Friday, February 7:00pm
AND
Saturday, February 7 2:30pm and 7:00pm, Mahler Ballroom

Speak Easy | Move Loud

RESILIENCE Dance Company and Continuum Vocal Ensemble present Speak Easy | Move Loud: a cross-era, cross-discipline collaboration. Exploring ideas of resistance, cultural upheaval, identity and belonging through music and movement, this original concert will transport audiences to the 1920s with themes that still resonate in today's world.

Overview & Historical Context

The 1920s embodied change. Leaving behind old, broken models and boldly charging towards the new. Women shortened skirts and went to work. Modernism flourished and technology boomed. Improvisation and experimentation commanded attention in business and in art. From Harlem to Greenwich, jazz cabarets to drag balls, literary salons to speakeasies - artists’ roared their truths. Their music, movement, novels, poetry, and more blossomed, unapologetic. Their voices shaped an unforgettable era of art, culture, and expression that would drive social change.

The 2020s are a turbulent decade - from a devastating pandemic and a national reckoning with race, to increased ideological polarization and renewed attacks on gender identity and expression. The socio-cultural issues of today, in many ways, parallel those of the 1920s. While Black artists thrived during the Harlem Renaissance, the Ku Klux Klan was also emerging. While drag performances reached high levels of popularity in the 20s, queer artists were soon barred from venues with the fall of Prohibition. With the rise of marginalized voices, the call for acceptance and visibility, the push for progress - there has always been a countermovement back towards “tradition”.

This concert asks us to consider these two decades in conversation. What is the role of art in these times, and how can we continue to create thriving communities of expression? What lessons from the 1920s still resonate today, and how do we honor them? What voices do we raise to create stronger, vibrant, thriving spaces of inclusivity and joy?

Speak Easy | Move Loud is our offering and our call to action. Join us for this cross-era, cross-discipline concert, immersing yourself in a community experience of art to celebrate, question, and reflect on the 1920s and 2020s.

What You'll Experience

Curated by John McDonald of Continuum Vocal Ensemble, the program will open with themes of gender and identity - celebrating authentic voices with works like “Song of Myself” by modern-day queer composer Stuart Beatch. With choreography by Josiah Gundersen, Abbi LeBaube, and Emily Haussler, RESILIENCE will explore ideas of self, belonging, grief, and acceptance.

The repertoire will progress to highlight popular work by 1920s composer Irvin Berlin, including “Always” and “Blue Skies”, joined by a trio of live jazz musicians. RDC dancers will pay homage to these works, luxuriating in the rich and warming tones of the music.

In tribute to the improvisational aesthetics of the 20s, RDC dancers will next create and perform a new work, live, in collaboration with the musicians and audience input. Together as a community, we will experience the ephemeral nature of emergent, experimental art.

To close, the ensemble will perform works that underscore resistance, protest, and race in America, with compositions that uplift the words of Black literary giants like Langston Hughes and Zora Neale Hurston in modern day arrangements. Works include Ted Hearne’s Coloring Book and Joel Thomspon’s America Will Be. Jorrell Lawyer-Jefferson and Emily Haussler’s choreography will interrogate our responsibilities as a community, explore expression and perspective, and illuminate humanity in response.

About RESILIENCE Dance Company

RESILIENCE Dance Company (RDC) is a non-profit, contemporary modern dance company with a mission to create exceptional dance experiences that fuel human connection. Founded in 2019 by Artistic and Executive Director Emily Haussler, RDC’s work is rooted in building healthy, sustainable dance spaces that put artists first and enable curiosity, play, and creative risk taking.

Highly collaborative, RDC creates original, evening-length works each season and commissions a mix of emerging and renowned choreographers at the cutting edge of contemporary dance. RDC envisions a future where there are no more “starving artists,” and supports that vision through education, outreach, and professional initiatives that uplift artists, inspire the next generation, and bridge communities.

Website: resiliencedancecompany.com
Instagram: @resiliencedancecompanystl

About Continuum Vocal Ensemble

Founded in 2023 an led by Dr. John McDonald -- Director of Choir and Vocal Studies at Washington University -- Continuum Vocal Ensemble's mission is to bring the experience of transformative choral music to new audiences through innovative pieces in unique settings across St. Louis. This ensemble brings together the best ensemble vocalists from the St. Louis region with the goal of musical excellence and building a community through the art of choral music.

About the Mahler Ballroom

In 1860, European immigrant Albert Mahler opened a dance academy in St. Louis. His son Jacob began teaching there at age 11 and later took over the business. In 1907, Jacob commissioned architect William Levy to design a combined family home and ballroom on Washington Boulevard—a 16,000-square-foot showpiece that became a centerpiece of St. Louis social life. Mahler’s popular “Fortnightlies” dances and the venue’s role in hosting dignitaries, state functions, plays, and film sets cemented its legacy.

After Jacob’s passing in 1928, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch praised both him and the iconic Mahler Ballroom for their unique place in the community.

In 2018, Miss Karen acquired and meticulously restored the ballroom to its Victorian elegance. Today, it hosts unforgettable weddings, celebrations, corporate events, fashion shows, proms, charity benefits, and more. Blending historic charm with modern amenities—including designer furnishings, artwork, chandeliers, and a striking waterfall bar—the 3,500-square-foot ballroom features 24-foot ceilings and a wraparound rococo-style balcony.

Emily Haussler, RESILIENCE Dance Company Artistic and Executive Director, and John McDonald, Continuum Vocal Ensemble Artistic Director

Join Us

Experience a performance where voices and bodies speak across time—
where the 1920s’ boldest ideas meet today’s most pressing questions—
and where art doesn’t just reflect culture, but reshapes it.

Be part of a night that moves, reveals, and transforms.

Speak Easy | Move Loud

By Continuum Vocal Ensemble

Speak Easy | Move Loud

Continuum Vocal Ensemble with RESILIENCE Dance Company