hog ranch, hogwash, or putting lipstick on a pig

Overview

hog ranch, hogwash, or putting lipstick on a pig is a genre-bending performance that blends dance, theater, and puppetry to unravel the American frontier myth—its grit, glamour, contradictions, and ghosts. Inspired by the lives and legends of cowgirls and showgirls, it invites audiences into a dusty dreamscape where history blurs with fantasy and truth smells faintly of gunpowder and greasepaint.

Set somewhere between a saloon, a sideshow, and a shadowy memory, this multidisciplinary work reimagines the Wild West from a female perspective, unearthing buried narratives and lost voices. What does it mean to survive spectacle? To perform toughness wrapped in tulle and rhinestones?

If the dirt beneath Calamity Jane’s fingernails could speak, it wouldn’t whisper—it would testify. With a cast of actor-dancers and puppets that seem to carry their own haunted histories, hog ranch is both homage and interrogation: a tumbleweed elegy for the stories that didn’t make it into the textbooks.

Part campfire tale, part fever dream, this performance leans into the absurdity, allure, and violence of the Western mythos. Saddle up and join us for a wild, unruly ride through the backroads of American legend—where lipstick, lariats, and puppet ghosts collide.

About the Artist

Kayt MacMaster + Calamity Works is a project-based performance group creating interdisciplinary dance works that blend physical rigor with theatrical experimentation. Rooted in collaboration, the groups work explores themes of mythology, embodiment, and cultural memory through movement, text, puppetry, and site-responsive performance.

Founded and directed by Kayt MacMastera choreographer, performer, educator, and scholar originally from northeastern Michiganthe group reflects her commitment to process-based creation and cross-disciplinary collaboration. After formative years training and performing in New York City with artists such as K.J. Holmes, Janet Panetta, Johanna S. Meyer, Pat Catterson, Yoshiko Chuma, Nia Love, Julie Atlas Muz, Tuva Hildebrand, Molly Mingey, and Bread and Puppet Theater, MacMaster began developing a choreographic voice shaped by somatics, storytelling, and feminist inquiry.

Her work has been presented nationally and internationally at venues including Triskelion Arts, Brooklyn Arts Exchange, Dixon Place, Krannert Center for the Performing Arts, Links Hall (Chicago), MARSH and The Space Station (St. Louis), The Epic Center (Kalamazoo), and the Dagara Music and Arts Center in Medie, Ghana. She has collaborated with OBRA Theater Company in France, Duende School of Ensemble Physical Theatre in Greece, and Saakumu Dance Troupe in Ghana.

Kayt MacMaster + Calamity Works builds performances that question dominant narratives, celebrate overlooked histories, and blur the lines between dance, theater, and ritual. MacMaster holds an MFA in Dance with a minor in Heritage Studies from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and directs the dance program at Alma College. She continues to choreograph, tour, and develop new work with a rotating cast of national and international collaborators.

Credits