UPCOMING
S T A Y T U N E D
Photo: Sarah Annie Navarrete (hone \ rile, 2018)
PAST PROJECTS
Long Time Sun
SXSW World Premiere
March 10, 2024
Stateside Theatre at the Paramount | Austin, TX
Long Time Sun is a four-part epic chronicling the rise of Kundalini Yoga and the 3HO Sikh Dharma community. With unprecedented access to key members of the 3HO community’s inner circle and set against the backdrop of sixty years of American life, this intimate, multi-generational series is a microcosm through which to explore the corrosive nature of power, the spiritual toll of capitalism, the commodification of wellness, and the slide into moral ambiguity that often underlies the quest for a greater good. This is a story about family, betrayal, hope, truth and reconciliation.
Director: Joanna Forscher
Executive Producers: Rick Rubin, Leila Mattimore
Producer: Joanna Forscher, Chloe Chapman
Cinematographer: James Lee Phelan
Camera Operator: Zachary Sprague
Editors: Paul Snyder, Chloe Chapman, Andrew Adolphus
Music: Hamilton Leithauser
Choreography: BLiPSWiTCH - Taryn Lavery & Alex Miller
Dancers: Anna Bauer, Bethany Rose Boutwell, Hannah Brightwell, Sarah Calvin, Celeste Camfield, Jairus Carr, Siri Cyan, Alyson Dolan, Jonathan Garcia, Ty Graynor, Karson Hood, Clay Moore, Rachel Nayer, Ryan Parent, Stephanie Patrick, Aidan Rogers, Morgan Sandlin, Lisa Shreck, Jessica Siclari, Matthew Sommers, Camille Wiltz
Treespell
Dancing with Trees
March 2, 2024
Women & Their Work Gallery | Austin, TX
Dancing with Trees was a durational movement exploration in conversation with the mythical world of Elizabeth Chapin’s Treespell. BLiPSWiTCH added another layer to the conversation of the transformative power of the gaze and offered the body as a fully present, living archive.
Choreographic Direction: Alex Miller
Performance: Hailley Lauren, Taryn Lavery, Alex Miller, Sarah Navarrete, Aidan Rodgers
Unstill Life
February 21-24, 2024
Wolf House | Austin, TX
BLiPSWiTCH took over the historic Wolf House for Unstill Life— a self-guided durational movement performance. Fourteen dancers inhabited six spaces, with each room and its cast embodying and investigating a distinct point in time— often through satire, occasionally with gravity, sometimes interrogating, but always exploring… and never taking ourselves too seriously.
Concept, Production & Choreographic Direction: Taryn Lavery, Alex Miller
Choreographic Collaboration & Performance: Anna Bauer, Celeste Camfield, Alexa Capareda, Cara Cook, Siri Cyan, Karson Hood, Hailley Lauren, Christina Mitchell, Rosalyn Nasky, Sarah Navarrete, Lisa del Rosario, Melissa Sanderson, Emily Tolson, Camille Wiltz
Photos: Taryn Lavery, Alex Miller | Graphic Design: Taryn Lavery
WIZARD RODEO 3
December 2, 2023
The Long Time | Austin, TX
Austin’s mystical mini music fest, Wizard Rodeo, brought BLiPSWiTCH back to The Drone Zone stage. Dancers Hailley Lauren, Taryn Lavery, Alex Miller and Bradi Nelson performed during the Seventh Hour Stretch, alongside the soundscapes of Joey Reyes.
Graphic Design: Dan Grissom
$3 shows
Benefitting DAWA
August 20, 2023
Far Out Lounge | Austin, TX
$3 Shows is an Austin-based organization committed to connecting the local arts community with the social issues community through live fundraising events. BLiPSWiTCH proudly performed in support of DAWA, which “honors, celebrates, and empowers the essential work of community frontliners and creatives of color through direct financial support and culturally relevant health-centered programming”.
