SAN ANTONIO — Tanesha Payne says there wasn't a professional contemporary dance in San Antonio when she moved here from Florida in 2016, or at least not a platform for contemporary dancers to perform regularly.
A year after starting sumRset Movement to try and fill that void, she's now teaming up with a chamber ensemble in hopes of getting her artistic passion of choice even more local visibility.
"The goal of sumRset is to increase the appreciation and visibility of (professional contemporary dance)," Payne said. "It's important to have these opportunities where people can see it regularly so they can become familiar."
Four dancers from sumRset Movement – a play on words stemming from Payne's maiden name, Sumerset, and the semi-improvisational style of dance it embraces – will join with the four-piece ensemble Agarita for its latest free concert Saturday evening at McAllister Theatre.
The show continues Agarita's mission of teaming up with local artists and institutions to enhance its shows, having previously performed alongside glass-blowers, sound designers, photographers and poets. But rarely has the group teamed up with an organization as young as sumRset Movement, which held its first performance in January 2023.
"With sumRset, Tanesha is challenging preconceived notions of what dance 'should' be," Agarita Artistic Director Daniel Anastasio said in an email interview. "Through our programming and the way we interact with audiences, Agarita is challenging preconceived notions of what a classical music concert 'should' be."
Payne says her passion for dance took hold later than usual, when theater friends dared her to audition for enrollment in an arts-focused high school in Jacksonville, where she hails from.
She was 13 at the time.
"I was just hooked after that initial class," she says. "It was just a way to really express myself. When I know I have an interview or have to talk in front of people, I get really nervous. I'm like, 'I can dance this interview if you want!'"
A military assignment for Payne's husband brought the family west, where she would study dance at Texas State University, having most recently completed her master's in 2022.
At that point, she says, she found herself in a situation many local dancers face: Little opportunity to show off their talents outside of classes and studios. That void paved the road for sumRset, currently made up of about 10 regularly active dancers based out of the Alamo City.
"When people hit like age 18, there's nowhere for them to continue dancing, or there's very few places to continue if they wanted to dance professionally," Payne said. "I wanted to be able to create those opportunities."
sumRset has put on more than a dozen performances over the last year in a variety of San Antonio locations. True to its name, some of the choreography audiences see is planned, or "set," while in other portions the movement is improvised, influenced in part by the artistic chemistry the company's performers built with one other.
That's what audiences will see Saturday at Agarita's show, which has been in the works for several weeks and sees the accompanying sumRset choreography evolving in a way that mimics the chamber ensemble's music (the 7:30 p.m. show is free, but you're asked to secure a seat ahead of time here).
"As movement artists, when we're in rehearsal and learning each other's bodies and styles, we're creating this work that's just lively and relevant," Payne said. "We're really excited to share that with the community."
At the same, the value of a partnership like this one between Agarita and sumRset isn't lost on both groups' artists, especially when it comes to increased exposure with local audiences.
"It's usually very hard just to get your name out there when you're starting something new," Payne said. "There's so many ways this collaboration has been a huge deal, and a really big blessing."
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