REVIEWS FROM Theatre Jones, AIDS Outreach Center Benefit Concert, 2016
"After a few minutes of watching a body floundering with legs shooting in all directions, the cynic in me thought: oh no, another ponderous ballet. But after a while, L. Brooke Schlecte’s Washed Ashore began to thaw my icy heart. This was not a drama but a poem.
The first of six works performed Saturday as part of the 23rd Annual AIDS Outreach Center Benefit Concert at the Erma Lowe Hall Studio Theatre on the Texas Christian University campus, Washed Ashore could be a metaphor for anyone or anything caught in an ocean current, figuratively or literarily. A triangle-shaped structure represents the sea, and to represent the tide, small white balls roll about. For most of the time Erika Record, Katie Griffith, and Ms. Schlecte—in saggy, dullish jeans—flop and slither, toss and turn, never looking up. When one manages to get upright, it’s only for a few seconds. Like flotsam and jetsam, the current is pulling them. At last, in one dramatic gasp, the tide surges (a torrent of white balls comes smashing forward) and the survivors are washed ashore.
Piano music (played live), the darkish setting, and the restless and never-ending surge of sea over human beings made Washed Ashore oddly compelling."
Margaret Putnam, Theatre Jones
REVIEWS FROM Houston Fringe Festival, Houston 2012
"Out on a Limb Dance Company's The Character: Drive, we knew we were in for a treat -- and there to stay….
Out on a Limb's The Character: Drive started a night of conceptually challenging performance pieces that forced the mind to think; granted, this is what we would grow to love as the event progressed. The Character: Drive was broken into mini dance segments: Narcissus Pomegranate, I Be:fore You, Broke No. I-II and dirt, light, me. Megan Yankee's seismic solo movements in Narcissus Pomegranate were hard to understand -- you had to read the program to learn the theme -- but meaningful nonetheless. I Be:fore You was less challenging, but still complicated in displaying two hearts torn apart through two dancers entwining, intertwining and finally, breaking apart. Broke No. I-II paired L. Brooke Schlecte and Sarah Newton in an androgynous dance battle for supremacy and in dirt, light, me, Newton fell into and was reborn from the dirt in an explanation of being happy with the simple things in life.By Altamese Osborne, The Houston Press
REVIEWS FROM Big Range Dance Festival, Austin 2012
L. Brooke Schlecte premiered “dirt, light, me” and it was said to be “gritty and
personal.”
Jonelle Sietz, Austin Chronicle
REVIEWS FROM Big Range Dance Festival, Austin 2011
"...L. Brooke Schlecte premiered "Streetlights. People." in which four women seemed to draw from individual sets of gestures in rolling vignettes, gentle reactions, and complementary shapes. Overall, I found the piece smart and whole. "
Jonelle Sietz, Austin Chronicle
REVIEWS FROM Out of the Loop Festival 2008
"Waco-based Out On a Limb Dance Company seized the afternoon's one Opportunity to go avant-garde. Exactly what She Drew a Picture of a Whale was all about, is anyone's guess, but enough was going on to keep one's interest. [L. Brooke Schlecte and media projection of Rachel Bruce Johnson] seemed confined in their own universe, but one that is almost identical..."
Margaret Putnam Dallas Morning News
REVIEWS FROM Out of the Loop Festival 2009...
“Thank you for such an amazing and physical time! Brooke, you are one truly gifted choreographer. I would travel great distances to see you and the dancers. The duet with Sarah will stay with me a long time!”
Linda Caldwell, Ph.D., CMA
Associate Professor, Texas Woman’s University
“The movement was refreshingly physical and the choreography complicated yet palpable... [A Long Journey Home] is a piece that is delicately smart and generous with kinesthetic detail that begs to be seen more than once. The longer I watch this company, the more I see the performers evolve as well. It is work that breathes and allows the performers to actually BE performers - to bring to the work an individual telling of the story, not just an imitation of the choreography.”
