tandem contemporary dance collective
mission / vision
Tandem Contemporary Dance Collective is an emerging performance company based in Ashland, Oregon. The project was created in the spring of 2023 under artistic director Catherine Raupp, and aims to represent high caliber, professional dance in the Southern Oregon area. After the success of Tandem’s premier, sold-out concert ARK, the company embarked on and expanded into their second season with the debut of CARAVAN.
​
Tandem is a non-profit founded to provide quality contemporary dance to audiences in Southern Oregon, and to create professional performance opportunities for local dance artists. With the theatre and music scenes thriving in Ashland, there was a strong need for movement based art - outside of the Ecstatic Dance community & the studio setting.
​
For those who choose not to live in a large city, it can be difficult to access the world of dance. Tandem strives to bring powerful & meaningful dance experiences to both performer and audience member, without having to compromise our value of small-town living.
artistic director / founder
Catherine Raupp is the artistic director of Tandem Contemporary Dance Collective - a Southern Oregon dance company created in the spring of 2023. Originally hailing from the Midwest, Catherine has been an Oregon-based dance artist since 2016. She holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts in dance with high honors from the University of Michigan. During her time as an undergraduate, she had the privilege of training under Bobbi Smith (Batsheva) at the San Francisco Conservatory of Dance and with Gallim Dance through her university.
Catherine began her professional career in performance, working with Harge Dance stories of Detroit, Michigan and then companies push/FOLD and the Holding Project in Portland, Oregon. During her years in Portland, she trained with and was an intern for Northwest Dance Project. She then explored different movement modalities, and satiated her urge to travel, by completing her yoga teacher training in India, and later, becoming a certified Thai massage therapist in Costa Rica. She has been a dedicated dance educator for over a decade, mainly training high school level students. She was accepted into the University of Maryland Masters in dance program with full scholarship, but ultimately decided to move to Ashland and create Tandem instead.
Being one of 12 siblings, Catherine is deeply devoted to her wild, wonderful, large family. She is passionate about health, wellness, homestead lifestyle, God and hot springs. Outside of dance, Catherine expresses her art through guitar, piano and voice – and is an independent singer-songwriter with published album “Before we Die “. All these facets greatly inform her choreography and movement storytelling.
