Art Inspiring Art

The Brood | Choreography by Julynn Wildman and the dancers

Dancers | BJ Allen-Prudden, Harley Hollibaugh, Julynn Wildman, Téa Woodland

Music | 'Dawn' and 'Ships' by J. Stuart Smith

 

Seeds | Written and recited by Tyler Knott Gregson

Tyler shared this poem after his experience with the sculptures during the 2018 Resonance creation process. After choreographing the piece Currents, Tanya felt like it was the perfect match to lead into her piece.

 

SEEDS

 

We are anchorless things, seeds born

gravity confused, wings grown

in place of roots. Can we call this

a migration, if we decide

to stay? This is a dance done

on the breath of breezes,

this is flight to a nameless place.

What worlds will begin

when we allow ourselves

stillness?

 

-Tyler Knott Gregson-

         

Currents | Choreography by Tanya W. Call

Dancers | BJ Allen-Prudden, Laura Brown, Millie Dassinger, Denise Johnson, Ella Hansen, Harley Hollibaugh, 

Paulette Kohman, Amber Kuntz, Maureen Madden, Juliet Mahar, Tyler Jessi Putnam, Emerson Sagan, Kerrigan Verlanic, Chelsea Weidman, Julynn Wildman, Amber Wilke, Anne Woodland, Téa Woodland

Music | Joshua Loveland and ‘Lake Nivu’ by Jerro

Choreographer’s note | In the planning for Resonance this year, the elements of nature kept coming into my mind. Air and water were consistent themes as I started choreographing and the movement patterns used in this piece are the result of these ideas. While Christina’s painting is projected later in the performance leading into another piece, it was also used as inspiration for some of the movement sequences. It was such a pleasure working with this broad range of dancers and giving them each a chance to explore and experience the sculptures.

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The Dance of Two | Choreography by Toree Wilson

Dancers | Harley Hollibaugh, Téa Woodland

Music | No. 1-Scene-(Allegro Giusto) and No.5 Pas De Deux: Andante Songs written by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky played              by Royal Philharmonic Orchestra

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What the Glacier Dreamed | Choreography by Jessica Partridge

Dancers | Jenny Andersen, Laura Brown, Ella Hansen, Chelsea Weidman

Music | ‘The Thaw’ by Harley Hollibaugh

Harley’s notes on the music | Inspiration for The Thaw was melting glaciers. Imagining what it would feel like emotionally to be melting away and my goal was to embody melting glaciers through this musical composition, as well as the movement and emotion portrayed by Jess’s choreography. 

 

Jessica was inspired to write the following poem after creating her choreography.

 

What the Glacier Dreamed

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The glacier dreamed

she could dance.

 

Not creak and groan.

Bound in ancient slowness,

but twirl a ribbon of silver

spinning down the valley.

 

She dreamed,

of melting as liberation,

each drop a leap,

a story slipping loose

from frozen memory.

 

No longer bound to stillness,

she giggled into streams,

tumbled over rocks,

whispered her secrets

to the roots of trees.

 

The sun was not her enemy just a hand, warm and curious, releasing what had waited so long to be alive.

 

Even as it vanished, she smiled

To melt was to move and to move

was to finally be free.

 

 -Jessica Partridge-

 

Musical Interlude | Created and performed by Joshua Loveland

 

Fire Folk | Choreography by Julynn Wildman

Dancers | BJ Allen-Prudden, Jenny Andersen, Laura Brown, Lily Carter, Harley Hollibaugh, Keslie McGowan,

Jessica Partridge, Kerrigan Verlanic, Julynn Wildman, Téa Woodland

Music | Joshua Loveland and Julynn Wildman

Choreographer’s notes | This piece was inspired by the complementary elements of fire, water, and earth through the metaphor of the salamander, an amphibious animal with a long mythic association with fire. Salamanders are a diverse group of animals that vary widely in size, color, life cycle and habitat. They can regenerate limbs, sometimes detaching their tails to avoid predation. Many secrete poison from their skin. Some never develop past their aquatic juvenile form, others never develop eyes. Many breathe through their skin, others have frills of external gills, and most who develop into terrestrial adults grow lungs. 

