This year, our Artist in Residence program invited Vermonters to explore how knowledge itself is built, layered, and reshaped through The Institute for Folding, an interdisciplinary performance created by Michael Bodel. Through movement, language, live sound, and 30 sheets of cardboard, the work became a physical meditation on how our world accumulates information—what we stack, what we discard, and what we choose to keep close as “truth.”

For many watching, the piece acted as a cardboard mirror of our moment. We live in an era where facts are created, shared, and questioned at unprecedented speed. Some pieces of information enter our collective archive even when they’re wrong; others ring true but feel too uncomfortable to hold. The Institute for Folding revealed that the truths we use to build our future are not drawn from a distant, objective reality, but from the ideas, people, and “facts” we cling to most tightly.

Described by Bodel as “a dance for our precipitous moment,” the work examines society’s relationship with knowledge—our hunger for understanding, the rise and fall of ignorance, and our growing disconnection from what has already been discovered. It also speaks to something we’ve lost: the collective wonder that once fueled discovery, the same wonder that shone in the eyes of children and early civilizations.

Through months of workshops, work-in-progress showings, and a five-stop statewide tour, The Institute for Folding reached more than 800 people across Vermont, bringing locally produced professional dance to communities in every region. Audience members frequently shared how deeply the work resonated with the current climate of America—its uncertainty, its contradictions, and its longing for clarity.

This is exactly what the Artist in Residence program has worked to cultivate: bold new work, thoughtful inquiry, community connection, and paid opportunities for dance artists across our state.

As Vermont’s service organization for dance, VDA is proud to support artists and bring impactful, relevant work to communities statewide. We are deeply grateful to our sustaining members, donors, and partners whose commitment makes this program possible.

If you believe in the transformative power of dance, we invite you to donate or become a member—and help us continue creating meaningful opportunities for Vermont’s dance artists to thrive.