Edmonton Dance Project

COME HELL OR HIGH WATER is a 42-minute interdisciplinary contemporary dance work choreographed for five performers, featuring a dynamic, mobile set that transforms throughout the piece. Using symbolic imagery and cinematic movement, the work explores the nature of power within human relationships—how it is gained, lost, embodied, and resisted.

Inspired by Byung-Chul Han’s What Is Power?, the performance asks whether resilience in the face of uncertainty might be the most potent form of power. Five characters navigate shifting environments and emotional landscapes where control alternates between people and place. Like migrating wild geese—flocking, falling, regrouping—the performers confront fear, limitation, and interdependence, echoing Maya Angelou’s Caged Bird: daring to claim the sky together.

COME HELL OR HIGH WATER is a multicultural collaboration linking artists from Poland, Greece, France, and Canada. The work was created in Edmonton with five local dancers and commissioned/produced by Marynia Fekecz-Mangan, under the direction of international choreographer Penelope Morout.

“I saw there we are. There. and was struck by its sense of urgency and virtuosity… [Alison and Alida] created a dance that challenged, provoked and stirred the audience.” - Lin Snelling

there we are. There. is a 30 minute, highly rigorous exploration of the unknown, created and performed by artists Alison Kause and Alida Kendell. The duet mixes demanding choreography with isolated body movements and visceral experiences with water to explore themes of intimacy and absurdity. Text from Joel and Ethan Coen’s No Country for Old Men and Bob Ross’s The Joy of Painting are delivered live and through pre-recorded sound.

In this world, we are always together. We are recognizable, yet slightly off kilter. We talk straight and sit crooked. We are in between, unraveling, navigating and arriving. We hope to foster in our audiences a curiosity for the unfamiliar, leaving some ends untied, and some questions unanswered. It is in this moment of unknowing that audiences and performers can meet, where there is space for viewers to fill in blanks with associations from their own lived experiences. The dance becomes shared, not merely performed.