Photo: Eric Morales (Styling: Parke Ballentine)
Fuck Money
feat. BLiPSWiTCH
with The Octopus Project & Galactic Protector
presented by 101X Homegrown Live & The Parish
May 5, 2023
The Parish | Austin TX
BLiPSWiTCH joined forces with Austin punk band— FUCK MONEY— filling the stage with visual movement distortion danced by Celeste Camfield, Jairus Carr, Taylor Conaler, Taryn Lavery and Alex Miller.
Fun Fact: FUCK MONEY drummer, Alton Jenkins, was a collaborator for BLiPSWiTCH’s very first, inaugural Offbeat.
A hair can split the difference
March 29 - April 2, 2023
The Long Time | Austin, TX
A Hair Can Split the Difference situated itself and the audience within the realm of feminine agency. Thirteen dancers visualized themes of strength, self-actualization, and unapologetic fallibility which mirror the work of equine-facilitated physiotherapist, Linda Kohanov. Through mythological and historical representations of the horse and the feminine, this work indulged in the analogy of these two species moving through the world, persevering with an awareness deeply rooted in feeling.
Dance: Errin Delperdang, Lisa del Rosario, Lisa Kobdish, Hailley Lauren, Taryn Lavery, Sarah Navarrete, Rachel Nayer, Kelsey Oliver, Aidan Rodgers, Emily Rushing, Erica Saucedo, Emily Tolson and Lucy Wilson
Music: K.C. Jones, Josh Kavanaugh, Zack Wiggs
Photo: Maggie M. Bailey | Graphic Design: Taryn Lavery
Wizard Rodeo 2
December 3, 2022
The Long Time | Austin, TX
BLiPSWiTCH amplified The Drone Zone stage with some movement at the second annual Wizard Rodeo, an Austin mini music fest. Danced by Hailley Lauren, Taryn Lavery, Alex Miller, Sarah Navarrete and Emily Rushing with soundscapes by Michael Brown and Joey Reyes.
Graphic Design: Dan Grissom
a short stop at the Long time
Frank Curry + BLiPSWiTCH + Grand Maximum
November 19, 2022
The Long Time | Austin, TX
A Short Stop at The Long Time celebrated Frank Curry’s photography series premiere, Insecta. BLiPSWiTCH created an original new dance piece inspired by the series — performed in the gallery by dancers Celeste Camfield, Taryn Lavery, Katie Lowen, Alex Miller, Christina Mitchell and Erica Saucedo — with a score by Michael Brown and Erik Garven. Austin band Grand Maximum closed out the day!
Photo: Frank Curry | Dancer: Taryn Lavery
Unconventional Dance
Workshop + Performance with Hollis Bartlett & Nattie Trogdon
October 17-22, 2022
The Long Time | Austin, TX
We brought NYC dance artists Hollis Bartlett and Nattie Trogdon to Austin to share their dance practices with the community in a week long site-specific workshop. We also presented a live performance and a gallery featuring the duo’s Unconventional Dance films from around the country.
Photo: Whitney Browne
Gentle our Driftless Caravan
a dance work by BLiPSWiTCH and Alexa Capareda
presented by En Route Productions
September 1-2 & 8-12, 2022
Rain Lily Farm | Austin, TX
Commissioned and produced by En Route Productions, Gentle our Driftless Caravan was performed by dancers Alexa Capareda, Siri Cyan, Taryn Lavery, Clay Moore and Oddalys Salcido, with a live score by Henna Chou and Adam Hilton, set design by Ia Ensterä and lighting design by Natalie George Productions.
Photo: Taryn Lavery & Alex Miller | Graphic Design: Taryn Lavery
Listed as one of the Seven Performance Highlights of 2022 by SIGHTLINES Magazine.
“The score and choreography combine to suggest big emotions— separation, grief, love— and the farm setting roots the piece in a deep sense of place. It is spectacular and meditative, intimate and grand— triumphantly full of contradictions that work.”
