The Work

Dog Days of Summer Dance Festival

The Pioneer Center for the Performing Arts created a new, three-night, free community event in partnership with the SPCA of Northern Nevada. Six northern Nevada-based dance/movement companies were commissioned to perform work on thee outdoor plaza stage, with the iconic Pioneer Center gold dome and Nevada summer sky as their backdrop. Each evening of the festival featured two companies performing a wide range of dance creations. During intermission, SPCA-NN showcased adoptable and adopted dogs from their organization. The Dog Days of Summer Dance Festival was presented free to the public on the E.L. Cord Plaza at the Pioneer Center in the heart of downtown Reno. Collateral & Co. was honored to close the festival on Sunday, August 21st alongside Tsurunokai.

Across the Neon Landscape

Collateral & Co. presented their newest dance work, Across the Neon Landscape, on July 28, 2022 at the Nevada Museum of Art. The company returned to the Museum for a multidisciplinary exploration of the state of Nevada and its history through its iconic neon signs. This special evening featured the poetry of Gailmarie Pahmeier, Melanie Perish and Max Stone and photography by director of the Neon Nevada Project, Will Durham. Across the Neon Landscape presented original choreography by Collateral & Co. Artistic Director, Caitlin McCarty, and Assistant Artistic Director, Leslie Balzer, in collaboration with Collateral & Co. dance artists.

This program is presented as part of UPSTAGE: A Literary and Performing Art Series supported by the Nightingale Family Foundation and the Williams Foundation.

Across the Neon Landscape is supported in part by a grant from Nevada Humanities and the National Endowment for the Humanities.

This production is supported in part by a grant from Nevada Arts Council and the National Endowment for the Arts.

Felt Like Five

In their newest evening-length virtual, dance-for-film performance, “Felt Like Five,” Collateral & Co. explores the Reno-Tahoe area after a long and taxing year. In this work, the company takes you along as they travel to five different Nevada locations, exploring what it has meant to live through a pandemic, reflecting on 2020, and coming to terms with a year that has felt like five. “Felt Like Five” features new poetry by local poets Taryn Collier, Shaun Griffin, Melanie Perish, Jared Stanley and June Sylvester Saraceno, choreography by Caitlin McCarty and Leslie Balzer, and features virtual performance by Collateral & Co. dance artists.

This program premiered at the Nevada Museum of Art on July 16, 2021 and screened at “Drinks, Dance & Discussion” at The Virgil on July 21, 2021.

The Program is funded in part by a grant from Nevada Humanities and the National Endowment for the Humanities.

The Program is funded in part by a grant from the City of Reno in conjunction with the National Endowment for the Arts.

BELIEVE

Collateral & Co. and Tweaking Reality Studios present “Believe,” a dance film inspired by the isolation and frustration of a global pandemic. Cinematography by James Coleman ll and Elspeth Summersgill, with choreography by Caitlin McCarty and Leslie Balzer in collaboration with the Collateral & Co. dancers. Music by Moments, poetry written by Caitlin McCarty, and poetry read by Lorna McCarty. The performance was recorded on June 6, 7, and 8 2020 in Reno, Nevada. Collateral & Co., a collaborative Contemporary Dance Company, was founded in May 2017 when Founder and Artistic Director Caitlin McCarty returned to the Reno, Nevada area after working for New York-based Gallim Dance. Collateral & Co. explores the intricacies of the human experience and investigates the nuances of everyday life through the exploration of written word, dance film, physical and emotional experiences, and bodily expression. The company’s most recent work includes its performance of Dust Horizon at the Nevada Museum of Art in April of 2019, Dust Settled as part of Artown in July of 2019, and The Space Above at the Nevada Museum of Art in February 2020. The company filmed its first dance film, The Space Above, produced and directed in collaboration with Tweaking Reality Studios, in October of 2019. The film was named an official selection of the Utah Dance Film Festival and premiered at the Nevada Museum of Art in January of 2020. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community.

THE SPACE ABOVE

The Space Above, premiered at the Nevada Museum of Art on February 13, 2020.The show featured dance film by Tweaking Reality Studios,  poetry by Valerie Padovani, light installations by Jared Clemmensen and choreography by Reno, NV based contemporary dance company, Collateral & Co., and NY based choreographer, Leisa DeCarlo. 