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Folklore about salamanders as fire creatures emerged across Europe and Asia, likely from observing salamanders fleeing fireplaces when their overwintering logs were (inadvertently) burnt. Stories range in tenor from salamanders as a symbol of rebirth and love to one of death, infection and disease.

 

A particularly captivating lore emerged about fire resistant cloth woven from salamander ‘fur.’ Amid conflicting accounts of this fur coming from long-haired mammals or phoenix-like birds, 13th century explorer Marco Polo proclaimed: ‘...the real truth is that the salamander is no beast…but is a substance found in the earth…’ While misled about the nonexistence of salamanders, he did accurately describe the mineral substance long conflated with salamander fur: asbestos. This natural fire-proof, fibrous silicate can be spun and woven into cloth, but the salamander’s toxic reputation is shared by its mineral ‘fur’: asbestos is easily broken down into minute, air-borne particles that wreak havoc on the lungs.

 

Ironically, it is now the salamander who faces a suffocating future: as their habitat is diminished and polluted by human industry, fewer larvae survive into adulthood. While their skin may have protected them from predators and the fires of medieval hearths, it is now a liability to life begun in polluted waterways.

 

From this piece Julynn was inspired to write the following poem:

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The patron of forges and ghost of Pompeii buried in ashes, emerging from flame

Ignite and then quench, first molten then tempered, the arms grow once more and the beast is remembered 

 

Shrouded from fire with poisonous skin that blisters and boils your uncareful hand 

Unburnt alone among all living things, winding round orchards to poison the trees 

 

The merchant spins yarns and pedals his wares, breathless to find the thistle-down hair 

Down where the dark makes a mockery of eyes, they took to exhume the unquenchable hide

 

And free from the ground it alights once again, riding a breath and igniting within

Amphibian fur alive in the air kindling your lungs with invisible hair 

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-Julynn Wildman-

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a cosmos underfoot (a soil study part one) | Choreography by lisa nevada

Dancers | BJ Allen Prudden, Jenny Anderson, Laura Brown, Millie Dassinger, Meghan Harrington, Harley Hollibaugh,                    Denise Johnson, Paulette Kohman, Keslie McGowan, Jess Partridge, Tyler Jessi Putnam, Emmy Sagan, Chelsea Weidman, Amber Wilke, Anne Woodland, Téa Woodland

Music/Sound Design | Opening sound by lisa nevada, Music by Brian Eno and David Byrne

Choreographer’s notes | Our Earth and environments have always influenced me to make dance offerings that bring good intentions and awareness to the land, beings, and creatures that were here before us. This offering is part one of my Soils & Insects Series which is part of a larger series of studies and offerings that include Plants & Trees, Waters & Animals.

 

I first saw Richard Swanson’s sculptures online and they reminded me of Root Systems. This led me to thinking about Soil which led me to thinking about the Insects which led me to thinking about our human connection and reliance on healthy Soil. The sounds of Soil

have been on my mind since the spring of 2024 when I learned that scientists have been listening to and recording many types of Earth. I also wondered what sounds the sculptures would make.

 

Choreographing for Resonance was a perfect opportunity to explore this research more deeply with movement, audio, literary, and visual. The worlds my dancers and I explored revealed how much is unknown about the cosmos beneath our feet. I wish this offering will bring awareness to the depths of our Earth and blessings to the Soils and its billions of inhabitants. Many thanks to the dancers for their openness and commitment, positivity and enthusiasm. Thank you, Tanya, Pat, Luke, the Cohesion team, Morgan at the Civic Center, and our Earth Mama.

