BREAKING GROUND 2026
Friday, January 30
Special Thanks to our sponsors:
Arizona Commission on the Arts
City of Tempe
Dark Moon
Choreographer:
Carley Conder in collaboration with the dancers
Sound:
"Dark Moon" by Bonnie Guitar, "Nightmare" by X-Minus One for NBC Radio, "Hide" by Dorian Concept
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Lighting Design:
Jordan Daniels
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Costume Design:
Original by Ashleigh Leite
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Performers:
Kina Connor-Ortiz, Kelsey Metz, Amy Symonds
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"Dark Moon" is a trio set within a world of “future nostalgia,” where past and future continually converge. With a score that blends historical and futuristic soundscapes, the work investigates the intersections of machine, animal, and human, asking how we might live more harmoniously with the technologies that shape us.
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Carley Conder is the Artistic Director of CONDER/dance, established in Arizona in 2003. Based in Tempe, she has dedicated her career to fostering opportunities for contemporary dance artists in the region through initiatives such as the Breaking Ground Festival and Tiny Dances. Her company, CONDER/dance, holds artist-in-residence status at the Tempe Center for the Arts, where it continues to push the boundaries of dance innovation. Recent projects include the AQUA Project with Opus Ballet in Santa Barbara and a choreographic collaboration with Keith Thompson (danceTactics, Trisha Brown Dance Company). Carley is also a Clinical Assistant Professor of Dance in the School of Music, Dance, and Theater at Arizona State University.
Black Hummingbird
Choreographer:
Keith Johnson
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Sound:
Philip Glass-Metamorphosis (Arr. for Harp by Lavinia Meijer):
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Lighting:
original design by Stephanie Losleban
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Performer:
Colin Harabedian
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"Black Hummingbird" is part of a larger work that explores a relationship and foreshadows the inevitability of change, growth, endings, and memory. The appearance of the black hummingbird symbolizes this moment.
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Keith would like to acknowledge and thank Dante Casarin and Colin Harabedian for their creative input into this dance.
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Keith Johnson has danced for Ririe/Woodbury Dance Company, Creach/Koester, Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company and Doug Varone and Dancers. In addition, he has performed with Bili Young/Colleen Thomas and Dancers, Nancy Bannon, and Victoria Marks. Keith is the Artistic Director of Keith Johnson/Dancers and the Co -Director of Fistbomb Films with Gregory R R Crosby. He was named the Distinguished Alumni for 2012/13 from The Department of Modern Dance at the University of Utah. He currently resides in Tubac, Arizona.
Dinner's at 9
Choreographers:
Leah M. Friedman and Juan Carlos García Gutiérrez
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Sound: ​
"Also With Each Other" by Requisit​
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Performers:
Leah M. Friedman and Juan Carlos García Gutiérrez
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"Dinner's at 9" reveals an evolving conflict over manners and traditions between two friends hosting a dinner party where the audience are the guests. Through movement, audience interaction, and conversation in English, Russian, and Spanish, the dancers struggle with the way that they interpret, inherit, and enact manners and traditions from their own families.
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Leah M. Friedman is a dance artist, creator, and researcher, originally from Philadelphia, PA; she has performed and toured with Philadanco!, #dbdanceproject, Waheedworks, and others, has presented multimedia work in Philadelphia and Phoenix, and is a PhD candidate at Arizona State University.
Juan Carlos García Gutiérrez (JC CHAOS) is a multimedia dance artist and current Gay Arizona America Esquire 2025; he has performed with Instinct Dance Corps, Tranza Danza, and Rosenkrans Dance, has presented work around Arizona, and is a multi-time Maricopa Artist of Promise award winner. Leah and Juan Carlos met while performing with CONDER|dance between 2023-2025. They found mutual interest in creating multi-media dance theater that engages audiences and explores interpersonal relationships. This is their first (of hopefully many) dance works together.
