FAST FORWARD
Program Script

Intro

It’s hard to start fresh in a place where your family has so much history. I’m Kaitlyn Gilliland, founder and director of A DPP. My grandmother was Loyce Houlton and my mother is Lise. And they led my family’s dance company for more than 60 years as prolific choreographers, collaborators, and teachers who trained thousands of dancers. They built a place for dancers to grow and spread their wings. I was one of those dancers.

As I was coming to the end of my performing career I think there was an unspoken expectation that I would lead the company and school they had stewarded for so many years. And I did. And then I resigned less than a year later. It was a painful time. I heard that I had stolen the Houlton repertory and I heard that people didn’t really want to see it anyway. And so I stumbled a lot on how to move forward. 

But we started with Nutcracker, which felt like the obvious choice. From that I learned that people wanted to see my grandmother’s work and dancers still wanted to dance it. There were also more than one hundred pieces that my grandmother had created during her lifetime. And because I spent so much time in the houses of other choreographers, I didn’t really know what that repertory was. When I dug into the archives I realized that nearly 90% of her work had been lost. The exercise of going back taught me that we didn’t have the resources or the knowledge to restore many of the more epic dances. We also really needed the training to take on these roles. The style and the choreography is so specific and so difficult. It showed me the value that my mom had decided to preserve and bring forward. And I also wanted to keep looking forward. But I was still stuck. I’m not a choreographer and as a director I didn’t have a clear vision.

Then in 2025 as we were preparing to bring my grandmother’s Nutcracker to the stage, about half of our set pieces came out of storage damaged beyond repair. We had an incredibly generous community that made miracles for us and got the production on stage. But it was also a huge setback. I told my mom I had been asking for signs showing me what to do next and this wasn’t a particularly encouraging one. Her response was, Hey, look at all the dancers who are still showing up for this work. Maybe that’s the sign. 

I have access to all of this legacy rep that I want to share and this community has an extraordinary cohort of young dancers and creators looking for a platform to grow as artists. It’s not really a new formula, nor is it a comprehensive one, but it gives us a place to begin again.

Section 1

Class became an essential and integral part of choreography that was to become. The classes that we had had a strong influence of two brilliant choreographers–the combination of Martha Graham and George Balanchine–and of course many other modern legends and classical ballet legends from the 1950s and 60s. This energy was brought together; it was a very symbiotic energy in the studio and it was always a wonderful experience because there were always bits of literature, bits of history–always references that we could pull from in order to inspire the movement. This is where choreographic experiments began.

I grew up dancing a wide range of Houlton repertoire working with Lise Houlton and every year I find there’s something more to learn. There’s lots of detail to be found in the technique. The Houlton classwork that we’ve been learning right now is very physically challenging. The Houlton technique, from what I’ve learned, involves the torso usage primarily. So thinking about the body–the shoulders, the back, the core–as the impetus for movement. There are definitely some themes of contraction and spiral and reaching. And there also is quickness and transfer of weight, which I find really interesting and really challenging. And that makes it a little bit different for me than if I took a classical ballet technique class. You need to be comfortable both being centered and also finding a new center or moving quickly in that way.

Section 2

There’s so many shared memories from so many of us who went through that early training ground and the creative process with LH when her concept was to deny all of the expectations and to go on different adventures. I find that it’s truly exhilarating to go back to that adventure and see young dancers realizing this work. It’s that concept of reimagining because no dancer is going to any role the same way and no dancer should do the roles in the same way. I think it’s a daunting task to step into somebody else’s role. Both the person that is giving it over and the person who is receiving–that dynamic has to be special, indeed.

To get to take on my own perspective on the dancing is just a real honor. And also helps build my confidence to do other work with the same level of integrity. Growing up, experiencing and working with Houlton rep really has really become an integral part of who I am as a dancer. 

There’s such a surrender, I think, with the body and the mind and the soul as a dancer that it is impossible for it not to impact your life in every way.

