This post was updated Oct. 31 at 8:23 p.m.

This fall, an alumnus’s dance company is exploring what remains unseen.

Heidi Duckler Dance will hold its performance of “What Remains Un/Seen” at the Wende Museum on Saturday, with the free showcase inspired by the museum’s ongoing “Counter/Surveillance: Control, Privacy, Agency” exhibition. Alumnus Duckler is the founder and artistic director of Heidi Duckler Dance and said “What Remains Un/Seen” follows a similar 2019 performance called “What Remains,” which was also hosted at the Wende Museum. Although there will be spatial similarities to the previous set, given the use of the same venue, Duckler said the new performance will feature different music and content that addresses the new theme.

“The subject matter of surveillance and spying … can be quite a scary and frightening idea,” Duckler said. “We can also find moments of laughter at those things.”

As the choreographer and director of the performance, Duckler said she views choreography as more than just steps. She said sensuality, relationship-building and interaction with the surroundings are all important pieces of the performance, and complex choreography will provide commentary about the exhibition. There are many preconceived images and stereotypes Duckler said audiences might think of when hearing the term “surveillance” – from a detective in disguise to a man in a trench coat – and these viewpoints can persist today. Likewise, Duckler added that the Wende Museum’s garden provided inspiration for the performance’s storytelling and approach to movement – especially since the garden’s water feature, fire feature and rock garden are reminiscent of the elements of water, fire, land and air.

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Saturday’s performance has been in development for more than a year, Duckler said, but the first rehearsal with the dancers was not until Sunday. She said Heidi Duckler Dance – which typically has a performance about every six weeks – is not a repertory company, and instead four dancers were specifically cast for roles in “What Remains Un/Seen.” The dancers are not only technically trained, she added, but they are also actors who have to form relationships with each other, the performance space and the exhibit’s content. Duckler said she believes movement comes from one’s own body and internal drive rather than external forces.

“We come prepared, but we don’t come overly prepared,” Duckler said. “It’s really important that we are open and sensitive to the conditions of the space and each other and the moment and all the things that we need to absorb.”

The performance will be accompanied by music from the spiritual jazz and soul group Cosmic Vibrations. Dwight Trible, a vocalist for the group and a longtime collaborator of Heidi Duckler Dance, said the band’s members incorporate instruments such as trap drums, bass clarinet, tenor saxophone, bamboo flutes and bass. He said the goal of the group is to make a difference by expressing unity and love. Cosmic Vibrations never plays their set the same way twice, as each day brings a different set of variables that affect the group’s energy, he added.

“On Nov. 2, whatever the vibration of the day is, our dream and hope is that we can get in harmony with the vibration of the universe,” Trible said. “We want to let the day dictate what we’re going to play and how we’re going to play.”

Trible said the music played by the group is influenced by the dancers in order to create unity in the performance. He said he loves working with Duckler because her approach as a choreographer embraces spontaneity and is able to create works of art in real time. Compared to other dance companies he has worked with, Heidi Duckler Dance opts to not choreograph strictly with a predetermined routine set to a recording, instead taking a more open-minded approach with live variations, he added.

Joes Segal, the chief curator and director of programming at the Wende Museum, said the “What Remains Un/Seen” performance delves deeper into the themes of the museum’s “Counter/Surveillance: Control, Privacy, Agency” exhibit that opened Oct. 13. Segal said the exhibition expands upon the museum’s focus on the Cold War era and includes historical materials such as facial recognition tools from Hungary, East Germany, the Soviet Union and the United States. Segal said the on-show collection also includes artifacts such as listening devices and spy cameras, as well as art from other mediums including paintings, videos and film. The exhibition chronicles both past and present perspectives on surveillance technology and its intersection with art, he added.

“We look at parallels, and then we move forward,” Segal said. “We are doing that basically through the eyes of contemporary visual artists who share different strategies, different means, how to deal with surveillance, how to evade it, how to criticize it (and) how to appropriate in terms of doing something completely new and creative with it.”

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Segal said the preparation for the exhibition was extensive, beginning four years ago with support from the Getty and its PST ART: Art & Science Collide initiative. He said about 25% of the pieces included in “Counter/Surveillance: Control, Privacy, Agency” come from the Wende Museum’s collection, while the rest are on loan from other museums, galleries and private collections. The exhibition’s mission and dance performance’s message are not necessarily the same, Segal said, but the museum’s goal is to encourage visitors to appreciate the enduring significance of the past.

“What we try to bring across in the exhibition is that it is important to look into the history of surveillance in order to be able to analyze it and better understand it,” Segal said. “There are many creative ways to deal with it and to take agency.”

Duckler said she hopes audience members will feel engaged as active participants in the performance. She said she hopes the event also allows attendees to experience the feeling of control and observe its juxtaposition with freedom. The performance can give attendees the opportunity to consider their lives and the lives of others, especially with the continued presence of surveillance in modern society.

“As we grow closer to an election, I think that these ideas are so very, very important – not just to think about from the outside but to think about from the inside,” Duckler said. “That’s one of the things about performance, is that it can really affect you in a visceral and emotional and personal way.”