Where do we go from here? (2024-2025)

18 Minutes

The third and final solo in a triptych about womanhood, questioning systems of power, violence, pleasure, and belief. In this work, Bahr forefronts stories that often go unseen and untold. Inspired by Solnit’s Recollections of My Non-Existence, Cecelia Condit’s “I’ve Been Afraid”, and the work of Kathleen Hanna/Bikini Kill, Bahr transforms her performing body into a multiplicity of women — spanning over hundreds of years — to radiate questions: how do you know when you feel something? How do we make networks of survivance more visible? How do we buoy ourselves out of affliction to become larger than our worst experiences? In other words, “Where do we go from here?”

This experimental dance turned playwright premiered in August in 2024 as part of University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee’s Alumni Incubator Residency. Bahr is currently working with dance students at Southern Utah University, in collaboration with SUU’s Counseling and Psychological Services, to re-stage this work in Faculty Dance Concert, November 1-4, 2024.

Choreography and Performance: Halie Bahr

Sound: Script written and read by Halie Bahr, Excerpt of Shallow by Bradley Cooper and Lady Gaga

Dramaturgy: Alexandra Barbier

Collaboration: Dr. Sarah Brucia Breitenfeld in reference to Levin-Richardson’s work in “The Brothel of Pompeii: Sex, Class, and Gender at the Margins of Roman Society”

***This work was made possible by the University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee’s Alumni Incubation Residency Program and the fiscal support of Southern Utah University’s Faculty Development Support Funds

Public Performances:

— November 1-4, 2024, Faculty Dance Concert, Southern Utah University, Cedar City, UT

— August 23, 2024, End-of-Residency Public Showing, University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee, Milwaukee, WI

Photos by Rae Zimmerli

Baby Pink (2022-2024)

8 Minutes

This dance is an an ever-changing solo built on bodily trust and belief in our changing bodies. Halie tethers between two colliding memoirs that serve as memorial to Intimate Partner Violence. We unlock, slip, and slice through story to arrive at a slow and steady ‘bright’. This sweet yet strident performance unearths violence through sincerity. ‘Baby Pink” is the second solo in a triptych about womanhood, questioning systems of power, violence, pleasure, and belief. The personal narrative from this work was initially created through Bahr’s thesis publication “Plotting Dissonance: Paradoxes of Trauma and Imagination in the Creative Process”, and was inspired by Rebecca Solnit’s Recollections of My Non-Existence, Maggie Nelson’s Bluets and The Argonaunts.

Bahr is currently working with dance students at Southern Utah University, in collaboration with SUU’s Counseling and Psychological Services, to re-stage this work in Faculty Dance Concert, November 1-4, 2024.

Choreography, Performance & Projection: Halie Bahr

Sound: Script written and read by Halie Bahr, Auld Lang Syne by Guy Lombardo

Dramaturgy: Virginia Broyles

***This work was made possible by Davidson College’s Faculty Research Support.

Public Performances:

— November 1-4, Faculty Dance Concert, Southern Utah University, Cedar City, UT

— September 15, 2024, 12 Minutes Max, Salt Lake City Public Library, Salt Lake City, UT

— November 20, 2022, Commissioned by loveDANCEmore, Spyhop, Salt Lake City, UT

Photos by Todd Collins, Rae Zimmerli & Hailey Caminiti

HR Department presents: “we are easily distracted by shiny things” (in-progress, 2024-2025)

20 Minutes

Human Resources/HR Department is a highly collaborative dance collective established by Halie Bahr, Jessica Boone, and Virginia Broyles. Our process explores shared, fluid leadership, with each member directing, choreographing, and performing. We are experimenting with a project-based model, where we come together for condensed periods of creation in residency-format to develop new work. We value both the intricate creation of innovative choreography and reimagining how our work can rub against systemic oppression. By contemplating the impacts of late-stage capitalism on bodies and dancemaking practices, we ask ourselves how imagination and choreography can transform how we make sense of our world. As a collective, we love to play with absurdity, vulnerability, and fragmentation in both vision and physicality to design dreamscapes and highlight humanness in our creative work. Human Resources/HR Department is actively developing a new dance work to premiere and tour in 2024-2026.

