Wellspring, Kalamazoo's contemporary dance company, is presenting its spring concert "Rebuilding the Fractured Entanglement" May 15-17, with performances Friday evening, Saturday afternoon and evening, and Sunday afternoon at the Cori Terry Theatre. The evening-length premiere marks a significant departure from the company's usual episodic format and represents a years-long collaboration between artistic director Marisa Bianan, technical director Sam Snow, costume designer Maddie Nelson, and WMU Virtual Imaging Technology Lab director Kevin Abbott.
The concept takes its name from quantum physics. Bianan explains that she and Snow were searching for language to describe a shared feeling: "The world feels so fractured right now. And it's getting seemingly more and more fractured." The phenomenon of quantum entanglement — in which particles remain connected across distances — offered the perfect metaphor for the company's call to human connection over isolation.
Snow, who first planted the seed for the project in 2022 with a piece of music she brought to Bianan, designed three angled projection screens that carry imagery throughout the performance, drawing dancers from the deep sea through land and up into outer space. Abbott's Virtual Imaging Technology Lab contributed motion-capture data recorded by Wellspring dancers, generating visuals directly from their movement. "You got to be careful with projections because they can kind of take over," Abbott says, "and it's about making work that all works together."
Nelson designed the costumes over roughly six weeks, translating the concert's themes of fracture and reconnection into fabric paneling and fringe. "How can we take something that is already so structured and put a flare on it that will kind of break down that harshness of machine?" she says.
Snow programmed approximately 800 lighting cues for the show. A pre-concert event Saturday afternoon features Air Zoo Aerospace & Science Museum for families. A post-show talk-back follows Friday's opening night performance. Tickets are available at wellspringdance.org.
The interview was summarized by Claude AI and edited by the author.
