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Extraordinary Texans: Alan Bean

Extraordinary Texans: Alan Bean

One of only 12 people who has ever walked on the moon, former astronaut and Apollo Lunar Module Pilot Alan…
Extraordinary Texans: Armando Hinojosa

Extraordinary Texans: Armando Hinojosa

Front and center on the grounds of the Texas Capitol in Austin, the Tejano Monument’s life-size granite figures include an…
Extraordinary Texans: Harry Robinson Jr.

Extraordinary Texans: Harry Robinson Jr.

As president and CEO of the African American Museum in Dallas, Harry Robinson Jr. has turned his keen interest in…
Extraordinary Texans: Bill and Sally Wittliff

Extraordinary Texans: Bill and Sally Wittliff

Several years after the death of Texas literary legend J. Frank Dobie in 1964, aspiring writer and photographer Bill Wittliff…
Extraordinary Texans: Dorothy Huang

Extraordinary Texans: Dorothy Huang

Don’t eat this,” says cookbook author, culinary tour guide, and teacher Dorothy Huang, laughing as she shows a dried red…
Extraordinary Texans: Frederick 'Fritz' Hanselmann

Extraordinary Texans: Frederick 'Fritz' Hanselmann

Frederick “Fritz” Hanselmann holds many titles with the Meadows Center for Water and the Environment at Texas State University in…
Extraordinary Texans: Margo Martindale

Extraordinary Texans: Margo Martindale

You can take the movie star out of Texas, but you can’t take Texas out of the movie star. Actress…
Individuals that help make Texas special

Extraordinary Texans

A common thread runs among this year’s group of Extraordinary Texans: Each of them has pursued a dream, and each…
Artist Buck Winn helped define 20th-Century Texas art

In the Creative Moment

The artist, inventor, architect, and teacher Buck Winn first beheld the hills of Wimberley in the late 1930s. Enchanted by…
Poetry the Cowboy Way in Alpine

Gather 'Round

The cowboy rides in from the West,mulling stanzas, lines and words.Winter delivers a fleeting restfrom the fences, trenches and herds.…
The individuals who help make Texas special

Extraordinary Texans

Each Texan has a story to tell.  Each story comprises one thread in the special tapestry that is the Lone…
Everyday movement inspires the 42-year-old Texas native and lifelong dancer. She blends two college degrees (anthropology and choreography) in what she calls ethnographic choreography. “I want to choreograph untrained dancers to explore, as an anthropologist would, how communities function.” Orr began the quest in 2001 with 13 firefighters performing their dangerous profession’s artistry of movement. She did a project with 30 roller skaters, another with a half-dozen expectant mothers, and another with five Elvis impersonators plus three trained dancers. Solo performances featured a symphony conductor and a police officer. Orr even rallied Venetian gondoliers to perform a floating ballet, and she convinced 300 two-steppers to hoof it at the steps of the Texas Capitol. Her most famous work engaged 24 employees and 16 vehicles from Austin’s sanitation department. A documentary on the project, Trash Dance, premiered in 2012. Her next project, PowerUP, will involve 30 workers and 20 utility poles, plus bucket trucks and cranes, from Austin’s public power utility, Austin Energy. (Look for it September 21-22, 2013, at the Travis County Expo Center.) Orr also works with children, seniors, and people with disabilities. “I believe dance can break negative stereotypes by telling people’s stories in new ways,” Orr says. “Besides, I want to get everyone dancing. Dancing is natural for kids but gets harder as we age. It’s really part of who we are.” Read about More Extraordinary Texans

Extraordinary Texans: Allison Orr

Award-winning Austin choreographer Allison Orr is lifting the old Texas saying—dance with the one that brung ya—to new heights.  During…
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