‘Like a reunion’

On a recent evening at Missoula’s Westside Theater, choreographer Amy Ragsdale knelt at the edge of the stage, watching with a soft smile as her nine dancers laughed and swayed on the Marley floor, waiting for the music to start. The audience, made up of cast and crew for Westside’s newest dance show, 40 Over 40, seemed antsy, some chatting, some trying on costumes and wrangling kids, others reading books or knitting. It was the first time they had gathered for a full run-through of the show, and the excitement was palpable. After all, it had been decades since some of these dancers had been on stage—and that was exactly the point.

When the speakers finally crackled to life, the audience stopped chatting, snapping their heads toward the front of the theater. The air filled with pre-recorded snippets of the dancers’ voices talking about their thoughts on turning 40. As “Old Man Time” by Jimmy Durante began to play, dancers spread across the stage, and Ragsdale, still watching from the front, moved her arms like a conductor, cuing the dancers if they forgot a move or two. She was in her element.

This piece, “Passages,” is a dance Ragsdale created that centers on the conceptions—or misconceptions—of aging. It tackles the gains and losses that come with age, including how middle-age might result in a better understanding of self and also a more heightened awareness of mortality. The themes fit perfectly in a show like 40 Over 40, which has a simple premise: 40 dancers over the age of 40, all sharing the stage together.

Credit: Max Hill

Ragsdale, who is the eldest of her cast, choreographed a solo “50” when she turned 50. When she started to choreograph 40 Over 40, she thought, why not make her piece about aging?

“Passages” is set to a score created from clips of conversations the dancers recorded in response to writing prompts Ragsdale gave them about how they felt about getting older. It’s playful—the conversations range from thoughts on cooking tomato sauce to stiff joints—but also incredibly moving. And while it pokes fun at the biases we have against aging, it leans toward the strengths.

“It’s kind of important for younger people to hear that, too,” Ragsdale says. “Because I’m not sure that’s always the image.”

Ragsdale, 66, is a legend in the Missoula dance scene, working as both an influential dancer and a choreographic powerhouse in the city for decades. She taught dance at the University of Montana School of Theater and Dance for 20 years and served as director of the dance program for part of that time. She also founded two notable local dance companies: Mo-Trans, which later grew into Headwaters Dance Co. Headwaters was the only professional repertory dance company cultivating contemporary dance in Montana at the time, so even when Ragsdale shut it down in 2015 to become a freelance choreographer, the company’s impact helped grow a dance culture—and a generation of dancers—in and beyond Missoula.

40 Over 40 is produced by Westside Theater’s managing theater director Kelly Bouma, and features 10 pieces in a variety of dance styles (plus some singing), from musical theater and ballet to hip hop and modern dance. Costumes range from sequined dresses to puffer vests. It brings together dancers from across Missoula’s abundant arts scene.

Several of the dancers spent their younger years under Ragsdale’s direction—in fact, three of the dancers in “Passages” are former UM students who studied with her. Other dancers in 40 over 40 were trained outside of Montana or have a less formal background. A few have never performed before, or haven’t danced since their high school or college days. Even Bouma, who has a background in theater and is often directing these days, wouldn’t usually find herself performing in a dance show.

Though anyone could be a part of the show, almost all of the dancers have some background in stage performance or movement. And as a cast of over-40-somethings (including over-40 choreographers, lighting designers and costume designers), they share common ground in an artistic field that isn’t always accessible to or celebratory of aging.

“[The show] is not only celebrating those of us who are aging in the field, but also celebrating that older bodies are allowed to take up space and be on stage,” says Joy French, executive artistic director of Bare Bait Dance, which owns and operates Westside Theater.

French says there’s a richness in the stories performers can tell as they age, but that’s not always prioritized, especially in the dance world. A dancer may not be able to kick their leg as high anymore, but they can bring life experience to the table.

Credit: Max Hill

“It’s just hard sometimes to wrap our heads around that idea,” French says.

