Ten Tiny Dances® Indianapolis

Ten Tiny Dances comes to the Basile Opera Center on Saturday, October 17, presented by Crossroads Dance Indy in partnership with the Indianapolis Movement Arts Collective, with support from Barnes & Thornburg. The format is the whole point: choreographers have to build a piece for a 4-by-4-foot raised stage, the audience sits in the round on all sides, and the dancers never leave the stage at any point. It's a constraint that shapes how every movement begins, develops, and resolves.

That tiny stage is where the show gets its name. The bill typically gathers ten performers or companies across styles like contemporary, modern, tap, classical Indian, and lyrical dance, each working within those same tight boundaries. For this edition, the lineup includes Taylor Brown, Nicole Mikesell, Sara Williams, Elly Kauser, Zoe Lowden, and Jacob Stumpf.

Crossroads Dance Indy draws in experienced dancers who also pursue careers outside the arts—among teachers, parents, speech pathologists, nonprofit leaders, and medical professionals. The show itself started with Mike Barber in Portland, Oregon, back in 2002, and it's now making its way to Indianapolis. Because the audience sits all around the stage, you're seeing the movement from every angle, and since the dancers can't step off, the 4-by-4 space becomes the entire world they have to work with.

Doors open at 3 PM, and the performance starts at 4 PM. Tickets are $15 and all ages are welcome, but you'll need to bring your own chair to sit on.