Harbor

‘Harbor’ is an 11-minute dance with six performers, featuring elegant, ritualistic contemporary choreography set to mystical, folksy banjo. Parsing through the unavoidable liminal march toward the abyss of change, each of Harbor‘s performers embodies a different archetype, drawing from the tarot’s major arcana: The Fool, The Oracle, The Empress, The Hermit, Judgment, and The Moon.

Spoken text on melancholic, everyday, and morbid themes juxtaposes movement motifs of childlike innocence such as rock, paper, scissors and hopscotch. Symbols like numbers and electron bonds are playfully infused to intersect Harbor‘s momentum-filled dance elements, which portray the at once somber and firey exploration of new realms. Harbor prods at the tensions between free will, destiny, karma, meaning, and return.

Harbor (2026) Presented by Open Dance Ensemble

Choreographed by Lily Selthofner

Directed by Lily Selthofner and Philip Ellis Foster

Dancers: Adara Allen, Shannon Binns, Desislava Kreminlieva, Tommie McHale, Lily Selthofner, and Justin Shaw

Music: Live Banjo Accompaniment by Justin Shaw

Grey Funnel Line by Silly Sisters

Kalimankou Denkou by Bulgarian State Radio and Television Female Vocal Choir

Videography by Adam Myers