COLLABORATIONS SELECTIONS
from the Archives 1976-2023

Organic Nation Listening Club

jazz storytelling dance

collaborations with David Ornette Cherry

Portland Tribute April 13, 2023, Historic Alberta House
tribute video

Gordon Lee, Shao Way Wu, Renato Caranto, Israel Annoh, Norman Sylvester, LaRhonda Steele, 2023

Organic Nation Listening Club at Artists Repertory Theatre, 2014

Norman Sylvester & Renato Caranto, David & Glen Moore, Carlton Jackson not shown

Soul Stories/True Tales of Transformation, CD 1997

stories and music performances

(left to right) by Marie Selland Taylor, Janet Goulston, Donna Matrazzo, Susan Banyas, Wendy Westerwelle, John William Johnson, Maura Doherty/Dreams Well Studio

music on CD composed and performed by Barbara Bernstein and Courtney Von Drehle

Marie Selland Taylor, far left

Janet Goulston in top hat

Time Piece

Robin Chilstrom, John Steinkamp, Susana Banyas
music by Robert Cobern, drumming by Scott Wardinsky directed by Susan Banyas, Dreams Well, 1990

dance theatre trio

performance essays

International Society for the Study of Time/Time and Memory,2004/Time and Limits, 2007/Time in Variance, 2019
upcoming: 2026/Time and Entanglements

Dreams Well Studio

Learn more

Dreams Well Studio, 1990-2002, a modest, lively petri dish for performance experiments and body-mind practices. Everyday Dancing, Soul Stories, Tribal Singing, Physical Theatre, Contact Improvisation, Performance Poetry, Music, memorable offerings of dance, theatre, multi-media storytelling, kids’ performances, community ceremonie, activated dream space/laboratory.

…a sanctuary for discovering the healing power of storytelling, an open space for contact-improv dance, a longhouse for tribal singers, and a fantasy fountainhead brimming with experimental notions of theatre and self…a deja vu from ‘60’s happenings and a glimpse of the holistically interwoven future of performance arts.
— David Johnson/SE Examiner, Nov. 1996

Soul Stories by (L-R) Brook Boden, Jane Sterett, Barbara
Lilly, Tom Schwartz, Ute Luppertz, 1998, from
The Stories We Tell/performance and visual art series

The Memory Place

ensemble visual theatre

collaboration w. Wendy Westerwelle, Leanne Grabel, Elisabeth Tschalaer, Gregg Bielemeier, Steve Sander, Susan Banyas
film by Carl Davis
visuals by Sarah Hall and JoAnn Rollins
theatre consultant Steve Clorfeine
directed by Susan Banyas
photo by C. Bruce Forster
Dreams Well, 1999

Cecilia’s Daughter

written and performed by Marie Selland Taylor
video by Elaine Velasquez
music composed & live by Barbara Bernstein
directed by Susan Banyas
Shattuck Hall, Portland State U, 1989

Mona and Cody

created and performed with Vincent Martinez
w. John Steinkamp
taxi by Bill Will, shrine by Jerry Mayer,
masks by Martha Banyas
photo by C. Bruce Forster
Pythian Bldg, Portland
Directed by Susan Banyas, 1988