‘Between Waking & Dreaming’ is influenced by Natalia Roberts’ background as a professional dancer, her training as an architect, her political heritage, and her obsession with surrealism.

In her first photography exhibit, Natalia introduces us to members of Denver’s dance community through an exploration of strength, loneliness, absurdity and love by way of the human body: dark bodies, light bodies, cis and non-binary bodies...

Some of these bodies are returning to dance, others are on the verge of leaving dance forever. Some of these bodies are graduating high school, while others are apprentices and professionals. 

This is an exhibition about the emotional and physical process of making art as much as it is about the art itself. It explores the beauty of our common humanity and, in the surrealist tradition, lives in the space between waking and dreaming. 

Brendan Duggan — The Business of Dance

“To be frank, our initial motivation for starting this company was that we had had such terrible

experiences at (censored). The way that that company treated us we felt… invisible… despite the

ambitious creative projects we were undertaking. So we really wanted to see if there was a different

way to make immersive theater — at a large scale — and still treat everyone the way that they should

be treated at every level.”

Jordan Smiley and TJ Jaworski — Courageous Space

“I think one of the things I’ve learned — been shown — in the last few years is how deeply resourced

we actually were this whole time and didn’t know it because we’ve been taught to individualize

ourselves and fight the next guy for our place to belong.

… it is possible to place the focus on relationships, and a little bit less on just getting everything you can

out of every customer. [It’s possible to] actually take their humanity into account and still have enough.”

Caroline Sharkey - Searching for Each OTher

“It kinda felt like all these really talented folks showed up at the same time, but we were kind of

searching in the dark for each other… It felt nice to gather all that energy together and gather all these

people who were excited to dance with each other… together. I just want more of that. And I think

that’s what like fuels me and excites me.”

Courtney Ozaki — Ancestral Realm

“With ZOTTO being an immersive and site-specific theatrical show, we had to think of capturing the

story through the entire experience of the audience member. The audience member is entering an

environment that in itself becomes a character in the story and informs the narrative as a whole. For

ZOTTO we designed a liminal space that was rooted in and honored true historical experience, while also

working with a team of incredible artists to evoke the imagination and magical surrealism of a folktale.

We wanted to deepen empathy for the characters and their stories, and in creating the show we

intentionally considered what emotions we wanted to evoke through all five senses - sight, touch, taste,

sound, and smell.”