USA Projects

GATHER is a new dance-music piece about convergence and community. Working with some of the Pacific Northwest's finest musicians and dancers, co-artistic directors/co-creators Tim DuRoche and Tere Mathern explore notions of connection, singularity, isolation, division, and interconnectedness—both through the works' content as well as through its process, straddling both composition-choreography and improvisation...the known and the unknown. 

Stemming from two years of percolation and development, GATHER has gained great momentum from a rich enzymatic collaboration:

• August 2010, Mathern and DuRoche begin conceptual conversations about a new work exploring the nature of collaboration, community-building, and improvisation as a civic and creative tool. 

• In December 2011, the project received a grant from the Regional Arts and Culture Council giving us the resources to begin working on its creation.

• Since June 2012 dancers and musicians have been on the boards co-creating a work that with minimal structure allows for maximum discovery.

• Premiering October 25, 2012 at Conduit Dance in Portland, OR, GATHER offers both creators and the audience ways to think about how we gather, create, agree and disagree and navigate common purpose —when the commons becomes more and more fleeting in our lives. 

As collaborators Mathern and DuRoche have worked together on six projects, two full-length performances including PIVOT, Mathern´s commission for White Bird in January 2010. Tim DuRoche is an accomplished jazz musician-sound artist-composer and community organizer who has worked extensively with dance, a who's who of jazz and avant-garde musicians from both the US and Europe, and has created several works that investigate the intersection of art, sound and public space. 

GATHER will include some of the region´s best artists: saxophonists Reed Wallsmith, Joe Cunningham (both members of the critically acclaimed Blue Cranes, a group that straddles pop and jazz genres), bassist Jon Shaw, drummer Tim DuRoche and dancers Kristine Anderson, Éowyn Emerald Barrett, Lyra Butler-Denman, Tere Mathern, Rachel Slater, and Joshua Thrower.

The artists are honored and excited to have this opportunity to build on and deepen a creative process we have developed through our work together over the last five years. With GATHER, we are forging new territory—foregrounding the role of discovery, improvisatory composition, and group-driven creativity as a more richly concentrated element in our work. 

Mathern and DuRoche are seeking funds for the final phase of the project and to pay artists a more ‘livable’ artist fee. We also need funds for production costs – a costume designer, and a lighting designer/technical director. One of the overarching themes of the work is how we change the conversation about the commons and activate an ethos of  “we are the ones we’ve been waiting for.” Your donation makes you part of that “we” – helping to reinvigorate the commons through live art and ask the questions that illuminate who we are, what we believe, and how we GATHER. 

Your donations are also tax deductible! We are grateful for your support!