- Courtney Thomas, SIGHTLINES Magazine
A Kate Bush Bash
A Benefit for Free Lunch presented by KUTX
July 30, 2022
3Ten Austin City Limits Live | Austin, TX
In partnership with Space Flight Records, Nine Mile Records and The Quiddity Foundation, 100% of ticket sales from this event benefited Free Lunch, a “collective of Austin creatives who reduce food insecurity by growing, cooking, and serving food and engaging in food access advocacy by publishing a quarterly magazine”.
BLiPSWiTCH performed to “Waking the Witch”— from Kate Bush’s 1985 album, Hounds of Love— danced by Anna Bauer, Taryn Lavery, Alex Miller, Aidan Rodgers, and Emily Tolson.
Graphic Design: Ishaq Fahim
Moving Together
a film by Maggie M. Bailey
June 17, 2022
Motion Media Arts Center | Austin, TX
BLiPSWiTCH and filmmaker Maggie M. Bailey presented a special sneak peek preview of Bailey’s feature-length directorial debut, Moving Together, preceded by a live performance by A’Lante Flamenco. This documentary explores and celebrates the collaborative relationship between music and dance, musicians and dancers, through three different lenses: Flamenco, Second Line, and Modern dance with artists Jesse Zaritt, Michael Wall, Michelle N. Gibson, Thaddeus Ford, Isaí Chacón, and Olivia Chacón.
Graphic Design: Yen Tan
Offbeat X
October 17, 2021
The Curtain Theatre | Austin, TX
We celebrated the tenth edition of our collaborative Offbeat series with ten interdisciplinary dance collaborations, two live musical acts, local vendors, oysters, champagne and cocktails.
Graphic Design: Taryn Lavery | Photo: Jade Skye Hammer
Untitled #1
Austin Dance Festival
May 29, 2021
Pioneer Farms | Austin, TX.
BLiPSWiTCH co-directors Taryn Lavery & Alex Miller reset and performed their duet Untitled #1 at the site of the Fisk Building, constructed in the early 1850s.
Photo: Carolee Lavery
“These girls are joined at the brain waves […] entering and leaving unison movement without any apparent cueing but enacting several smooth and flexible phrases one after another. BLiPSWiTCH’s continuing exploration of movement is well deserving of larger followings.”
- David Glen Robinson, Central Texas Live Theatre Review
Dear V,
April 25-27 & May 2-4, 2021
The Curtain Theatre | Austin, TX.
With Dear V, contemporary dance took center stage for the first time in the history of The Curtain Theatre, an outdoor Shakespearean theater on Lake Austin. Drawing on historical and literary themes, five female dancers embraced the obscurity and contradictions of the human experience. Through intricate choreographies, improvisational imagery, and joined by musician Henna Chou and percussionist Drew Silverman performing an original score, Dear V, illuminated the prismatic complexity, valor, rawness and empathy of the feminine sublime.
Graphic Design & Photo: Taryn Lavery
“The bold performers of BLiPSWiTCH have struck out into the light of day with their show Dear V, … fifty minutes of nonstop athletic dance, all absorbingly abstract … throwing down a gauntlet for other contemporary dance groups to pick up in the coming post-Covid world. Welcome to the light.”
- David Glen Robinson, Central Texas Live Theatre Review
Friends of Melvin
March 2021 - Online
Premiered concurrently at the ACC Faculty & Guest Artist Dance on Film Concert and the Austin Dance Hub Virtual Showcase.
Offbeat IX: Shock the Vote
October 13-19, 2020
Seven interdisciplinary dance collaborations, seven local businesses, seven days.
We partnered up with Shock the Vote ATX— "a nonpartisan, community engagement initiative aimed at energizing the Austin community”— and adapted the ninth edition of our Offbeat series for the screen. Each interdisciplinary collaboration was filmed in a different Austin business and released for viewing online.