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Ache of Recognition
Choreographer:
Eryn Waltman
Sound:
Hyperborea - Biosphere The air outside is crazy right now - Perila Joyce - Ian William Craig & Daniel Lentz
Edited and Mixed By: Eryn Waltman
Lighting Design:
Eryn Waltman
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Costume Design: Eryn Waltman
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Performers:
Jackson Lee and Melanie De Melo
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"Ache of Recognition" is a contemporary duet exploring intimacy in a technologically saturated world. Using headphones as both object and metaphor, the work examines how individualized sensory experiences shape and strain connection - what soothes one body may destabilize another. As shared language fractures, communication becomes fragile. Moving between closeness and separation, the piece asks how we remain connected when our experiences no longer align, and what it means to be truly felt, understood, and seen.
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Eryn Waltman is a Toronto-based choreographer and visionary storyteller with over two decades of experience in creation and education. Founder and Artistic Director of Conteur Dance Company, she creates work rooted in authenticity, emotional depth, and fearless exploration. Holding a degree in Social Psychology, Waltman weaves insight into the human condition throughout her choreography. Her contemporary style - marked by intricate floorwork, dynamic partnering, and detail-driven movement - has earned national recognition and multiple awards. She has presented work across Canada and the United States and continues to push the boundaries of her art form, crafting work that is both viscerally physical and profoundly human.
EXCLUSIVE: JUST PUT IT ON!
Choreographer - BG26 Student Artist:
Paige Heilig
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Sound:
"On Then And Now (feat. Jennifer Connelly)" by Woodkid, Jennifer Connelly
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Lighting Design:
Klay Wandelear
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Costume Design:
Paige Heilig
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Performers:
Kate Belles, Callie Cayaban, Jessie Madill, Bianca Monrreal, Kadynce Ross, Aubree Schroer, Savannah Swain, Kyra Westrich, Kate Wilson
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“EXCLUSIVE: JUST PUT IT ON!” captures the dystopian nature behind femininity through manipulation of the conventional female presentation, exposing and challenging societal expectations of women.
Paige Heilig is a highly-renowned dancer, choreographer, and instructor originating from Oxford, Michigan. She began training in all styles including ballet, jazz, hip hop, contemporary, breaking, acrobatics, and more. While growing up in the competitive dance scene, Paige was able to expound on her passion for creativity through movement, finding her pocket in choreography and style. In this, Paige now aspires to leave a lasting impression on dancers, inspiring them to find athleticism, health, and true expression.
Upon her move to Phoenix, Arizona in 2022, Paige will graduate with a Bachelor of Arts in Dance Performance and a Bachelor of Science in Applied Entrepreneurship from Grand Canyon University in 2026. She is currently featured in student, faculty, and guest artist works while also setting choreography of her own. Her recent work, Sorry, what was that? (2024), was selected to be performed in Grand Canyon University’s Faculty Concert, Worthy, and to represent the university at the American College Dance Association in 2025. Paige actively strives to create safe and welcoming dance environments while using her gifts to honor Christ.
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INTERMISSION
Big Night Out
Choreographers:
The Ladies
(Leanne Schmidt and Marlene Strang)
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Performers:
Leanne Schmidt and Marlene Strang
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The Ladies in Big Night Out follows Carley’s Midwestern cousin and her friend as they attempt to “host” Breaking Ground, convinced they’ve been invited to throw a dinner party.
Lifelong caregivers and excellent hosts, The Ladies are used to always being “on,” arriving with household supplies and a deep sense of responsibility for everyone’s comfort. As they circulate through the lobby and audience—cleaning and trying to feed guests—they are gently corrected by the rules of the theater.
Inspired by the dancers they observe, The Ladies seize the moment and present a dance of their own during intermission, featuring a surprisingly elegant tango with an Oreck.
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The Ladies—physical comediennes Marlene Strang and Leanne Schmidt—are a zany, awkward duo whose work blends movement, live theater, and sharp comedic timing. Known for their lovable mom characters and their ability to find humor in life’s most routine moments, The Ladies bring a wacky, embodied performance style into surprising and unexpected spaces. Performing together since 2016, they create immersive experiences that celebrate connection, nostalgia, and the beautifully awkward realities of everyday life.
