The Montana Suite is a multi-year project to commission dances inspired by the rich landscapes and diverse cultures of Montana, ultimately creating a movement anthology of this beautiful and complex state that will be toured nationally. Headwaters commissions the dances from choreographers of national acclaim and pairs them with a Montana-based composer.

“Montana Suite Part I: the Boulder Batholith” -- In 2005, Headwaters co-commissioned, with the Myrna Loy Center and Whitefish Theatre Co., a work from New York choreographer Jane Comfort and composer Charles Nichols, which drew its images from the Boulder Batholith, a geologic area along the Continental Divide rich in ore, and a backdrop of ethnic conflict and political corruption, encompassing the historically significant towns of Butte and Helena.

“Montana Suite Part II: the Hi-Line” – In 2006, we placed another New York choreographer, John Jasperse, on the Hi-Line -- the string of towns, ranches and Indian reservations, so named because they follow the railway line along the 600-mile northern border of the state. It’s an area with an extreme history of hopefulness and defeat, of lush herds of buffalo and grasshopper plagues; that nomadic Blackfeet tribes called home, where naïve settlers lured West by the railroad with promises of free land found defeat. It’s a landscape both harsh and beautiful: open, windswept, howling and empty. John Jasperse was paired with local Montana composer Philip Aaberg.

“Montana Suite Part III: the Rocky Mountain Front” – This summer, New York choreographer Lar Lubovitch will be creating Part III based on his impressions of the Rocky Mountain Front, a spine of majestic peaks dropping precipitously to plains, lush with rivers and wildlife. Mr. Lubovitch is compiling a score consisting of music by old-time Montana folk singers and found sounds.