Graphic Design: Taryn Lavery | Photo: Jade Skye Hammer
Untitled #1
First Street Studio Open House
January 25, 2020
First Street Studio | Austin, TX
This event welcomed the community to view work and connect with the artists who create at First Street Studio. BLiPSWiTCH co-directors presented a new duet, Untitled #1.
Photo: Jade Skye Hammer
Offbeat VIII
December 12, 2019
Stardust Vintage | Austin, TX
Graphic Design: Taryn Lavery | Photo: Sarah Annie Navarrete
Fever
Revolve: A Movement Display
September 13-14, 2019
Charles Johnson House | Austin, TX
Fever explored the parallel and divergent realities of our dreams and the power of a time and space that is not yet tangible, but lives in infinite possibility. The visual themes in this two-hour continuous movement installation were informed by the seven-decade artistic career of surrealist artist Dorothea Tanning (1910-2012).
Design: Taryn Lavery | Photo: Alex Miller
On the Skids
March 20-23, 2019
Motion Media Arts Center | Austin, TX
Born from an examination of urban sprawl throughout Austin and the world, On the Skids dwelled in the inbetween spaces, exploring the changes in our spacial and cultural landscapes and how those thresholds of time effect our own personal transformations. Original score performed live by Michael Brown (musical direction), Peter Brown, Erik Garven & Alan Kahler.
Graphic Design: Taryn Lavery
Still Life III: Bathhouse
February 9, 2019
Sertodo Copper | Austin, TX
Still Life III: Bathhouse —the third installment of our Still Life series— continued the exploration of relationships between humans and mundane inanimate objects found within the American household, commenting on constructed gender normalizations society places upon specific people and objects. Bathhouse was performed for eight hours by directors Taryn Lavery and Alex Miller as part of BLiPSWiTCH’s 2019 season fundraiser— followed by live performances from local bands The SidePiece Collective, Trying Science and Sweet Spirit.
Photo: Maggie Bailey
A Period Piece
Ready/Set/Go Dance Salon: Humoresque
November 16-18, 2018
First Street Studio | Austin, TX
BLiPSWiTCH created A Period Piece to be presented among nine other humor-themed dance works.
Photo: Alex Masi
Offbeat VII
October 25, 2018
Flitch Coffee | Austin, TX
Graphic Design: Taryn Lavery | Photo: Sarah Annie Navarrete
Still Life II:
A Study of the Study
Revolve: A Movement Display
September 21-22, 2018
Charles Johnson House | Austin, TX
Still Life II: A Study of the Study was the second room in our Still Life series. This continuous two-hour movement installation examined the ideology of gender roles in the 19th century, while making light of upper class posturing through movement concepts and gestures. Original Score by Jesse Wilson.
Photos & Design: Taryn Lavery, Alex Miller, Lucy Wilson
hone \ rile
May 16-19, 2018
Austin, TX
hone \ rile examined the friction between the material world and an idealized reality recreated through thoughts and hope. Held inside a vacant design showroom— alongside an original score performed live by composers Michael Brown and Alan Kahler— six dancers animated themes of exhaustion, struggle and repeated failure through stamina, dynamism, tenderness and vulnerability.
hone \ rile received a 2018 artist grant from Jennifer Sherburn, made possible by the Cultural Arts Division of the City of Austin Economic Development Department.
Graphic Design & Photo: Jon Windham
Offbeat VI
April 12, 2018
DYLAN WYLDE | Austin, TX
Dislocate
March 23 - 24, 2018
Center Stage Theater | Santa Barbara, CA
BLiPSWiTCH was hosted at “Dislocate” by producer Meredith Cabaniss, alongside SELAH Dance (CA) and Smashworks Dance Collective (NYC). We presented Foreign Phone Number (2016) and an excerpt from Shoestring (2017).
