HOLDTIGHT

HOLDTIGHT (HT) is a non-profit dance theater company based in Colorado that creates experiential, interactive, and urgent contemporary performance and education exploring eco-psychology. HT’s mission is to create transformative experiences which elicit questions, conversations, interconnection, and deep joy, supporting humanity toward healing and radical forward-thinking change. 

HT was founded in 2016 by Artistic Director Gwendolyn Gussman and was established as a 501(c)(3) in 2024. HT has collaborated with over 60 acclaimed artists, including Grammy and Emmy-award winners, in genres such as dance, theater, live and original music, scenography, video design, visual arts, sculpture, lighting, digital rendering, and the culinary arts. The company’s repertoire includes site-specific work created for non-traditional performance spaces including an 1800's carriage house, an armory, historic mansions, museums, galleries, and both conventional and unconventional theaters. Since its founding, HOLDTIGHT has created & premiered 14 evening-length immersive works, including the Nourishment series. HOLDTIGHT has received artist residencies and been presented by the Newman Center for the Performing Arts (CO, 2024), The Arts Complex with Denver Arts & Venues (CO, 2024),The Cell Theatre (NYC, 2020-2022), Carroll Hall (NYC, 2023), MOVE! Dance and Arts Space (CO, 2019), and others. Additionally, HOLDTIGHT has been presented nationally at the Museum of Contemporary Art Denver, The Olympic Auditorium Complex (CO), Church Street School for Music and Art (NYC), The Wadsworth Museum (CT), YourMove Festival (NJ), HiArtist (NYC), and others. HT has been featured in publications such as Westword, The Brooklyn Rail, The Dance Enthusiast, The Denver Post, 303 Magazine, Colorado Public Radio’s ‘Colorado Matters’, Onstage Colorado, Front Row Center, No Proscenium, Presenting Denver, Interludes, and more.

In 2025 HOLDTIGHT partnered with two different Denver restaurants to create & premiere immersive dining performances, including bringing back the Nourishment series. Nourishment :: What Feeds You? premiered in May 2025 in partnership with Stowaway Kitchen. Wild Oscillation premiered in April 2025 in partnership with Somebody People with performances running monthly through November 2025.

HOLDTIGHT is committed to fostering conversations and community through and beyond performance experiences; HOLDTIGHT hosts quarter-annual Community Events and offers monthly open-level educational workshops called Process + Express in addition to pop-up classes locally and nationally.