TANDEM DANCE
mission / vision
TANDEM DANCE is an emerging performance company based in Ashland, Oregon. The project was created under artistic director Catherine Raupp in the spring of 2023, and aims to represent high caliber dance in Southern Oregon. The company has three original works that have been performed at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival Green Show, the Historic Ashland Armory, the SOU Music Recital Hall and the Jackson Wellsprings Casbah. ​
Tandem was founded to bring quality contemporary dance concerts to audiences in the Rogue Valley. The mission is to create shows that require a level of skill and training uncommonly seen outside of large cities. Tandem also provides professional, paid performance opportunities for local dance artists, allowing them a dance career in a small town. Blending ballet, modern dance, and jazz, the company's signature style is characterized by grounded athleticism, intricate precision and intimate partnering.
Tandem offers weekly class that is open to the public, and has recently expanded with a second company that serves as a training & apprenticeship program. Tandem 2 is aimed towards adult dancers at an intermediate level who are dedicated to improving technique and building community- and provides a performance onstage at the Tandem concerts in a supporting role.
artistic director / founder
Catherine Raupp is the artistic director of TANDEM DANCE- a Southern Oregon contemporary dance company created in the spring of 2023. Originally 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 where she studied with Gallim and Paul Taylor dance companies, amongst others. During her time as an undergraduate, Catherine had the privilege of training at the San Francisco Conservatory of Dance under Bobbi Smith of Ohad Naharin’s Batsheva, Summer Lee Ratigan and Alex Ketley.
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, partook in a residency at New Expressive Works, and showcased original choreography at FLOOR Center for Dance. 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. 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. Recently, Catherine has further developed her company by creating a training apprenticeship program called Tandem 2. She has also expanded her horizons by embarking on her first musical theater experience- being cast as an understudy for Oregon Cabaret Theater’s 2026 production of Chicago.
Outside of dance, Catherine is passionate about health, wellness, cooking, reading, travel and hot springs. She also expresses her art through guitar, piano and voice – and is an independent singer-songwriter with a published album. All these facets greatly inform her choreography and movement storytelling.