BENTHIC CONFLUENCE
2026
Westside Theater (Missoula, MT)
Concept & Direction: Undercurrent (Alethea Alexander + Hilary Grumman)
Performers: Anne-Marie Ammons Strohl, Naomi Byrne, Liana Dillon, Hannah Dusek, Maeve Fahey, Sloan Flanagan, Neave Fleming, Megan Hankland, Lindsay Marquino, Ellie Mercer, Alli Schuh, Grace Smith, Madeline Voigt, Taylor Williams Guerrero, Toree Wilson, Lia Wong
Sound and wearable tech integration & design: Mare Hirsch, in collaboration with live generation from the performing artists
Lighting (Benthic Confluence): Spoon Mosley
Building on emerging sound research in collaboration with Mare Hirsch, and deepening an investigation of glacial partnering as care work, Benthic Confluence invites performers and audiences to key in to physical and relational explorations of reciprocity, mutualism, enmeshment, resilience, and attunement. Two dancers embrace and co-support one another for the duration of the piece, and are wearing pressure sensors that live-generate a layer of the soundscore that is responsive to density and placement of touch.
"Benthic" describes the surfaces, structures, microbiome, sediment and animal ecosystem at the lowest level of an ocean, lake or river.
Benthic Confluence was crafted in just five days at a 2026 summer festival. Exposing the care work of crafting theater effects while simultaneously weaving festival participants into the Undercurrent Company performance that shared the festival bill, performing artists from Benthic Confluence executed a live stage reset and joined Undercurrent Company performers in holding and shaping the aesthetic, communal and movement world of Surface Tension. This braiding together of worlds urged further mutualism between company dancers and local and traveling performers, and strengthened the impact of both works.
photos: Neva Oliver
