Dance, Interrupted — In the Best Way
by Avery Anderson
If you’ve ever walked through St. Pete and felt like something almost happened — a moment, a connection, a flicker of beauty that vanished as quickly as it appeared — MIXed: Across St. Pete is built for you.
From January 4–10, projectALCHEMY is scattering dance across the city like a series of intentional interruptions. Not in theaters. Not behind ticket counters. But in neighborhoods, parks, sidewalks, and corridors you already know by heart.
You’re not meant to plan for it.
You’re meant to stumble into it.
Dance Where You Don’t Expect It
Over the course of the week, projectALCHEMY’s company artists — Kirsten Standridge, Heidi Brewer, Esophia Higgins-Wilkins, Sam Kedziora, Talia Demps, Antonio Hernandez, and Sarah Hamilton — will appear in places like Roser Park, Historic Kenwood, Maximo Park, Downtown, Edgemoor, Historic Old Northeast, and the Deuces Corridor.
These pop-up performances are:
- Free
- Ephemeral
- Lightly advertised
- Intentionally intimate
They’re not designed to draw crowds or go viral. They’re designed to meet people exactly where they are — mid-walk, mid-thought, mid-day.
This isn’t dance as spectacle. It’s dance as civic presence.
Why This Matters Now
At a moment when so much art feels locked behind paywalls, algorithms, or institutional gates, MIXed quietly pushes back. It asks a radical question: What if dance belonged to the city itself?
By embracing impermanence — performances that happen once, briefly, and then disappear — the project reframes value away from polish and permanence, toward presence and shared experience.
As Artistic Director Alexander Jones puts it:
“MIXed: Across St. Pete is about honoring dance as a living, breathing part of the city. By embracing ephemerality and accessibility, we’re inviting people to experience dance not as something separate from everyday life, but as something that already exists within it. This project is only the beginning of a much larger vision.”
The Moment Everything Comes Together — January 10
If the week is about discovery, January 10 is about reflection.
The project culminates with a ticketed closing event at The Studio@620, at 7:30pm, where projectALCHEMY creates something entirely new — live.
This final performance is:
- Improvisational
- Built in real time
- Shaped by what happened across the city all week
Short dance films captured in each neighborhood are woven into the performance, alongside live music by Darren McFarland, creating a layered, responsive portrait of St. Pete — its spaces, rhythms, and shared movement.
Think of it less as a recap and more as a conversation between the city and the artists who moved through it.
How to Be Part of It
January 4–10, 2026
Free neighborhood dance happenings across St. Petersburg
(No tickets. No schedules. Just keep your eyes open.)
January 10, 2026 — 7:30 PM
Closing Reflection Performance
📍 The Studio@620
🎟 $20 General Admission | $15 Students
Tickets and details: projectalchemy.dance
If you catch a moment during the week, come see what it became on January 10.
And if you miss the pop-ups entirely? That’s kind of the point.
But don’t miss the ending.
Avery Anderson