Photo: Roger Ho
Offbeat V
March 22, 2018
Los Angeles, CA
Shoestring
December 13-16, 2017
KC Grey Home | Austin, TX
Shoestring brought contemporary dance together with a live instrumental jazz quartet, led by pianist Red Young. Each night featured new musicians alongside the seven dancers. The choreography explored the complex textures of the jazz genre, while leaving moments to expand into improvisation for in-the-moment conversations between the dancers and musicians.
A portion of all ticket sales supported HAAM— Health Alliance for Austin Musicians.
Graphic Design: Jon Windham | Photo: Sarah Annie Navarrete
Offbeat IV
October 19, 2017
Fast Folks Cyclery | Austin, TX
Graphic Design: Taryn Lavery | Photo: Sarah Annie Navarrete
oblique
Revolve: A Movement Display
September 23, 2017
Charles Johnson House | Austin, TX
oblique explored vanity and perception in a two-hour movement installation with original score by Josh Kavanaugh.
Photo: Andrew Masi (SWNG Productions)
Roheline
11:11:08
June 7-10, 2017
Dimension Gallery | Austin, TX
BLiPSWiTCH was selected as the artist in residence for the eighth installment of the Eleven Eleven project, produced by Jennifer Sherburn & Natalie George Productions with "a mission to embrace the community in which it resides, open the doors wide for artistic collaborations, deeply consider the space specific to each production and create provocative, fearless live performance". Roheline was choreographically collaborated on by Taryn Lavery and Jennifer Sherburn.
Audiences voted BLiPSWiTCH to receive the Eleven Eleven grant to develop Roheline into an evening length work— which would become hone \ rile— in 2018.
Graphic Design & Photo: Jon Windham
Diet Fizz Radio
May 3-6, 2017
Austin, TX
BLiPSWiTCH's first evening length work, Diet Fizz Radio, centered around the resurgence of 1990's pop culture in today's society, exploring the parallels between the political climates of then and now, as well as the music, fashion, advertisements and literary references of the time. We brought on 13 talented dancers, 3 guest choreographers and commissioned an original score by four different composers.
Diet Fizz Radio was nominated in four categories of the 2017 Austin Critics Table Awards— Choreography, Sound, Lighting, and Dancer.
Graphic Design: Jimmy Watkins | Photos: Sarah Annie Navarrete
Offbeat III
February 23, 2017
Austin, TX
The third in our Offbeat series served as a fundraiser for our first evening work, Diet Fizz Radio, featuring original dance collaborations from the cast, collections from three local Austin visual artists, a silent auction, raffle, and live music.
Still Life 375°
Revolve: A Movement Display
November 4, 2016
Charles Johnson House | Austin, TX
The first in what would become our Still Life series— exploring systemic gender roles placed on us by society— this two hour movement installation was created and performed by Alex Miller, Taryn Lavery, Lucy Wilson & Nathan Brumbaugh. Original score by Jesse Wilson.
Photos: Andrew Masi (SWNG Productions)
"Viewing the scene from outside the door frame was like looking into a peephole diorama, with scale and context contributing to the glow and vibrancy of a quirky interior world."
- Jonelle Seitz, Austin Chronicle Review
Offbeat II
September 29, 2016
Sahara Lounge | Austin, TX
Foreign Phone Number
May 12, 2016
Sahara Lounge | Austin, TX
This performance was the inaugural of what would become our “Offbeat” series— hosting and presenting a new set of artists within the local community each time. We asked selected dancers/choreographers to work with at least one artist outside the realm of dance to create, within a month, an original work for a one-night-only performance held in an unconventional space.
Graphic Design: Taylor Kirk
Foreign Phone Number
Austin Dance Festival
March 5, 2016
Austin Ventures Studio Theatre | Austin, TX
Clubhouse
dance nature / nature dance
November 22, 2015
Ricky Guerrero Park | Austin, TX
Our first public choreographed work was performed on the rooftop of a local Austin park pavilion. Live accompaniment performed by Richard Millsap.