Jessica Baynes, a contemporary dance artist, will be collaborating with Ballet West company pianist Nicholas Maughan. Together, they are premiering a work titled BLOOM that features new choreography and piano composition. The piece explores themes of growth, entanglement, and synergy. “In many classroom settings and performances, music for dance is utilized as a means of accompaniment and not always as a means of equal partnership,” writes Baynes. “To contrast this, our goal for BLOOM is to facilitate an equal distribution of experimentation, compromise, and play between both disciplines from the process’ conception so that we present a fully bloomed piece whose combined effect is greater than the sum of its parts.

Baynes and Maughan will share this evening with Arin Lynn and Tori Meyer, fresh from their success presenting an evening length performance this summer as part of the Finch Lane Gallery, about which loveDANCEmore reviewer Max Barnewitz wrote, “What may be most striking about the work was the range of emotions explored. Quotidien/Quotidian lets audiences oscillate between the curiosity felt when you visit a friend's house for the first time, to the gratifying slap-happiness of a dance party (which was enjoyed by all in an advanced-hokey-pokey-style dance circle), to the intimate anxiety felt by partners when hosting people in your home.” Lynn and Meyer have been collaborating for nearly two years, featured by 12 Minutes Max, Queer Spectra, The House Series, and other local organizations. They are excited to present their newest work, a mash-up of experimental dance theatre where the only real goal is to make you grin.