French, who is a dancer in “Passages,” got her first professional dancing gig with Ragsdale. She went on to carve out her own space in Missoula’s contemporary dance scene when she founded Bare Bait Dance in 2011. BBD took over the Westside Theater space in 2022, in collaboration with Bouma. The theater serves as the company’s resident stage, where they provide guest artist residencies and present evening-length modern dance performances, like the recent productions of The Night Before and A Small Shift in An Uncomfortable Place. In addition to being BBD’s resident space, this year Westside produced theater events under Bouma’s direction, like the recent production of “Hedwig and the Angry Inch.”

Besides dancing in “Passages,” French has choreographed her own piece, called “Us,” which is set to the song of the same name by Regina Spektor and features a grid of chairs. It’s been a unique experience for her, she says, working with older performers, many of whom are not professional dancers but who are confident professionals in other areas with life experience. She says the dancers took direction well, but it was still a funny feeling to work with peers who are bosses at their jobs or in their families. It can make for an interesting rehearsal dynamic, French says, laughing.

Bouma noticed a difference, too, even in how responsive the cast was off-stage, such as how quickly they answered emails. She chalks that up to a characteristic of an older set of performers—mostly women—who thrive at multitasking.

“There are people who are moms, people who are working full-time and in the for-profit sector that we don’t normally get to work with,” Bouma says. “It was just so refreshing to suddenly work with a group of people who are really committed.”

Last year, BBD put on a show called re | play, a retrospective featuring pieces and alumni from the company’s past 12 seasons. In a lot of ways, it was good practice to test the logistics of coordinating a large-cast show like 40 Over 40, Bouma says, including figuring out where to put all the dancers backstage, and where they would park.

Westside Theater began announcing plans for 40 Over 40 last year around the time of re | play. Even when the show was little more than an idea, word spread, and they began receiving calls and emails from people all over Missoula asking how to be a part of it. Despite the buzz, Bouma says she was still a little nervous that they wouldn’t meet that “40” goal. They were just hoping to get at least 20 interested movers.

Credit: Max Hill

Still, she had a hunch they’d make it.

They held a casting call in January, which coincided with the first big blizzard of the year. And nearly 60 people showed up.

The process of putting together the show, Bouma says, was kind of like a big puzzle. After the casting call, they put together a massive spreadsheet with everyone’s time availability and dance style preferences—style preferences included “dance in your room like nobody’s watching”—and worked to match like with like. They wanted to make it accessible to the wide-range of interested participants.

There are dancers like Jenny Walker, originally from New York, who moved to Missoula only a year and a half ago. Walker studied dance at SUNY Purchase, but had to retire in her mid 20s due to a combination of injury and burnout, she says. She’d been out of the dance world for 15 years when she discovered Missoula’s dance community through BBD’s community classes. She is a dancer in “Passages” and represents the youngest in the cast—she was only 39 when rehearsals started, turning 40 about a month before opening night.

Not all the pieces in 40 over 40 are so explicitly about aging—sometimes it’s just under the surface or behind the scenes. Holly Rollins, who also studied with Ragsdale prior to learning circus arts and becoming a Cirque du Soleil performer before making her way back to Missoula, performs a hypnotizing solo with an aerial hoop called “We meet again.”

“I’m doing things in this show that I actually haven’t done in maybe 10 years,” Rollins said. At one point, she suspends herself vertically upside down, supporting herself on the hoop by just her flexed feet. “Hopefully it will inspire people.”

Rollins has performed a handful of times in the past 10 years, but says the process for 40 Over 40 was a bit daunting especially because she usually trains solo. When she does get to see the other dancers run their pieces, she says that “it feels a bit like this reunion” and a great reminder of what a privilege it is to perform.

Walker feels similarly. She says that coming back to performing this time around, she’s moving with a new kind of maturity and refinement.

“You experience your body as an instrument,” she says. “And you become more knowledgeable about that instrument over time.”

40 Over 40 opened on Wednesday, April 24, and as it turns out there are not 40 dancers, but over 50, plus choreographers and crew members. So the name, at this point, is kind of moot.

“It’s really over 40, over 40,” Bouma says. “But we’re not going to change it.”