Most dancers' second careers involve something like teaching dance. Or choreographing dance, or photographing it. But Travis and Mallory Walker went in a totally different direction.
Yet the couple sees winemaking as an extension of their dance life.
"There's not as much makeup involved and the costumes are a little different, but you still have an audience you hope that you move in some way," says Mallory. "You put a lot of work into it, but when the performance comes, or the wine comes out of the barrels, you never know how it will be received."
Trey McIntyre Project's farewell performance at Jacob's Pillow. Photo by Christopher Duggan.
"The art was telling me that things had to change. And they had to change big. Something I created needed to die off. When the company was at its height, when it was at its most successful, I closed it down."
These puzzling words are spoken by choreographer Trey McIntyre in Gravity Hero, his new documentary, which unpacks the rise and fall of his wildly successful dance company, Trey McIntyre Project. When he disbanded the troupe in 2014, the dance world couldn't quite wrap their heads around it. Why stop when you're touring 22 weeks a year? Why stop when you've done the seemingly impossible by creating a thriving company in the dance desert of Boise, Idaho?