Profile XX
Choreographer:
Valkyrie Yao​
Choreographer: Valkyrie Yao
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Rehearsal Director: Amanda Ortega
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Lighting Design:
Valkyrie Yao​
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Costume Design:
Valkyrie Yao​
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Performers: Amanda Ortega, Feya Wang, Mykaela Chapman ​
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“XX” - the biological signature of womanhood. Two chromosomes, carrying muted but deafening voices.
Profile XX is an intergenerational feminist dance theatre work exploring how womanhood is shaped by social surveillance, internal fragmentation, and inherited memory. Performed by a trio spanning childhood to early adulthood, the piece traces the layered development of the female psyche, how instinct becomes performance, and how the self adapts under watchful eyes.
Valkyrie Yao is a multidisciplinary artist, researcher, and producer whose work moves between dance, installation, and moving image. Rooted in Chinese aesthetic philosophies, psychology, and posthuman inquiry, her practice builds liminal spaces where ancestral thought meets contemporary form. She is the founding Executive Director of ELSEHERE, an international arts nexus and editorial ecosystem that bridges releases, STRATUM journal, and artist-facing programs, creating living archives and cross-cultural entry points that bring work into the public with clarity and care.
Yao’s choreographic and directorial works have been presented at venues including Ailey Citigroup Theater, Gibney, Dixon Place, The Tank NYC, Ruth Page Center for the Arts, the Detroit Institute of Arts, National Sawdust, Phoenix Art Museum, and Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art, with recent film and performance projects recognized at the Florence Biennale, the Beijing International Film Festival, and international dance film festivals in Europe and Asia.
Instancing Network
Choreographer:
Eric Mullis​
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Sound:
Kadey Ballard and Eric Mullis
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Lighting Design:
Eric Mullis​
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Costume Design:
Eric Mullis​
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Performers:
Madeline Badgett, Taylor Railton
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"Instancing Network" is a dance duet developed using motion visualization technology. Rehearsal footage was filmed and processed in a software program which visualizes possible lines of connection between the dancers. In turn, the dancers were tasked with performing some of the visualizations. In this way, the technology is a choreographic tool. The piece part of a multi-year project, Motive Forces, which investigates the intersection of contemporary dance and emerging technology.
Eric Mullis is a dance artist and scholar whose work has been featured at the North Carolina Dance Festival, the Contemporary Dance Choreography Festival (FL), the Midwest Alternative Dance Festival (MI), the Fact/SF Summer Dance Festival (CA), and the touring Dance City Festival (NY, IL, MI), He has authored essays on art and emerging technology and two books, "Pragmatist Philosophy and Dance: Interdisciplinary Research in the American South" (Palgrave MacMillan: 2019) and "Instruments of Embodiment: Costuming in Contemporary Dance" (Routledge: 2022). Eric is an Associate Professor of Philosophy at Queens University of Charlotte. ericmullis8.com.​
Erroneously Accurate in Flesh
Choreographer:
Alex Solano​
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Sound:
"Up the box" Andy Stott, "Revolution 9" The Beatles, "I’m not in love" Kelsey Lu
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Lighting Design:
Cari Koch​
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​Performers:
Alex Solano, James Lantz, Janessa Hill, Rayshawn Watkins ​
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"Erroneously Accurate In Flesh" explores the inherent paradox of human existence. Caught between the demands of a capitalistic lifestyle and the deep, authentic needs of our spirit. We are tethered to labor and routine, yet yearn for something more. A deep desire beneath our core. Maybe presence is the answer to it all.
We are paradoxes, walking tall. ​
Alex Solano is a choreographer and performer based in Phoenix, Arizona. She earned her BFA in Dance Performance from Arizona State University in 2024, where she was honored with the ASU Gammage Scholarship for her artistic and academic excellence. As both a performer and choreographer, she is passionate about blending dance, theater, and film to explore the intersections of movement and storytelling. Her work seeks to illuminate the unspoken, amplify overlooked narratives, and spark meaningful conversations. With a practice that balances emotional vulnerability and sharp physicality, Alex is committed to expanding the role of dance as a tool for transformation.
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