2020-present
| STOP TIME |
2026
| stop time | is a sounding dance work in two parts.
Part one, inspired by James Turrell’s Skyspace works and Gordon Matta-Clark’s intervention installation works like Day’s End, seeks to create frames for sound using sound. Part two continues the idea of frames, but this time visually, contrasting and complementing the previous sonic character to melt the sharp atmosphere into a lush and tender percussive playground.
This work was initially created for students in the University of Wisconsin Stevens Point Dance Program.
top photo by Tom Charlesworth; gallery photos by Bob Rosen - all courtesy of UWSP
FUGUE
2025
bench, reclaimed oak: formerly installed dance studio floor
jacket, gifted between teachers and students since 1940s, sequin and mesh
audio, 4-speaker installation of varying durations: stretched tap dance and other percussive footwork recordings
work carries assistance from and/or traces of Ballare Teatro Performing Arts Center, Lenore Hyde, Kay Larson, Lisa La Touche, Michael J. Love, Kathy Miller, QC Dance Studio, Patrick Voller and Clancy Ward.
view / sound from bench
top photo by Tony Favura, courtesy of SAIC; all other photos and video courtesy of Kaleena Miller
EM-DEE-EFF
2025
a site-responsive work conceived by Kaleena Miller, performed with John C.S. Keston, Lisa La Touche and Michael J. Love
work-in-progress presentation at RESOURCE, Minneapolis - Feb 2025
practice-in-progress presentation at MacLean Ballroom, Chicago - July 2025
photos by Aimée Suárez / video by Peter Tristram Walz
because you came here and sat down
2024
an improvised, sound-focused dance work conceived and performed by Kaleena Miller and Laurie Van Wieren
premiered at The Southern Theater, Minneapolis
featuring music by Michelle Kinney
lighting: Mark Ruark
sound: Peter Morrow
photos by Dan Norman / video by Calabay Productions
DANCE/MUSIC
2024
an evening of new, reimagined and improvised music and dance works.
premiered at Icehouse in Minneapolis, Feb 2024
Version 1 featured JT Bates, Cody McKinney, Kaleena Miller, Bryan Nichols, Aby Wolf and Patrick Voller, with Audrey Bartley, Evan Guffey, Bobby Hamilton, Galen Higgins, Madison Hilligoss, Abby King, Nina Maxwell and Delaina Thill
Version 2 will feature Jonathan Kaiser (cello), Lisa La Touche (tap dance), Michael J. Love (tap dance), Kaleena Miller (tap dance) and Aby Wolf (vocals and electronics).
photos by Calabay Productions
PROXIMITIES
2023
Created and performed by Kaleena Miller and Patrick Voller, proximities records the sounds of the space we’re in, and amplifies it. The found soundscape combines with a dancer who constructs sonic phrase work in response to/inspired by the rhythms and architecture of the space; a meeting of past and present sounds to catapult us into a more expansive future.
Version 1 premiered in Open Studios curated by Benae Beamon at Center for Performance Research - Brooklyn, NY on November 5, 2023
Version 2 presented in Dance/Music at Icehouse - Minneapolis, MN on February 7, 2024
photo by Steven Pisano / video courtesy of Center for Performance Research, Brooklyn NY
ELECTRIC COUNTERPOINT
2023
This work begins with the notion that any sounding-dance composition created to and for a piece of pre-recorded music might be a non-consensual duet. With that in mind, this presentation of Electric Counterpoint offers an additional sonic voice that attempts to feel woven into the already existing beautifully dense composition; footwork phrasing that the work never asked for, but nearly 40 years after its premiere, adds a layer of human percussion that continues the embodied sonic dialogue.
choreography by Kaleena Miller
premiered at and commissioned by the Cowles Center in Minneapolis MN
performed by Audrey Bartley, Bobby Hamilton, Abby King, Nina Maxwell and Kaleena Miller
music composed by Steve Reich, played live by Toivo Hannigan
lighting by Mark Ruark
additional performances at Hamilton College, Cathedral Dance Festival and St. Olaf College.
photos by Bill Cameron / video by Michel Cros
QUARTET
2023
premiered at the Southern Theater in Minneapolis
choreography by Kaleena Miller
performed by Audrey Bartley, Benae Beamon, Madison Hilligoss, Michael J. Love, Nina Maxwell, Kaleena Miller with Bobby Hamilton, Abby King, Emma Parker and Tony van de Ligt
live music by Cody McKinney and Aby Wolf
lighting by Mark Ruark
photos by Dan Norman
FOR BILL & DIANNE
2022
premiered at the Southern Theater in Minneapolis
original cast - Audrey Bartley, Galen Higgins, Abby King, Madelyn Kay Lee Lion and Kaleena Miller
music by Wayne Shorter
additional performance:
at Symphony Space in New York as part of the American Tap Dance Foundation’s Rhythm in Motion concert
New York cast - Benae Beamon, Madison Hilligoss, Michael J. Love and Kaleena Miller
photo by Amanda Gentile
2 IN 3
2021
premiered in American Tap Dance Foundation's virtual Rhythm in Motion concert
choreographed by Kaleena Miller
performed by Audrey Bartley and Kaleena Miller
director of photography Aleutian Calabay
lighting by Mark Ruark
filmed at the Southern Theater in Minneapolis, MN