On September 21 and 22, Ivy Baldwin Dance will present Quarry, a site-specific performance work at Manitoga, the former home and 75-acre woodland garden of the late American industrial designer Russel Wright. Quarry takes inspiration from Wright’s desire to blur lines between outside and inside, nature and the man-made, and from his deep commitment to experimentation with form and material.

It is vital to Baldwin at this moment in history to examine the arc of humans’ relationship to nature, and, through Quarry, to contextualize the lessons of Wright himself — “long before climate change was a presence in every conversation, Wright lived a metaphor in miniature by confronting and resuscitating a ravaged landscape, integrating thoughtful architecture and the loving restoration of its native surroundings.”

At its fall premiere, Quarry will magnify Wright’s vision and Manitoga’s dramatic variations on scale and intimacy as the audience experiences the property and performers from great distances, overlooking the quarry, viewing dancers on mossy roofs, and following smaller performances into the surrounding woodlands.

Quarry is choreographed by Ivy Baldwin and features performances by dancers Katie Dean, Kay Ottinger, Kayvon Pourazar, Tara Sheena, Eleanor Smith, Saúl Ulerio, and Katie Workum, and musician Lathan Hardy. Music composition and sound installation is by Baldwin’s longtime collaborator Justin Jones. With costume design by Mindy Nelson and set design by Michael Drake and Baldwin.