger, in baseball, in love, and striking out on your own. And, that is how the dance STRIKING OUT began."

Denise Szykula 1998