Activations & Pop-Up Performances
HOLDTIGHT's activations span a wide range of formats: pop-up performances created in response to visual art and installations, community celebrations, festival-style events, site-responsive commissions, and collaborative productions with partner organizations. What unites them is HT's commitment to bringing interdisciplinary, participatory work into unexpected spaces and communities, meeting audiences where they are: in galleries, gardens, museums, mansions, libraries, and beyond. Each activation is its own world, built for the moment and the place it inhabits.
Image above by Martha Wirth
Quick links to learn more about prior activations and pop up performances:
Anythink’s Nature Library
Grand Opening
Anythink Libraries commissioned HOLDTIGHT to create a series of site-specific dance-theater works for the opening of The Nature Library, in Thornton. HOLDTIGHT performed three brand new works in celebration of their grand opening which were inspired by the kinship model and the opening’s theme: Roots to Sky.
Performances happened on Saturday, August 8th, 2026 from 12-4pm
The Nature Library in Thornton, Colorado
4000+ attendees at the event.
Directed & Conceptualized by Gwendolyn Gussman in collaboration with the performers: Xenia Mansour, Xochitl Portillo, Chela Portillo, and Ana Luna Uribe
Photos by Martha Wirth
At the line
At the Line is a durational, interactive, and site-responsive dance-theater work exploring the boundary between structure and chaos. A lead performer, guided by a ticking metronome and live accordion, cues a small ensemble through set phrase work and spontaneous actions. As the piece unfolds, the audience joins in through simple, directed improvisation, and order dissolves into chaos and rapturous joy.
At the Line was created in response to the artwork of Ronny Quevedo as part of the Movements Toward Freedom exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art Denver, invited by MCA Denver and Presenting Denver. Performances took place September 28, December 7, and December 8, 2024, serving 350+ attendees over three days.
Collaborators: Direction, Concept, Choreography & Performance by Gwendolyn Gussman; Live Music & Performance by Nicholas Caputo; Collaboration & Performance by Bailey Harper, Krista Brown, Grace Cooper, Amy Trapani-Bowen, and Cassidy Wagner.
"It was a delightful experience to watch the structured improvisation unfold, descending into moments of rapturous chaos…"
— Breegan Kearney, Presenting Denver
Denver Art Museum Collaboration
Inspired by humanity’s relationship and responsibility to nature, this dance duet premiered on January 30th, 2026 as part of Denver Art Museum’s “Untitled” program. HOLDTIGHT was invited by “Untitled” lead artist ANALUNA for the Museum’s artist takeover inspired by The Honest Eye: Camille Pissarro’s Impressionism.
The dance duet was choreographed and performed by Gwendolyn Gussman and Bailey Harper, and was performed twice in the Hamilton Hall Lobby as pop-up performances. Music was an original composition by Ana Luna Uribe.
What's Fresh? was HOLDTIGHT's 10-year anniversary celebration, held May 8, 2026 at The Fleming Mansion in Denver, the very space where HOLDTIGHT's first work, Nourishment, premiered a decade prior. A festival-style evening of live performance, What's Fresh? featured new, in-process, and experimental works by HOLDTIGHT collaborators and community artists spanning dance, music, poetry, and installation. An open mic format invited a handful of community members to share their own short-form works, and attendance was kept intentionally intimate at 50 guests.
Artists: Gwendolyn Gussman, Bailey Harper, Maki Teshima, Nicholas Caputo, Ana Luna Uribe, Xochitl Portillo, Chelsea Retzloff, Krista Brown, Erika Curry-Elrod, and others.
Photos by Emily Jacobs
What’s Fresh?
It’s Not What You Think
It's Not What You Think is a site-responsive dance-theater work created in direct response to and in dialogue with the visual art installation of Mikel Glass. The piece weaves movement, text, live piano, and choreographic improvisation into an intimate, multi-sensory performance experience.
Produced by the cell theatre, New York City. Premiere performances: November 22-23, 2019.
Collaborators: Direction & Concept by Gwendolyn Gussman; Choreography & Creation by Mara Driscoll, Emily Haughton, and Nico Gonzales; Live Piano Performance by Mikael Darmanie; Production Management by Alex Taylor; Art Installation by Mikel Glass.
Photos by Jeffrey Lee
