The Quarry Project, 2016 - 2024

The Quarry Project was a site-specific dance/theatre piece created for the Wells Lamson quarry, one of the oldest, deepest granite quarries in the country, now flooded and in “reserve.”

14 sold-out shows took place in August 2022. After screening the performance film around the state and into Canada, it is now available for public viewing.

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The Quarry Project Echoes

2024 at The Kent Museum

The vast Wells Lamson quarry was the setting for the performances in 2022, six acres of water enclosed by walls of Barre gray granite with remnants of the industry everywhere you looked. In 2024 we brought the ingredients of that substantial project into the intimate setting of the Kent Museum, a pre-civil war inn and tavern where each room is empty of furniture, the lath and plaster, wide floor boards, brick fireplaces, and wallpaper offering an intriguing setting for the art.

Collaborating Artists

  • Hannah Dennison

    DIRECTOR & CHOREOGRAPHER

  • Leslie Anderson

    COSTUME & SET DESIGNER, VIDEOGRAPHER

  • Andric Severance

    COMPOSER & BAND DIRECTOR

  • Amy LePage

    CO-CHOREOGRAPHER & ENSEMBLE COACH

  • Julia Barstow

    PHOTOGRAPHER

  • Lukas Huffman

    FILM DIRECTOR & EDITOR

  • Emily Boedecker

    PRODUCER, NARRATOR, PORTRAIT PHOTOGRAPHER

  • Henry John

    INFRASTRUCTURE DESIGNER & TECHNICAL TEAM LEADER

Ensemble

  • Alana Rancourt Phinney

  • Anna Goodling

  • Claire Cook

  • Molly Kaye

  • Bridget Wheeler

  • Anna Martone

  • Ellen Smith Ahern

  • Hanna Satterlee

  • Rose Leach

  • Leila Faulstich-Hon

  • Willow Wonder

  • Sofia Hirsch

  • Nicole Dagesse

  • Linda Bassick

  • Mary Chris DeBelina Doyle

  • Tai Nixa Peterson

  • Lucy Schmid

  • Celia DeVoe

  • Mary Bonhag

  • Drew Frazier

Responses

  • “When I picked up the tickets to yesterday's performance,I had NO idea what a treat I was in for. Perhaps you have seen the performance or videos of it online. It was SHEER Magic: the gray/green of the quarry, the dark rippling water, the many different floats moving around the water and each other silently, and the dancers bursting out of grey shrouds into all shades of joyous RED movements. I have never seen anything remotely like this (and I have been going to the Montreal program "Danse Danse" for years). And I am still both excited and calmed "the morning after.”

    GERHILD BJORNSON

  • I wanted to tell you what a viscerally moving experience I had. So many aspects of your vision–the colors of the robes, the echoes across the quarry, the wonderful, wonderful, wonderful humor (god, to be able to take ourselves seriously and also NOT take ourselves seriously: such a gift), the precision of the dancers, the smiles on their faces that felt truly authentic, the thrill/terror as the platform edges weighed into the water, Mary B's unearthly voice, the way these threads were so deftly woven together–were deeply impactful for me. I'm someone who doesn't cry much for grief, but I cry for beauty and for hope (which in its way is crying for grief). I cried Sunday, and I am crying now thinking of all that welled up in me. I'm grateful to you and the dancers for giving me the opportunity to experience that beauty and pain, part of the dance with you all. Please keep at it.

    EVIE LOVETT

  • Beyond the stunning beauty of the quarry, the haunting music and striking dancers… beyond the amazing scope of your ambition and creativity…all the details, the atmosphere of enthusiasm and pride in this achievement was unlike any I’ve experienced. The sense of community…there was/is/will continue to be such Life around the experience you offered those of us fortunate enough to attend. Waves of gratitude ripple out through Vermont and beyond. With your own spark of imagination, you fueled Imagination for all of us. The most astonishing moments for me: when the first sound of the voice reached us across the water and the platform of dancers emerged from behind the rock … the movement of platforms and music in a larger choreography that supported and accentuated that of the dancers…. and especially the entire troupe together, moving almost imperceptibly toward the audience, standing, looking us in the eye, causing us to awaken to ourselves and the world in a new way. Art beyond art. Bravo!

    CAMILLA ROCKWELL

  • Throughout the last five years, the Quarry Project has been part of my life. Along the way, it often felt like a struggle with time, time that competed with family, and work, time that was precious and fleeting. Over the past month, the quarry has gifted time back in slow, luxurious abundance. Dripping time in dappled light, layering time in sediment, grains of sand stacking, shifting, sliding. Vibrating time that hums and floats, pouring time over my skin and washing away lack and hurry. What a gift, what a glorious gift. I am so grateful for the cast who've become family. I am becoming more and more of who I am.

    NICOLE DAGESSE

  • Thank you for Quarry Project. It transformed time for me, was wonderful to be in that physical world where so much more comes to life. And the reminder that in these crazy times, such grace, beauty and humor are always present. Echoes of Einstein on the Beach, 1976 but so much more alive in this setting. Let's just say that words fail to describe the impact.

    DANIEL ROSEN

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Threads & Thresholds