Rachel Bruce Johnson, M.F.A
Adjunct Professor, Oral Roberts University
Artistic Director, The Bell House
"After a few minutes of watching a body floundering with legs shooting in all directions, the cynic in me thought: oh no, another ponderous ballet. But after a while, L. Brooke Schlecte’s Washed Ashore began to thaw my icy heart. This was not a drama but a poem.
The first of six works performed Saturday as part of the 23rd Annual AIDS Outreach Center Benefit Concert at the Erma Lowe Hall Studio Theatre on the Texas Christian University campus, Washed Ashore could be a metaphor for anyone or anything caught in an ocean current, figuratively or literarily. A triangle-shaped structure represents the sea, and to represent the tide, small white balls roll about. For most of the time Erika Record, Katie Griffith, and Ms. Schlecte—in saggy, dullish jeans—flop and slither, toss and turn, never looking up. When one manages to get upright, it’s only for a few seconds. Like flotsam and jetsam, the current is pulling them. At last, in one dramatic gasp, the tide surges (a torrent of white balls comes smashing forward) and the survivors are washed ashore.
Piano music (played live), the darkish setting, and the restless and never-ending surge of sea over human beings made Washed Ashore oddly compelling."
Margaret Putnam, Theatre Jones
REVIEWS FROM Houston Fringe Festival, Houston 2012
"Out on a Limb Dance Company's The Character: Drive, we knew we were in for a treat -- and there to stay….
Out on a Limb's The Character: Drive started a night of conceptually challenging performance pieces that forced the mind to think; granted, this is what we would grow to love as the event progressed. The Character: Drive was broken into mini dance segments: Narcissus Pomegranate, I Be:fore You, Broke No. I-II and dirt, light, me. Megan Yankee's seismic solo movements in Narcissus Pomegranate were hard to understand -- you had to read the program to learn the theme -- but meaningful nonetheless. I Be:fore You was less challenging, but still complicated in displaying two hearts torn apart through two dancers entwining, intertwining and finally, breaking apart. Broke No. I-II paired L. Brooke Schlecte and Sarah Newton in an androgynous dance battle for supremacy and in dirt, light, me, Newton fell into and was reborn from the dirt in an explanation of being happy with the simple things in life.By Altamese Osborne, The Houston Press
REVIEWS FROM Big Range Dance Festival, Austin 2012
L. Brooke Schlecte premiered “dirt, light, me” and it was said to be “gritty and
personal.”
Jonelle Sietz, Austin Chronicle
REVIEWS FROM Big Range Dance Festival, Austin 2011
"...L. Brooke Schlecte premiered "Streetlights. People." in which four women seemed to draw from individual sets of gestures in rolling vignettes, gentle reactions, and complementary shapes. Overall, I found the piece smart and whole. "
Jonelle Sietz, Austin Chronicle
REVIEWS FROM Out of the Loop Festival 2008
"Waco-based Out On a Limb Dance Company seized the afternoon's one Opportunity to go avant-garde. Exactly what She Drew a Picture of a Whale was all about, is anyone's guess, but enough was going on to keep one's interest. [L. Brooke Schlecte and media projection of Rachel Bruce Johnson] seemed confined in their own universe, but one that is almost identical..."
Margaret Putnam Dallas Morning News
REVIEWS FROM Out of the Loop Festival 2009...
“Thank you for such an amazing and physical time! Brooke, you are one truly gifted choreographer. I would travel great distances to see you and the dancers. The duet with Sarah will stay with me a long time!”
Linda Caldwell, Ph.D., CMA
Associate Professor, Texas Woman’s University
“The movement was refreshingly physical and the choreography complicated yet palpable... [A Long Journey Home] is a piece that is delicately smart and generous with kinesthetic detail that begs to be seen more than once. The longer I watch this company, the more I see the performers evolve as well. It is work that breathes and allows the performers to actually BE performers - to bring to the work an individual telling of the story, not just an imitation of the choreography.”
Rachel Bruce Johnson, M.F.A
Adjunct Professor, Oral Roberts University
Artistic Director, The Bell House