The Hay Rake Story
The Hay Rake Ballet—a dance performance of farm machinery—made its modest but moving debut during the 2024 Farm/Art DTour.
In 2025, with a generous grant from the Ruth Arts Foundation, we continued our collaboration with choreographer, and past resident artist, Sarah Gordon Butler and a cast of adventurous local farmers led by Andy Enge. This was a year for research and development to test the creative limits of both humans and machines while ensuring the farmers necessary work would not be interrupted (too much). Our ambitious goal was to grow the ballet into a full-scale production to coincide with the complete process of making hay in fall 2026.
That work culminates in Make Hay While the Sun Shines, debuting Saturday, Sept. 12, 2026 (rain date September 26) in Sauk County, Wis., featuring the full production of Hay Rake Ballet along with a live orchestra, an opening act by Wild Space Dance Company, and more.
The ballet frames everyday farming practices within a classical dance aesthetic, and pays homage to the inherent craft and significance of family farm-scale agricultural practices. It represents a rare fusion of contemporary art and lived rural experience, offering a window into the culture embedded in agriculture and space for inspiration, creative exploration, and pride of place.
Artist's Field Research
The 2025 growing season was all about research and development—as we evolved this work from a proof of concept into a fully choreographed, multi-act performance and test what works in concert with the harvest.
Much like farming itself, the work requires adaptability and flexibility, with its final choreographic form dependent upon daily conditions and relationships with the farmers who “read” the score of the land based on their unique knowledge.