liberty in pursuit of something new
INTERVIEW WITH westFEST guest artists, undercurrent
Hilary Grumman and Alethea Alexander are Co-Artistic Directors of Undercurrent, a Seattle-based floorwork dance company. Their website says that they are “dedicated to creating and experimenting with floorwork technique, biomechanically sustainable movement practices, experiential design, immersive performances, interdisciplinary collaboration, and care-centered community building” — but what does that all mean?
Us: Can you tell me about the beginnings of Undercurrent and how things sort of percolated for you in its creation?
Hilary: Undercurrent has been around for almost 10 years now, and there have been a lot of different chapters, but early percolations began when I was training and dancing for different floor work companies. What I found was a lot of pretty high-injury-prone approaches to moving close to the floor. The type of movement I was doing felt cathartic and exciting as a young dancer but very exclusive to certain body types, and I was certainly one of them.
After quite a few injuries, I eventually decided I wanted to do this, but I wanted to make this work something that I could withstand for more than just a year or two. So, I moved back to Seattle and founded Undercurrent alongside two other women, Ashley Jade and Liv Fauver, as a community class gathering space in 2017. After about a year, we started doing small pop-up performances in the community, which felt like a sweet way to branch out even though I believe the heartbeat of Undercurrent is the physical practice and weekly ritual of class.
Us: Alethea, what was your entrance into working with Undercurrent, which has now grown into your role as Co-Artistic Director?
Alethea: I started taking class pretty early on in Undercurrent's development. As someone who grew up with a love of ballet, I saw a pretty cool mirror between what ballet provided and Undercurrent’s approach to class. Everything had a form and a logical progression, which I felt was something that was lacking in many of the contemporary, modern classes I was taking at the time. From then on, I fell in love with Undercurrent for two reasons: one, because I got to do new hard things with my body, which is still a core principle in what we do, make, and teach. And two, because the work we do is well supported by the pedagogy that we’ve developed and are continually developing. We're still pushing those boundaries.
Now, we've been creating and presenting work together for the past three years, which is an aspect of Undercurrent that has recently exploded in the past year.
Us: You are bringing a piece of work to present as part of westFEST’s Ignite 2026 performance. Can you share some insight into this piece, Surface Tension?
Alethea: At this point, I am thinking of the work that we're bringing as an excerpt of a larger work that does not yet exist. So we're bringing all of what we have, but I think it will keep building.
Hilary: We have built the work around community caretaking and this idea that high risk, especially high physical and emotional risk, can only happen in a way that feels realistic, aligned, and sustainable. This work can only happen if it's predicated and built on a deep level of attunement, trust, and truly sharing responsibilities on stage.
For Surface Tension, Alethea and I feel really thrilled and excited about what we're responding to on stage, which in this case are two hanging lights. They hang just four feet off the floor and showcase a low ceiling that we all have a long-term shared movement language around. I think it highlights and amplifies the risk at play and the honed physical practice that we've come accustomed to. They will swing differently at Westside Theater than they have at On the Boards and Cornish Playhouse where we've shared this work before, but we're excited about it.
Alethea: And what these lights do, given their weight and design, not only highlights, but it forces every performer in the work to hyper-commit to one another, saying I'm here for you.
Us: Along with Surface Tension, you will also be creating a new work with our westFEST Performance Cohort that will be performed in conjunction with your work in Ignite 2026. Do you have any thoughts for what you might create or how you will begin this very quick process?
Alethea: We just wrapped another festival in Seattle where we premiered a new work that we made for a different set of festival participants. So it's fresh, and there are a couple of ideas around physicality and the organization of bodies from that piece that we're still really excited by. We usually begin our process with offering information rather than asking for movement generation or improvisation, and most likely the key focus of this work will surround this idea of connectivity, particularly among the 16 Performance Cohort participants.
Hiliary: Yeah, community care is usually our starting place. I think we're in a creative brain space around concepts like leaning into one another. We’re interested in what it looks like when we choose systems of reciprocity, symbiotic relation, enmeshment, and even long-term commitment. We’re curious about the kind of movement that could transpire, and how these ideas resonate within a group of people, even if it’s only a brief period in time.
Us: westFEST is all about creating a home for dance in the Mountain West and for artists to come together in community. As a smaller company, similar to Bare Bait Dance, could you speak to what excites you about the future of dance in this area of the country?
Alethea: I have been drawing parallels in my mind between what I imagine is part of the feeling and ethos of Bare Bait Dance to a company up in Bellingham, Washington that I danced for. Something I loved about that environment was that it offered a sensation of dance that was dedicated, but not elite or exclusive or too precious to be honest. There was a sense of humor and a lightness. I would say that Seattle as a city is almost like a bigger version of something similar. I think there's a liberty in pursuit of something new that I feel in Seattle and that I'm excited to fly with.
Hillary: I think another layer that I see between Bare Bait Dance and Undercurrent is the privilege of standing on a long history in one place. I know deep relationships that have come out of Bare Bait Dance that have lasted decades, and a lot of our physical community at Undercurrent has built a long-term relationship with us. It’s a testament to the culture and the creative play space that is held within these types of communities.
Undercurrent will be performing in IGNITE, presented as part of our 2026 westFEST New Works Festival, Aug 14 - 16, 2026. To learn more about westFEST: CLICK HERE