By Allie Goolrick

Erin Braasch and Katherine Abbott have been dancing together so long they sometimes feel like they’re joined at the hip.
And in their last show, Thin Walls, they actually were. Performing as modern dance collective Moving Women, their March show, subtitled “A private glimpse into the tangled and peculiar,” featured Braasch and Abbott performing together as a Vaudeville spectacle, the Hilton sisters (no, not those Hilton sisters)—conjoined twins exploited as a singing and dancing sideshow in the 1930s. Incorporating the sister act with other glimpses into being female, Thin Walls was a moody and sometimes enigmatic exploration of women finding social acceptance while maintaining personal identity.

“I like the audience to be challenged instead of having something fed to them,” explains Jenni Cockrell Oldham, who, along with Kathy Meyers, Braasch and Abbott, formed Moving Women in 2007. Ranging in age from 20s to 40s, the women, who had performed together for years with the Asheville Contemporary Dance Theater, bring together a wide array of life experience and training. All juggle careers and family life. Braasch and Meyers are mothers and teachers, Abbott is the fitness and wellness director of the Biltmore Forest Country Club and Cockrell Oldham is a yoga and dance instructor. Despite hectic schedules and little rehearsal time, the group manages to muster a sisterly alchemy for the crowd.

“Because we’ve known each other (so long) we have a special and unique trust,” says Abbott. “There is some kind of magic that enables us to do what we do.”

After performing a show at UNCA for Women’s History Month entitled Moving Women, they immediately knew they wanted to take their collaboration further. Later that year, the group sent in a proposal for Thin Walls to be considered for the North Carolina Stage Company’s Catalyst Series and were accepted for their first big show. Up next, on July 11, is an outdoor show that will serve as a fundraiser for the group’s September 21st performance in celebration of the International Day of Peace. ­For more details, call 828-215-2410 or visit movingwomen.org.