Austin Dance Festival Continues in Wake of Founder’s Passing

Being creative takes guts. It’s terrifying not only to share your art, but to believe it’s worth sharing – to take every idea and notion and keep growing your artistic field. Austin Arts Hall of Famer Kathy Dunn Hamrick defined that creative bravery. She launched not only a boundary-pushing company with KDH Dance but also encouraged national professional dance development and community with the Austin Dance Festival.

“Kathy had such a vibrant energy,” reminisced dancer Alyson Dolan. Even before asking Hamrick to be a professional mentor, Dolan considered Hamrick the “queen of modern dance.” To her students and colleagues, her command and ever-growing expansion of the medium inspired respect and reverence reserved for royalty. 

When Hamrick passed away from cancer in February, she made sure there was no doubt about the future of her two most major platforms. What was once a self-contained world deftly masterminded by Hamrick has expanded to a network of talented artists, connected by a fierce love of modern dance. Dolan and composer Drew Silverman now helm KDH Dance, while ZATERO Dance’s Natasha Small became executive director of Hamrick and fellow dancer Ilana Wolanow’s brainchild: the Austin Dance Festival.

“Modern dance is hella weird,” said Small of the festival. “You’re seeing people explore stuff that makes zero sense, but it’s important. … You might not know what it means, but it’s intentional.”

It’s a focus baked into the very origins of the festival. Austin Dance Festival began as a small fundraising event called the Book & Dance Affair, where guests could purchase donated books and get to see new works from the company. Through various programming iterations, the fundraiser morphed into national opportunities for modern dancers throughout the country. Around 2015, Hamrick found a festival home at Ballet Austin, began taking performance applications, and started running a version of the current schedule. 

The weekendlong festival is now a blend of master classes, showcases, and artist interviews. Most of the classes are a chance for advanced dancers to strengthen their knowledge and build skills as well as find inspiration from those with different approaches – but there are chances for all ability levels to participate. It’s a rare opportunity for novices and experts to experiment and find common joy in movement alongside each other. As Dolan adds, they’re “not training to be professional dancers. We’re all doing this for our own health, sanity, and love of modern dance.”

This year Small, her team, and adjudicators around the country selected 20 works from national and local performers for the fest’s two-night showcase. Several selected artists will teach the master classes: Denton’s Jordan Fuchs handles a professional course, while Dallas native Cami Holman will tackle the open community class. New Jersey’s Evelyn Tejeda leads the final master class on prop usage; her showcase piece apparently features a T-shirt to great effect.

Very few of these performances exist in the same way outside the festival. There won’t be the specific sound from Ballet Austin’s acoustics, or the energy of the festival audience. Silverman called this one of the highlights. When Kathy worked, there was an “ephemeral nature to what she was doing. It forces you to be a little more present,” he said. 

Everyone involved with the festival hopes to preserve that “bottled lightning” effect. “There’s a curiosity and a commitment to modern dance and live music that we know we want to keep,” said Dolan. “And we want to keep improving the quality of the work, opening up the fold of the festival for more people.”

After all, “art is where people take risks,” said Small. 

This article appears in April 10 • 2026.