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2026 · Dance – stage work

Bunk Beds

Jessica Swanson and Olivia Sander

A nine-minute duet by Jessica Swanson and Olivia Sander, set to a new score by Ben Juodvalkis built around his own 2021 song 'I Spend Every Night Alone', written for an unrealized Joe Goode Haight-Ashbury project and rediscovered by Jessica in 2025. Called 'Bunk Beds' in production emails, it was presented at Joe Goode Performance Group's GUSH Dance Festival in April 2026.

Recollections

“This one was so fun. Banging on pots and pans in the kitchen like a bunch of 3-year-olds”

Premiere
2026-04-24
Venue
GUSH Dance Festival 2026, Joe Goode Annex (Joe Goode Performance Group)
Where
San Francisco, CA
Performances
GUSH 2026 ran April 23–26, 2026. 'Jessica & Olivia' (9 min) was scheduled for Friday April 24 (opening the show), Saturday April 25 and Sunday April 26 (3 PM), after intermission on the last two; it was not on the Thursday April 23 program. Tech rehearsal Monday April 20; dress rehearsal April 22.
Credits
Choreography and performance: Jessica Swanson and Olivia Sander. Music: Ben Juodvalkis. Festival: Joe Goode Performance Group (technical director Colin Johnson; producer Damara Vita Ganley).

Photographs

Black-and-white promotional graphic for GUSH Dance Festival 2026: five vertical portrait panels of dancers in expressive poses - stretching, wrapped in sheer fabric, arching backward, gesturing mid-thought, curled inward - over a dark background with splashing water, with the Joe Goode Performance Group logo and the festival's dates and venue.

Joe Goode Performance Group

Ephemera

Ben leaning over a laptop, an Akai MIDI keyboard, and a lit-up grid controller, with an iPad running a synth app propped beside him; a woman rests her chin on her hands and smiles at the camera behind him, at a dining table with a mason jar of flowers and a can of sparkling water.
One dancer in an orange wig hangs horizontal on a rope, extended out from a grey studio wall; the other, also in an orange wig, crouches low on the floor beneath her with her head down and hands on the ground.
One dancer dives horizontally away from the wall on her rope, orange wig trailing behind her; the other is on hands and knees on the floor directly below.
Both dancers hang sideways from ropes against the studio wall, one positioned higher and one lower, orange wigs and bare feet, legs extended toward the wall.
The two dancers stand pressed close together, both gripping their ropes overhead with raised arms, orange wigs and bare feet, facing the same direction.
Recording in Olivia's kitchen after the first session - Ben at the stove with a moka pot and bowls while Jessica looks on (32 s, Mar 24, 2026)

  • 'I Spend Every Night Alone' - Ben's own 2021 song, the 54-second cut Jessica found and sent back to him, and the score's starting point

Jessica: Hi Ben! I hope you are well. I stumbled across your song: “I spend every night alone” It’s beautiful! And sad! My favorite. What I have is only 1 min and cuts off, as if there exists more? 1. Is there a longer version I could listen to? 2. Has it already been used for something? Like a show? I’m having choreographic ideas…

Elsewhere

Ben Juodvalkis © 2026