MISSOULA - Missoula is rich in arts and creativity, and performance arts are a large part of that.
Now, through a collaboration called GLUE, the dance community in Missoula has a connection to one of the largest hubs for performance arts in the country — New York City.
Nicole Wolcott is a fourth-generation Montanan choreographer and performer who grew much of her career in New York. Now, she has come back to her roots, bringing with her New York’s perspective and opportunities.
Last year, Wolcott started a program called GLUE, which is a collaboration between a theater in Brooklyn New York called TRISK, and Westside Theater and Bare Bait Dance here in Missoula.
Through this collaboration, New York artists from TRISK are able to come to Missoula on residency to perform their works and be exposed to new ideas. Vice versa, dancers and choreographers from Missoula now have the opportunity to show their works in New York.
“GLUE is to help working artists to continue to develop their artistic research and their careers,” Wolcott says.
TRISK is a theater at the frontline for upcoming artists, according to Wolcott. She says it is the perfect size to foster new performers as their career begins to take off. These fresh ideas from Brooklyn are coming straight here, to Missoula.
New York artists, while living in a hub for creativity and performing arts, often have to sacrifice time and space for their pieces. Wolcott says it’s almost impossible to fit everyone into one space for rehearsal in New York.
By offering these artists the option to come to Missoula to workshop their piece and perform it in front of a Western audience, Wolcott is giving them the luxury of time and space. Not to mention the benefits of being able to perform in front of an audience before premiering the show in New York.
“In a performing arts form, you don’t know what a piece is until you put it in front of an audience,” Wolcott says.
Artists from New York can improve and develop their work in Montana without the pressure of the New York City scene. They are also exposed to new dancers and new ideas than the ones presented in the Big Apple.
Bare Bait Dance executive director For Joy French says GLUE encourages her talented dancers to stay in Missoula rather than move somewhere else to pursue a dance career.
While Missoula is rich in performing arts and Bare Bait Dance is a proficient, professional dance company, New York still offers much more.
“If you’re thinking of what we can offer versus what New York can offer, it’s like night and day, just because Bare Bait is one company, New York has hundreds,” French says.
GLUE can give Missoula dancers visibility in New York while they still live in Montana. This will encourage talented dancers to stay here in Missoula, keeping the performing arts community here alive.
“That’s part of the benefit here too, that people don’t feel like they’re isolated here, but there’s this avenue to Brooklyn and this avenue to New York City,” French says. “To have those resources but still have the lifestyle that we love in Montana.”
French says that dancers who are passionate about a career in performing arts sometimes move to a big city hub like New York but then quickly feel burnt out. Especially if they are used to the space and lifestyle of rural Montana, big city living can kill their spark.
“Some dancers thrive in the big city, but some dancers lose all of their connection to the artform,” she says.
For Katie Conrad, a dance member at Bare Bait Dance, GLUE will be extremely beneficial for her own career and happiness.
“I feel personally like I am not a human that wants to live in a really big, busy city,” she says. “I grew up in Montana and feel a lot of safety and joy in being close to the wilderness, I can’t imagine being in like, a cement city, and so knowing that I am going to be able to further my career and not feel necessarily stagnant in a place that doesn’t have the opportunities I think is just really beneficial to be able to have those opportunities without compromising the way I like to live.”
Young Missoula dancers who are just starting to begin a path to a career in performing arts can now look to this city as a place to grow and develop. Those who may have sacrificed their dancing career for life in the Rocky Mountain West can have the best of both worlds.
More variety can inspire more and more young professionals to pursue a career in performing arts because they see the opportunities right here in their hometown.
“We want to continue to bring more people here and get more people to stay here and thus grow the local community,” French says.
GLUE isn’t just benefiting dancers, Wolcott says. Local Missoulians will also see improvements to the performing arts in their community.
“I mean Missoula is such a great place for going out and seeing concerts and art, I mean there is such, so many good things here, and yet the community is still hungry for more,” Wolcott says. “The way that this can benefit the community in the west, Missoula, all of Montana is, bringing more performing arts enlivens the community even more.”
Dance, for some, can seem like an inaccessible, almost pretentious side of the arts community, but Wolcott wants to break this stigma. For her, dance is about entertainment and connecting with the audience.
“A lot of people I know in the United States feel intimidated to go to dance,” she says. “They feel like, well I don’t understand it, I’m not literate, but I always argue that dance is always about image and body. And that’s what we’re all born with– that’s actually our first understanding.”
French says New York offers such a wide variety of dance and a much wider range than what is seen here in Montana. Using GLUE to bring more artists here can open the world of dance to those who may have written it off.
Everyone isn’t going to love every type of dance, but for French, there is enough variety out there that everyone should be able to find some dance niche that resonates with them.
“The excitement for me is there might be a diversity of stories and bodies and approaches based on their cultural backgrounds, based on their home life,” she says.
French wants dance to be a larger part of the arts community in Missoula. People ask, ‘what’s the last movie you saw at the Roxy?’ or ‘what’s the last show you saw at the Wilma?’ French hopes now because of GLUE, people will start to ask ‘what’s the last dance show you saw?’
GLUE has already been responsible for bringing Second Best Dance Company, a very popular company t in New York, to Missoula. Wolcott says dancers in Brooklyn are begging to dance in front of 2nd Best, and GLUE was able to secure this opportunity to Missoula dancers.
This year Nicole von Arx will come to Missoula through GLUE. Von Arx is renowned internationally for her choreography and has worked on campaigns with many popular companies like Kate Spade and Target.
GLUE is a residency program that brings New York artists to Montana and Montana artists to New York, enriching both communities with more performing arts and fresh ideas.
While Clyde Coffee is helping with housing funds for artists and Flannigans is providing vehicles, the rest of the transportation costs are funded through donations. Wolcott and French hope people will see the benefit of GLUE and consider donating monetarily.
“For me, it’s not just about helping New Yorkers. I’m very loyal to Montana. I would love for Missoula, I think we all would, for Missoula to be really on the map for performing arts and dance specifically,” Wolcott says.
Donations can be made here.
