Comment:
HARTEL DANCE GROUP
PERFORMED WELL AT
OKLAHOMA CITY 
MUSEUM OF ART

By Nancy Condit

Austin Hartel successfully moved Human After All, with the help of Bryon Chambers, to
the Oklahoma City Museum of Art on Sunday at 12:30 p.m. The ground breaking performance
using the people in the audience's cell phones and Facebook to stream the performance 
live by the audience  "around the world," and break the fourth wall was received with 
rousing applause by the standing audience.

Mario Perdomo was a standout among the dancers with his performance that included
break dancing and back flips. The other smooth dancers were  Christy Strauss, 
Kayla Witthus, Chelsea Walker, Emily Franks, Daniele Crista, Kessa Fehring, Ashley Coffin, 
and Jennifer Rader as the Human. Visit harteldancegroup.org/about/performer. Fehring 
and Coffin were guest artists from the University of Oklahoma School of Dance, CDO. 

The timing fitted seamlessly between the Oklahoma City Marathon, the film showing 
at 2 p.m. in the same theater, and the Festival of the Arts. Hartel said that they were able 
to remove most of the multi-media show, except for a large piece that would have been 
damaged by the rain on Saturday, when they were allowed in to Oklahoma Contemporary. 
The performance was moved because of the danger of fire.

 Choreography was by Austin Hartel, the group' s artistic director and choreographer, 
with one of the ten encounters choreographed by Roxanne Lyst, who has been a member of PHILDANCO and The Alvin Ailey American Theater. The music was composed and 
arranged by Aaron Robinson, and performed both live and recorded by Robinson and 
Dillon Branscum. Images were by Skip Largent.