 

Fantasia Corrette | Choreography by Sarah Dassinger

Dancers | Jenny Andersen, Laura Brown, Millie Dassinger, Ella Hansen, Harley Hollibaugh, Keslie McGowan,,

Anne Woodland, Téa Woodland

Music | Sarah Dassinger

 

Flathead Lake: September | Painting by Christina Barbachano

Dancer | Keslie McGowan

Music | Soundscapes

 

Pop*Pop-Fizz*Fizz | Choreography by Jessica Partridge

Dancers | Lily Carter, Millie Dassinger, Meghan Harrington, Cerys Harrington-Ma, Denise Johnson, Paulette Kohman,                  Juliet Mahar, Emmy Sagan, Amber Wilke

Music | Joshua Loveland and 'Alaska' by Maggie Rogers

Choreographer’s notes | The inspiration for this piece came from the reflection of light on the polished steel of the Resonance sculptures. The color spectrum made me think of soap bubbles.

 

Musical Interlude | Created and performed by Joshua Loveland

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Spiral Dwellers | Choreography by Tanya W. Call and the dancers

Dancers | Lily Carter, Harley Hollibaugh, Maureen Madden, Juliet Mahar, Emerson Sagan (ACE Program Dancers)

Music | ‘Vastly Seen’ by Harley Hollibaugh

Artist Notes | Spiral Dwellers was created by dancers in Cohesion’s Accelerated Contemporary Experience (ACE) Training Program. A portion of the choreography was created by the dancers in response to poems and writings they wrote following their introduction to the sculptures. A portion of choreography was also inspired by the essay, “The Never Was 172”, by Tyler Knott Gregson (below). shared by Tyler after being invited to join the Resonance artists again in 2025. Harley used the poem as inspiration to compose the music, Vastly Seen, used in this piece. Her notes are below.

 

*The Never Was 172

 

A pinwheel of light spinning on what we can never again call emptiness,

 

a rotating saw blade of gas and ice, of dust from some silent explosion

before time had its name and we pretended we understood.  

 

A sliver of the sliver given to us from magic built by the hands of a species more lost

than found, but sometimes gets it right.  I cried when I zoomed closer,

one parcel of cosmic acreage in a forest of light, slow tears of salt 

 

and mineral made of the same shining stuff that rotates slow in the heavens we study.

What lives are being lived in that whirlpool of stars, what aches felt,

what loves, deaths, what hatred?  What music is made, and would I

know to call it melody if one day it reached my ears?  

 

Does fear too divide them, do they wear their worried faces as they stare

into mirrors each morning and talk themselves out of naming every freckle

they touch cancer, do they sing in showers, do they weep into that water

when the song falls quiet?  Do they hope, against every reason to bury it,

carry it like sword and wear it like armor in the daily battle of waking up?  

 

We knew of our smallness, saw it as we saw ourselves, pale blue dot

suspended in a sunbeam, but there is something more minuscule,

quarks that hold the invisible crown of all things subatomic, and we 

know now, we are tinier still, infinitesimal, though big enough to 

call ourselves it.  Still, life grows, roots sink beneath soil and hold

against gravity and the pull skyward, blossoms stab towards warmth.

 

We spiral dwellers, the only species we know of with brains that named

themselves, we music makers, we story tellers, we who love and hurt 

one another and do not know where we go when we go from here.  

We the lost, hand in hand in the dark we only now know was never dark

at all, we the fists, the wounds, the stitches across the openings in us.

One fragment of one photograph and I reduce myself to tears,

all these lonely years, never realizing we’ve never been alone.

 

-Tyler Knott Gregson-

 

Harley’s notes | Inspiration for Vastly Seen was taken from Tyler Knott Gregson’s poem The Never Was 172. Inspired by the thought that there is something greater to what is happening here and now. Imagining the never-endless space that is in our view and rewinding or tracing back to something much smaller but greater to the human soul. Being able to view the whole process of ACE and having an opportunity to make music for these dancers made the whole thing bittersweet and that is the feeling I get when I listen to this composition. 

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Murmuration | Choreography by Julynn Wildman and the dancers

Dancers | BJ Allen-Prudden, Julynn Wildman, Téa Woodland, and full cast

Music | 'Lilypond' by J. Stuart Smith

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