Choreography and Performance: Halie Bahr, Jessica Boone, Virginia Broyles

Sound: Daniel Clifton

***This work was made possible by Westminster University, Dance Class for Humans, and the fiscal support of Texas A&M University and Southern Utah University.

Residency + Public Showings:

— July 15 - 19, 2024, Westminster University, Salt Lake City, UT

— January 2-7, 2024, Southern Utah University, Cedar City, UT

— July 21-23, 2023, Salt Lake City Public Library, Salt Lake City, UT

Photos by Todd Collins and Asher Swan

Photos by Tori Duhaime

LISTENING PARTY (2021)

50 minutes

LISTENING PARTY is a highly experimental, participatory 'dance' that attempts to eliminate the visual component. By intertwining somatic sensation, personal narrative, and Claudia Rankine’s text turned script, “Don’t Let Me Be Lonely”, Bahr weaves a dance performance though the ears and bodies of the audience as they casually stroll through a public park.

Choreography + Script: Halie Bahr

***This work was made possible by the curation of loveDANCEmore

Public Performances:

— September 17, 2021, University of Utah, School of Dance, Modern Technique Guest, Salt Lake City, UT

— June 5, 2021, Commissioned by loveDANCEmore, Liberty Park, Salt Lake City, UT

Dances Made With University Students

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Rough Cuts (2020-2021)

20 minutes

Choreography: Halie Bahr in Collaboration with Performers

Performers: Bayley Banks, Alexandra Barbier, Jessica Boone, Virginia Broyles, Samijo Kougioulis, Xochitl Márquez

Sound: Sheryl Crow, Jeff Rosenstock, Halie Bahr, Jonathan Shaw

Costumes, Set & Projection: Halie Bahr

***This work was made possible by the University of Utah School of Dance MFA Program including Pam Gerber Handman, Satu Hummasti, and Molly Heller

Public Performances:

— February 21, 2021, 12 Minutes Max, Salt Lake City Public Library, Salt Lake City, UT

— December 4-5th, 2020, Graduate Dance Thesis Series, University of Utah, Hayes Christensen Theatre, Salt Lake City, Utah

— November 1, 2020, Library Square Amphitheater Performance, Salt Lake City Public Library, Salt Lake City, Utah

— October 12, 2020, Red Butte Garden Boo-tanical Festival, Red Butte Gardens, Salt Lake City, Utah

— September 25, 2020, University of Utah Outdoor Performance Series, Pioneer Theater, Salt Lake City, UT

Photos By: Todd Collins + Hailey Caminiti

Repeat After Me (2018)

10 minutes 

Choreography: Halie Bahr, in collaboration with performers

Performance: Ali Lorenz, Nora Hendericksen, and Severin Sargent-Catterton

Sound: Halie Bahr, Excerpts of Jeff Rosenstock sung by Halie Bahr

Public Performances:

— December, 2018, Art & Technology Showing at University of Utah School of Dance; Salt Lake City, UT

love letter (2017)

13 minutes 

Choreography: Halie Bahr

Performance: Halie Bahr, Emma Call, Rachel Clark (Maria Tordoff, Mikell Melius, Lucia Webb for Zenon Performance) 

Sound: Kathleen Hanna, edited by Bahr

Public Performances:

— June, 2017, ‘5×5’, Company Brewing, Milwaukee, WI

— August, 2017, ‘LoFi Dance Records’, Chicago Fringe Festival, Chicago, IL

— July, 2017,‘9×22 Dance/Lab’, Bryant Lake Bowl Theater, Minneapolis, MN

— April, 2017,‘Zone’, Zenon Dance, Cowles Center for Performing Arts, Minneapolis, MN

Photos by Hannah White

more choreographic history upon request.