HIJACK is the choreographic collaboration of Kristin Van Loon & Arwen Wilder. Van Loon & Wilder each grew up in Chicago, met at Colorado College, and established their collaboration in Minneapolis in 1993. HIJACK's roots in a liberal arts setting isolated in the mountains laid the foundation for experimentation, invention without precedent, and making dance out of everything but dance.HIJACK is the confluence and clash of two independent compositional/kinesthetic impulses. Our dances embrace juxtaposition. Believing work left in dialogue form opens itself to dialogue with the audience, we present two individuals' points-of-view, yet un-reconciled. We ask, "how can two different or contradictory elements (people/values) exist together?" with our idealistic belief that they can. In this way, we avoid didactic treatment of socio-political issues and strive, instead, for subtlety and wit in addressing serious subjects. HIJACK creates active roles for dancers and audience. HIJACK places equal emphasis on process and product.   Specializing in the inappropriate, HIJACK is best known for "short-shorts:" pop song-length miniatures designed to deliver a sharp shock.HIJACK has taught and performed in New York (at DTW, PS122, HERE ArtCenter, Catch/Movement Research Festival, La Mama, Dixon Place, Chocolate Factory), Japan, Russia, Central America, Ottawa, Chicago, Colorado, New Orleans, Philadelphia, Seattle, San Francisco, at Fuse Box Festival in Austin Texas, and Bates Dance Festival in Maine. In Minneapolis, HIJACK enjoys long relationships with Bedlam Theatre (as regulars at Romps), Red Eye Collaborations (as part of their Critical Core), Zenon Dance School (Wednesday morning Contact Improv class since 2000), and Bryant Lake Bowl (HIJACK's 1996 "Take Me To Cuba" was the venue's first ever dance concert). HIJACK questions where and for whom contemporary dance is performed, gigging regularly in both social settings and concert settings. HIJACK manipulates context by employing a site-specific approach to every performance and toying with audiences' expectations. This year, celebrating 20 years of HIJACK, they premiere “redundant, ready, reading, radish, Red Eye” at Walker Art Center.