Asheville Contemporary Dance Theatre and Tyler Ramsey join forces

Asheville Contemporary Dance Theatre’s Shiver in the Pines feels like a destiny fulfilled.

Set to debut Friday-Saturday, Oct. 18-19, at Diana Wortham Theatre, the musical dance production began germinating a few years ago when local singer-songwriter and guitarist Tyler Ramsey started bringing his daughter to the New Studio of Dance, ACDT’s official school, for lessons. But its true roots date to at least 1996, when he traveled to France with ACDT co-founders Susan and Giles Collard, providing instrumental accompaniment for their dance pieces.

“They were a big part of my life, and then it kind of moved away from them,” Ramsey says.

Or, in Susan’s words, “All of a sudden, Tyler became famous.”

Indeed, Ramsey joined revered indie rockers Band of Horses in 2007 on guitar and backing vocals, and their record Infinite Arms was nominated for Best Alternative Album at the 2011 Grammy Awards. After a decade of recording and touring with the group, he turned his attention to solo projects and has released multiple lauded LPs. But he never forgot the years he worked with the Collards.

“I started seeing them again and remembering how special they are — what amazing people they are and how incredible it is to be around that kind of creative energy,” Ramsey says. “I was getting ready to go to bed one night and was lying there thinking, ‘It would be really cool to do something with them — put a piece together or something.’”

The next day, Ramsey was dropping his daughter off at the New Studio of Dance for her class when Giles approached him with, of all things, an offer to collaborate. Ramsey mentioned he’d just been thinking the same thing and immediately accepted.

Deciding what that project might look like, however, took a little more time. After contemplating various options, inspiration struck Ramsey as he was reminded of reading Manly Wade Wellman’s 1963 short story collection Who Fears the Devil? a few years prior. The fantasy and horror tales center on Silver John, aka John the Balladeer, and his adventures traversing Madison County, learning songs on his silver-strung guitar.

“He’ll be walking down a mountain into a valley and come to this supernatural creature. And he has to help out the people that live in the mountains. A lot of times he’ll defeat the creature through music or with his guitar,” Ramsey says. “It’s a wild, tall fantasy — like those paperbacks that you could get back in the ’60s and ’70s.”

Though not well-versed in fantasy literature, the Collards saw plentiful potential in adapting Wellman’s stories through dance. The tales particularly resonated with Giles, who once lived in Buncombe County on the Rutherford County border, where deep woods loomed nearby.

“You walk in the forest and you hear things, and you think somebody’s following you and you turn around — and there’s nothing,” Giles says. “So, I could relate to some of these creatures that Wellman developed into supernatural beings.”

Into the woods

The three artists began working in earnest on Shiver in the Pines in May 2023 with Susan directing, Giles designing and creating the sets, and Ramsey composing the music.

To help familiarize themselves with Wellman’s literary world, all of the dancers were given copies of the five stories featured in the show. Not wanting to use a narrator, Susan found creative workarounds to visually present the text and allowed improvisation between Ramsey and the dancers to help build a structure for the show, leaving room for additional inspirations.

“When I’m creating choreography from these stories, instead of using a defined storyline, I use imagery and colors and work in that way,” she says. “The very first piece is all about heaviness and fear and shadows that you feel while you’re walking in the woods. And the whispers that you hear with the wind going through the trees. I wanted to have that feeling in this scene of happiness against fear.”

Ramsey says he’s primarily playing instrumental music in the show and specifically not trying to incorporate traditional mountain music or ballads.

“And some of it’s improvised,” he adds. “There’s a base for what we’re doing, but I’m really interacting with the dancers and playing off of them quite a bit.”

Giles says Silver John is described in the stories as “a guitarist/singer who’s taller than average” — a perfect description of the vertically gifted Ramsey. Though the musician originally didn’t picture himself as the production’s main character, the Collards envisioned him onstage the entire time and convinced him to take on that role.

Ramsey notes that over the past year, he’s been trying to push himself artistically by intentionally putting himself in uncomfortable creative situations. And the intimidation factor of being relied upon to “get things right the whole show” has proved immensely rewarding.

“There are scenes where I’m moving across the stage or things like that,” Ramsey says. “I’m taking that on as kind of a cool challenge of doing something that’s completely out of my realm. I’m not dancing or anything, but I am visibly seen, so that’s been a new thing for me as well.”

Living legends

The performances of Shiver in the Pines coincide with ACDT’s 45th anniversary. Based out of downtown’s Bebe Theatre, the Collards are as sharp as ever and continue to find inspiration through travel and engaging with artists in other countries.

After an extended period of visiting France every other year, they started making regular trips to Cuba circa 2000 and have recently shifted their focus to Mexico. Susan finds that the art coming out of Latin America is “innovative, experimental, exciting,” while art from Europe is “fairly traditional but exquisitely done.” And when she and Giles find foreign artists they connect with particularly well, they do what they can to bring them to Asheville.

“Lots of times we’ll have residencies here for a month of an artist from a different culture,” Susan says. “It’s not just [experiencing culture in Asheville] but everywhere, integrating everything that you can see, feel, smell and taste into what fits, what you need. Because there’s a lot of it. It’s amazing, the art out there.”

In awe of the Collards’ creative fire, Ramsey has made it a priority to use his name recognition to help elevate them as artists who he feels are making a significant difference in the community — and have made a difference for generations of dancers, some of whom have gone on to become professionals in the field themselves.

“I’m hoping that the audience that comes out to these shows is not only a mix of what [ACDT] normally would have, but also people that would come to see me play,” Ramsey says. “I want to help shine a light on these really amazing people. And not just Susan and Giles, but the dancers that give so much of their passion into something that’s just for love of the art.”

WHAT: Shiver in the Pines
WHERE: Diana Wortham Theatre, 18 Biltmore Ave., worthamarts.org
WHEN: Friday-Saturday, Oct. 18-19, 7:30 p.m. $20-$50