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Faith, hope, charity, & dance: choreographer Jane Weiner melds dance and activism at her Houston Center.

Article Excerpt
With her back to the audience, Jane Weiner bourees across the stage in a part-homage, part-pun on Giselle's second act. She re-enters with a grandiose string of technical feats ending in a tragic splat on the floor. Weiner nails the essence of the "it's so funny it's tragic" spirit.

The audience howls, half-believing this poor girl has missed her mark. Her stage persona conjures a mix of postmodern movement sensibility with Carol Burnett's deadpan wit and Buster Keaton's physical humor.

In Night Moves, the solo Mark Dendy created for her, Weiner sheds her comedic demeanor to explore the territory of moving forward in life when you just can't go on. Midway, Weiner curls up in fetal position and begins to weep silently. The intermittent vibrations of her shoulders fill the space with a restrained pathos.

Weiner knows firsthand about moving forward amidst a dire situation. After shepherding her sister through metastasized breast cancer and a harrowing bone marrow transplant, she found a new sense of purpose. While her dancing wins artistic accolades, her activism has raised over $1 million for breast cancer research, mammograms for uninsured women, and breast health education.

Weiner got a late start in dance, getting serious...

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