There's nothing like having a place to call your own.
In February, members of Vytal Movement Dance settled into their new studio on South Howard Street, nestled in the heart of downtown Spokane. Since then, the whole company has collaborated to make the space uniquely theirs.
Paintings by company dancer Grace Barnes are mounted on the studio's cheery, lime green walls. Barnes' muses are her fellow dancers, whom she depicts in varying dance poses in each of her pieces.
Vincas Greene, Vytal Movement's artistic director, says the dancers and their spouses touched up paint on the walls, hung curtains and adjusted lighting in preparation for their upcoming performance, "Sanctuary."
"They're fully invested in this room," Greene says.
Greene founded Vytal Movement in 2016, previously holding rehearsals in spaces provided by Spokane's Professional Ballet School and Company Ballet School. Over the next few years, the company expanded from a couple dancers to over a dozen.
Greene never planned to start his own dance ensemble.
"I started teaching an open class at Gonzaga, and dancers just started to come because there were no adult contemporary dance classes," he says. "I started to meet people and got asked to do projects... Out of that [I realized], 'I think we need to start doing something for the dancers that are here.'"
Vytal Movement currently is Spokane's only professional dance company for adults.
Its mission is to enrich the community with high-quality dance performances and to serve that same community by providing professional opportunities for Spokane-based dancers wishing to further their careers.
"I want the community to feel like the dancers who dance here are their dancers," Greene says.
The performance of "Sanctuary" draws upon this idea. With a studio for Vytal Movement to call home, and the ability to share it with others after the past few years of separation, isolation and fear, the theme of this concert deeply resonates with the troupe.
"I haven't performed for an entire year because of COVID, so I was so excited to have a performance opportunity," says dancer Liz Booth.
Company dancer Lexie Powell is presenting her own choreography in "Sanctuary." She expanded upon the performance's theme and her artistic interpretation of it.
"For me, it was [about] having a space, because this was the first time that we had our own home," Powell says. "It was [about] having a little sanctuary to create."
Greene's four choreographed dances in the concert address the theme of a sanctuary metaphorically. In one of those pieces, three brand-new Vytal Movement dancers perform as a trio. This dance, he says, will be "about them finding their place together, while maintaining their individuality."
In addition to Powell and Greene, dancers Christopher Lamb, Melanie Huff and Hannah Donk also present their own choreography in "Sanctuary." Choreographers dance in one another's pieces, a testament to the troupe's cohesion and synergy.
Performances are held in Vytal Movement's new studio in front of an audience of about 40 people per show for a deeply personal and intimate experience.
"I don't think we've ever done as intimate a full concert before," Powell says. "We've done other events, but this is the first time we're doing a concert in a venue like this, so I think that's going to be very special and unique."
"Sanctuary" offers a glimpse of the lengths Vytal Movement's dancers and leaders have gone to establish the company, and reflects on ideas of separation and togetherness, to which audiences can deeply relate. ♦
Sanctuary • Fri-Sat, Oct. 14-15 and Oct. 20-21 at 7:30 pm • $25-$35 general; $10 students • Vytal Movement Dance Studio • 7 S. Howard St., Suite 202 • vytalmovement.org
