Moving in SPACE IV: Little House Dance

The long-awaited reboot of SPACE’s annual performance incubator Moving in SPACE, a regional performance opportunity for works in development in the contemporary dance and performance scene. Partnering with Portland’s new little house dance company, this iteration will feature new works in development by little house dancers Alyx Henigman (the durational performance Swampland) and Isabel Ball (heartbreak grass).

heartbreak grass is a dance about a poisonous flower

about how lonely it could feel, about how empowered it could feel

cited work: 
Awkwardbotany. “Poisonous Plants: Heartbreak Grass.” Awkward Botany, 14 Sept. 2016, https://awkwardbotany.com/2016/09/14/poisonous-plants-heartbreak-grass/. 

Isabel Ball, originally from the Chicagoland area, currently lives in Portland, ME. She graduated from the Chicago Academy for the Arts (2014) before completing her BFA in Contemporary Dance Performance along with a Psychology minor at the Boston Conservatory (2020). She worked closely as a dancer and collaborator with Vancouver based dance collective, Addo Platform, before transitioning into little house dance in 2020, a Portland based contemporary dance company under the direction of Heather Stewart and Riley Watts. Throughout her years of studying dance Isabel has developed interest and passion for collaboration, improvisation, teaching, choreography, and photography/film work.

Swampland is a durational work lasting four hours that guides both the performer and viewer into a place in which we instinctually do not wish to delve. A wet, thick, sunken place that holds both vulnerability and shame, but that is perhaps also the home of transformation and awakening.

Alyx Henigman is a Portland based dancer, choreographer, and teacher. She has been dancing with Portland based company “little house dance” since 2018, performing in “they have taken nothing,” “against hard air,” and “thorns and leaves,” as well as doing work for joyproject, and the Dallas based company, Bombshell Dance Project. She is currently playing with photography and durational based work in her own practice.

Originally from Illinois, Alyx Henigman began her professional training at Interlochen Arts Academy. She then went on to graduate with a BFA in Contemporary Dance from The Boston Conservatory in 2018, where she had the opportunity to work with and perform works by acclaimed choreographers including Azure Barton, Francesca Harper, and Omar Carrum. During her time at the Boston Conservatory, she also had the opportunity to premiere various original works on the Conservatory Main Stage, as well as at Tufts University. Throughout the past five years, Alyx has had extensive training with Bobbi Jene Smith and Tom Weinberger in Gaga, and with Anouk van Dijk, attending One Body One Career intensives in 2018 and 2019.