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 performance work
work-in-progress presentation at RESOURCE, Minneapolis - Feb 2025 with Lisa La Touche, Michael J. Love and Kaleena Miller
practice-in-progress presentation at MacLean Ballroom, Chicago - July 2025 with John C.S. Keston, Lisa La Touche, Michael J. Love and Kaleena Miller
NYC premiere coming in September 2026
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 - present
a series that presents an evening of new, reimagined and improvised music and dance works.
Version 1 (2024) featured JT Bates (drums), Cody McKinney (bass), Kaleena Miller (tap dance), Bryan Nichols (piano), Aby Wolf (vocals and electronics) and Patrick Voller (electronics), with tap dancers Audrey Bartley, Evan Guffey, Bobby Hamilton, Galen Higgins, Madison Hilligoss, Abby King, Nina Maxwell and Delaina Thill.
Version 2 (2026) featured Michael J. Love (tap dance), Kaleena Miller (tap dance), Aby Wolf (vocals and electronics) and Laura Wolf (vocals and cello).
photos by Calabay Productions
PROXIMITIES
2023 - present
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; sonic placemaking / finding.
Version 1 - in Open Studios curated by Benae Beamon at Center for Performance Research - Brooklyn, NY on November 5, 2023
Version 2 - 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
Initially an ask to simply create a new dance work for the Cowles Center’s Fall Forward Festival, Electric Counterpoint expanded to include the necessary measures to present a tap dance work with live music in a shared, multi-genre evening. The opening of the work showcases the exquisite sound and movement of the tech crew resetting the stage (with moments of danced-through improvisational scores), and reminds us of the unseen labor that is required for percussive dance performances - even in a “for dance” space.
The remainder of the piece, performed to Steve Reich’s “Electric Counterpoint”, begins with the notion that sonic dance made to already composed music is a nonconsensual duet, and attempts a more thoughtful and considered relation.
commissioned by the Cowles Center in Minneapolis MN
choreography by Kaleena Miller
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 of excerpts 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