Following six dancers from sunset to sunrise in the Nevada desert, The Space Above explores the vast Nevada sky that lingers above, the thoughts that exist in our own minds, and attempts to make sense of our place in a world of light and darkness.

DUST SETTLED

Dust Settled is the continued exploration of and sequel to Dust Horizon, an evening-length work performed at the Nevada Museum of Art in April 2019. Like Dust Horizon, Dust Settled is the next installment in Collateral & Co. Contemporary Dance Company’s movement exploration of the Nevada landscape and the Nevada-inspired poetry of Gailmarie Pahmeier. This 60 minute show features choreography inspired not only by the poetry of Ms. Pahmeier, but also poetry inspired by the choreography of Collateral & Co. written by two new guest poets, Joanne Mallari and Melanie Perish. Premiering at Wingfield Park as part of Artown’s Dancing in the Park Series, this evening-length dance performance will further examine the Nevada landscape in the heart of Downtown Reno. Featuring dance and poetry inspired by Washoe Lake State Park and Valley of Fire State Park, Collateral & Co. investigates what it means to be a Nevadan after the sun has set and the dust has settled. 

DUST HORIZON

Inspired by the poetry of Gailmarie Pahmeier, this multi-media dance performance presented by Collateral & Co. Contemporary Dance Company and the Nevada Museum of Art explored the landscape of Nevada through choreography, photography, and film.

Gailmarie Pahmeier is a recipient of Nevada Art Council’s esteemed Project Fellowship Grant. Pahmeier  has spent the last year traveling to various Nevada state parks, taking two-day residencies, composing narratives about her experience, focusing primarily on the people she encounters in these often remote places, with some attention paid to the landscape. Like Pahmeier, Collateral & Co. has traveled to three Nevada State Parks: Washoe Lake State Park, Wild Horse Reservoir, and Valley of Fire, and has taken photographic and videographic evidence of their time at these parks, exploring how their differences and similarities combine to make them inherently Nevadan.

Through Gailmarie Pahmeier’s poetry and the company’s own travels, Collateral & Co. brought the vast and ever changing beauty of Nevada’s landscape to the Nevada Museum of Art for two nights of poetry, film and dance.

This program was supported, in part, by the Nevada Arts Council, a state agency, which receives support from the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency.

Nevada Humanities’ Literary Crawl - 2018

Collateral & Co. performed two pieces at Nevada Humanities’ Literary Crawl on September 15, 2018.

The pieces celebrated the poetry of Dr. Joseph N. Crowley with two performances at Sundance Books and Music in their front garden and gave audiences a sneak peak of the company’s next work incorporating the new poetry of Gailmarie Pahmeier, recipient of Nevada Art Council's Fellowship Grant, and the state of Nevada and its landscapes at The Nevada Museum of Art and Bibo Coffee Co.

The Poetry Movement

The company's second work premiered July 2018 as part of Reno, Nevada's Artown Festival. 

A site-specific work taking place at the historic Levy House, now home to Sundance Books and Music, The Poetry Movement brought together local choreographers, local, published poets, and dancers for two evenings of poetry inspired dance. 

The show was co-produced by Around the Stage Modern Dance Company, Nevada Humanities, and Sundance Books and Music. 

Gunpowder and Femme

The company's first work, Gunpowder and Femme, premiered at Reno Little Theater in November of 2017. 

Broken into two parts, the company explores both the collateral effects of gun violence and what it means to be both feminine and strong in one's resolve. 

In Act I, the show will shed light on the harrowing effects of gun violence in our nation. According to Gary Younge, author of "Another Day in the Death of America," seven children are killed due to gun violence on any given day in the US. This shocking number is at the crux of our mission to bring awareness to the careless homicides of our nation's youth. Our mission is not to sway you one way or another, but to bring to light the fact that we could all benefit from opening our hearts to one another and turning away from violence. 

In Act II, the company explores femininity, strength, and the way a woman relates to herself. In Laura Kipnis' novel "The Female Thing," she explains that women are "left straddling two rather incompatible positions. Feminism and femininity are in a big catfight, nowhere more than within each individual female psyche." So how do we reconcile our femininity with feminism? Or do we?