Where Movement Meets Canvas: Backhausdance Launches Season with ‘Co-Lab’

Kaitlin Wright
Sep 24
6 min read

The Santa Ana residency weaves choreography, visual art and music into a multisensory premiere.

Backhausdance company members rehearse choreography inspired by Brennan Roach’s artwork inside OCCCA’s gallery. Photo courtesy of Kira Bartoli-Lemon

Backhausdance is opening its 2025-26 season by asking audiences to step inside the art, not just to watch it.

Over four weeks at the Orange County Center for Contemporary Art (OCCCA), dancers have been building a new site-specific work in dialogue with “Visual Morphology,” a Pop-Surrealist exhibition by Santa Ana artist and musician Brennan Roach.

The month of open rehearsals and a public workshop culminates in a free world-premiere performance on Saturday, Sept. 27, from 2 to 3 p.m. at OCCCA in downtown Santa Ana’s Artists Village.

For artistic director Jennifer Backhaus, “Co-Lab” is both a season opener and a statement of intent.

“The focus of the company is to engage with the larger community in dance making and performance by partnering with other organizations in the O.C.,” she said. Site-specific work has become a through line for Backhausdance over the past four years. “We have been excited to add site-specific work to the season performance calendar … specifically to place dance in places that audiences might not expect.”

Santa Ana artist and musician Brennan Roach with his exhibition “Visual Morphology” at OCCCA, which inspired Backhausdance’s new work “Co-Lab.” Photo courtesy of Backhausdance.

Recent outings have brought the company to Sherman Library & Gardens, the Orange County Museum of Art and the Bowers Museum. OCCCA is the latest partner.

The seed for “Co-Lab” came from timing – Roach’s exhibition and availability – but chemistry kept it growing.

“We initially approached OCCCA and they suggested working with Brennan due to the timing of his exhibit, but that was just the jumping off point,” Backhaus said. “He is very open to collaboration and was up for a group of dancers to take his work as inspiration for live performance.”

Associate artistic director Amanda Kay White, who co-choreographed “Co-Lab” with Backhaus, describes the studio dynamic simply: “It felt like a conversation. We are able to go back and forth to volley ideas off of each other or one of us would become the listener in the conversation. This enabled us to feed off of each other’s ideas. When one of us would get into a flow, the other pulls back to allow for the ideas to become fully realized.”

Roach’s art and music provided a multidimensional foundation for the choreography.

“Roach’s world is so uniquely layered within each piece, so the challenge but also the excitement was creating a movement landscape that explored all of his layers,” White said.

The performance also incorporates tracks from Roach’s catalog, including a just-finished, unreleased album. That choice, White said, puts “the interaction between the movement and his art in direct conversation with each other. The audience will be hearing his music and seeing the physicalization of his art at the same time.”

Backhausdance dancer Dakota Meritt, background, and Sammi Waugh, foreground, rehearse their moves at OCCCA, framed by Brennan Roach’s exhibition “Visual Morphology.” Photo courtesy of Kira Bartoli-Lemon

Improvisation and Visual Morphology

Roach comes to the collaboration as a musician first.

“I’ve always approached painting the way I approach music … improvisationally, layering ideas like a jazz player riffing in the moment,” he said. That spirit underpins “Visual Morphology,” the body of work he has been developing over roughly a dozen years.

The exhibition title borrows from a linguistic term describing how words change form to create new meanings. Roach sees a parallel in his drawings and paintings.

Backhausdance dancer Sophie Lang responds to Brennan Roach’s visual art during rehearsal at OCCCA. Photo courtesy of Kira Bartoli-Lemon

“I always try and get to that area where it’s about to mean something,” he said. “It definitely insinuates that maybe that’s kind of like a face or an arm … but it’s there for interpretation.”

White, for her part, also found her entry point into Roach’s world through shape and flow. “It was the rhythm and lines of the pieces that I was drawn to as a point of inspiration,” she said. “There are so many curves, circles or rounded edges … it feels like visiting a dream or memory.”

For Roach, watching rehearsal brought the paintings to life.

