Into the Limelight: Fleet Co-op is Changing the Dance Industry

Shelby Taylor established Fleet Cooperative in 2023, but she doesn’t call herself the founder of the dance group. Instead, she prefers the title of dramaturg — an advisor who researches and interprets a theatrical work in collaboration with the performers. “Someone who listens and asks questions and facilitates the work,” Taylor explains. Dramaturgy in dance is important, she says, because “a lot of mainstream dance has been taken from [its] historic context without knowing where it came from.”

“Misogyny and pedophilia run rampant [in dance leadership] … and these men just stay in positions of power.”

Fleet Co-op is a collective of movement-based artists who are interested in creating “soul-satiating work,” Taylor says, “as well as impacting the greater community and enacting change in the industry itself.” As a lifelong dancer, Taylor has dipped her toes into nearly every facet of the industry: competitive, commercial, creative and intellectual. She participated in dance competitions as a child, taught commercial, pop culture-infused dance after college, learned how to choreograph without music in Oregon and studied Forsythe improvisation technique in San Francisco.

Though Taylor grew as a performer from each experience, she noticed a common theme in every place. “Misogyny and pedophilia run rampant [in dance leadership] … and these men just stay in positions of power,” she says. Taylor often found herself in situations that teetered on the line between being empowered and being objectified. During the COVID-19 pandemic, she moved back home to Utah and turned part of her home into an intimate performance space and photography studio called Burnswood, where she started dancing on her own terms. It soon became a safe haven for collaborating with friends. “It just awoke so much of the playfulness of creating [in] me because I was in charge of it,” Taylor says.

“If we just performed the same show for a year, we would get super bored. The performance also the process.”

Even when Taylor sold the house, the community remained, so Fleet Co-op was born in 2023 with a rotating group of 7-12 members. Their approach is characters first, movement second. “What kind of mischief can we create based on what everyone’s bringing to the table? Where are the allies? Where are the tensions?” Taylor asks. “Movement is a language to me. I’m not just moving around for nothing. There’s so much scribbling, like an artist scribbles.” Fleet Co-op’s first show, Monomyth, was all about collective myth-making, inspired by the literary framework of the hero’s journey. Last year’s GNAW explored hunger and rage in the wake of the presidential election using punking, whacking and club-style dance.

Their 2026 show, Limelight, was inspired by an ARRI Fresnel stage light that has become a character in its own right. When someone is in the limelight, Taylor says, “You feel on fire in the best way but also in a terrifying, vulnerable way.” The dancers became curious about their relationship with the limelight. “Do you seek it? Do you want to hog it? Are you afraid to stand in it?” she asks. Limelight will be performed every other month starting in February, for a total of eight shows. Each show gets six weeks of rehearsal and will be reinvented each time. “If we just performed the same show for a year, we would get super bored. I structured it so that the performance can also be the process,” Taylor says.

“It’s not about making money; it’s about making our lives worth living.”

The venue that Fleet Co-op chose for this performance is The Pearl On Main, a historic venue in Midvale that first opened in 1918. “There’s so much light, life and character in every single corner,” Taylor says. Local venues like The Pearl On Main have been instrumental in fostering space for the group’s creative freedom. “So much of the narrative with dance is that you have to flee to a coastal city to have a career,” she says, noting that from New York City to Los Angeles to Salt Lake City, the dance industry has problems everywhere. “I think that our city specifically needs a surge of art specific to dance and queerness.

Learn more at fleetcooperative.com and get tickets to see Limelight on Feb. 15 at thepearlonmain.com. “It’s filled my creative cup, which is worth it for me and for everybody,” Taylor says. “It’s not about making money; it’s about making our lives worth living.”

Read more about dance in Utah:
SLC PUNKS: DIY Festival Performer
Odyssey Dance Theatre’s Thriller Returns with New and Old Haunts