Section 3

Inheriting rep is a really good way to show diverse styles and ways of movement. It surprised me how the Houlton rep has come into my body, I would say, pretty naturally. I think the music and the pairing of the movement really tells a great story together and it feels, it feels natural to do. In Rite of Spring I feel very character driven. It feels like we’re representing maybe a community or an event that was real, and so when I’m doing it I feel very focused in on my character and I can’t imagine doing this piece without the music or without the intensity of the other people surrounding me. It’s been really nice to have that connection between the professional dancers and the students working together, motivating and pushing each other to stay on top of it. I feel like even the first day we stepped in the door we were already on the same page that this is really important to us and that we want to help each other and be there for each other to make this a great experience for ourselves and the audience.

Section 4

I was deeply moved and really eager to explore this world that I haven’t been as familiar with. It was kind of nerve-wrecking at first because this is something that’s so sacred. It holds a lot–it’s kind of like passing the torch. You can tell it’s a piece that carries on and will continue to carry on.

I enjoy the concept of lineage–of learning through people who have learned through people who have learned through other people–so it almost felt like a gift being passed down.

It’s like wearing a dress of your mom or someone that you love or wearing their ring.

Wingborne in general, just feels like an encounter, like an experience and an opportunity to see someone and to be with someone. It has; it comes with a large sense of community because of these people that trained me growing up and all these people who have seen me dance–they have memories of Wingborne. They did Wingborne themselves. So it’s like a hug from all directions.

Section 5

I have a hard time embodying people’s movement. It’s just not natural to me to, um, be in someone else’s skin, almost like that. After, like, every single rehearsal, every single dance, day–I always went home and improv’d for like hours. And during that time, that time for like exploration, for movement, of my own movement, I kind of was just a little bit more curious of what it would be like if I would actually, like, create something instead of following someone’s lead.

Section 6

Energy is something that I think about a lot. Maintaining an actual connection to the choreographer and not just being like a lump of clay that they can just mold into what they want. Really having, like, my passion and my spark come forward and really having them see it is something that really is important to me while choreographing and also something that I think about a lot as a dancer. I think it’s so special how you can take one action or feeling or movement and give it to someone else and watch it grow. With the experience of being a creator I know how important it is to, like, fully commit to things. Trying my best to really put myself in the mind of the choreographer without trying to mold myself into it. When I’m doing newer work it always starts out very intimidating because I always fight, like I always have this internal battle between trying to be exactly what I think the choreographer wants and trying to be fully and authentically me so that the choreographer can grasp onto that and grow with me.

Section 7

Beginning a process is always a really exciting experience because you never know what’s to come and it’s really fun to take on kind of a sponge attitude and absorb anything that is thrown your way. Working with Zach was a wonderful process because we got to see the movement embodied directly from the choreographer, which is super important because there’s so many fine-tuned details and really specific movement qualities that you see in a choreographer that you can focus on trying to embody yourself and I think that’s what makes a piece feel so alive. I grew up watching Zach perform and to watch a choreographer leave and come back with a lot more knowledge and you can see how much leaving has informed some qualities within their dancing–it’s really nice to get that same direction from them returned into my own dancing.

Section 8

As a dancer working with a choreographer, something that has always spoken to me is how, yes we’re being led by a choreographer or a repetitor but also in a way there is a sense of community in our ability to collaborate to not just set or put the work to where it is but to also elevate the work and bring it to where it could be. Working with Alex, reviving Chichester, was so cool because of course this work has already been created and to be allowed to work with the choreographer to breathe new life into the piece and to really try to find our own narrative and approach to the choreography is always super amazing. And allowing ourselves to feel more like individuals as opposed to trying to replicate exactly what we had seen previously and what we had been learning previously.

Section 9

I feel excited to step into an opportunity like this because it makes me feel great that my teachers trust me enough to step in.

When we’re watching the recordings we get to see our teachers dance.

I feel like I get to learn a lot about who I am as an artist through these generational works and it’s really exciting to be in the same room with a bunch of professional dancers and also get to work with them and see how they work.

Being a part of this show, it gives me an opportunity to be with other dancers in the room–get inspired by them–but it also allows me to learn at a very fast pace.

We kind of all came into it last minute and it helps us with learning choreography and it’s going to help us with the future.

Kaitlyn: So what do you want to do with all of this training that you have?

I want to use it and become a professional dancer.

I want to become a professional dancer.

I want to be a professional dancer in a company.

I love that in this show I get to dance with dancers that I don’t always dance with. I love being able to come into the studio and learn things from my peers but also dance with my friends.