“It was really cool because I could pick out elements from certain paintings in the way that they’re dancing,” he said.

Although he admits he doesn’t have much personal experience with dance, seeing his work translated into movement gave him a deeper appreciation for it as an art form.

Backhausdance dancers Mo Goodfellow and Kati Natwick rehearse “Co-Lab” in OCCCA’s gallery, where movement and visual art meet. Photo courtesy of Kira Bartoli-Lemon

Dancers as Co-Creators

When asked about the role the dancers play in creating this new work, Backhaus didn’t hesitate. “A huge part!” she said. “Due to the quick turnaround, we are all part of the creative process. The dancers are part of the choreographic process and have created much of the movement, and Amanda and I come in and edit.”

White described one exercise: Dancers first created phrases from the titles of Roach’s works, then “revised and reshaped their phrases after seeing the actual artwork. This allowed for the dancers’ memories, interpretations and understandings to become embedded within the choreography.”

There are also moments of improvisation designed so audiences can witness “an exchange between the dancers and the artwork.”

Because the public has been invited in throughout, for open rehearsals and a National Dance Day workshop, the artists are receiving live feedback about how the work reads in the gallery.

“With site-specific choreography, you can only guess where the audience may be looking or moving in relation to the choreography, but having this feedback throughout the process provides us with valuable information,” White said.

“As a choreographer, being able to watch an audience member’s interactions in the moment allows us to find interesting moments that we could lean into a bit more within the final version of the work.”

For Backhaus, letting people see the mechanics is the point.

“We like to be open about how art is created,” she said, calling herself a behind-the-scenes lover. “The more I understand about how something is made and put together, the more I appreciate and enjoy the final product … I like giving that opportunity to the audience if they want to participate.”

White took that idea a step further, noting that the value of residencies like “Co-Lab” isn’t just about watching the process, it’s about the role that access plays in shaping collective culture.

“Having points of entry into the world of expression is vital to processing our current experiences, but also how we are making culture together,” she said.

Backhausdance dancers in rehearsal at OCCCA during the “Co-Lab” residency, ahead of the Sept. 27 premiere. Photo courtesy of Kira Bartoli-Lemon

Rooted in Santa Ana

Roach grew up in Santa Ana and still lives a short walk from OCCCA. Seeing young viewers engage with his work at the opening of the exhibit was energizing.

“I feel like what I have created is at least working, you know, for a young or younger crowd,” he said. “It’s something that is bringing people in and I hope they realize that it’s for everybody. You don’t have to feel intimidated.”

That spirit extends to his giving back. Proceeds from the show will support the Orange County Rapid Response Network, a grassroots coalition that responds to immigration enforcement actions and provides support for families affected by ICE raids.

For Roach, directing some of his earnings there was about aligning his art with community impact. “My art isn’t political. It’s usually driven from my subconscious,” he said. “But I don’t want it to feel self-indulgent. I want some of the funds to go to something meaningful that is going to help someone who doesn’t have the privilege to just make art.”

Backhausdance apprentices Anna Elise Garrison and Zachary Medina rehearse choreography inspired by “Visual Morphology” at OCCCA. Photo courtesy of Kira Bartoli-Lemon

What’s Next for Backhausdance

Roach’s choice underscores the way “Co-Lab” extends beyond the gallery, connecting creativity with community impact. That sense of forward motion also carries into what’s next for Backhausdance.

Asked what excites her most, Backhaus was clear.

“New choreography!” she said. “Getting to challenge the dancers and bring new choreographic points of view into being is really exciting and fun.”

Guest choreographers Zak Ryan Schlegel and Megan Doheny and Ilya Nikurov of Outrun the Bear join the lineup, and Backhaus and White will co-create a stage work for the first time.

White, for her part, found her entry point into Roach’s world through shape and flow. “It was the rhythm and lines of the pieces that I was drawn to as a point of inspiration,” she said. “There are so many curves, circles or rounded edges … it feels like visiting a dream or memory.”

And when it comes to why these residencies matter, she is unequivocal: “Having points of entry into the world of expression is vital to processing our current experiences, but also how we are making culture together.”