HERE Presents EYES OF THE SEAHORSE, 12/9-11

HERE proudly announces As the Eyes of the Seahorse, a presentation of HERE's hemispHEREs program, set to play December 9-11 in the Dorothy B. Williams Theatre.  A collaboration by the Nichole Canuso Dance Company and Philadelphia-based band The Mural and the Mint, the show is a rock concert fused with immersive choreography.  Performances are Thursday, December 9 at 7:00 PM, and Friday, December 10 & Saturday, December 11 at 7:00 & 11:00 PM.
 
As the Eyes of the Seahorse is an innovative live performance melding the distinctive and expressive indie-rock sounds of The Mural and the Mint with the captivating choreography and movement of the Nichole Canuso Dance Company.  Performed in the round, dancers and musicians continuously trade places as action and music - from guitars to bike wheels to mason jars - collide.  Alternating between intimate and epic, a surprising journey awaits in this idiosyncratic and layered theatrical experience.
 
Nichole Canuso Dance Company creates dances that celebrate the awkwardness, humor and surprise in human experience.  Noted by The Philadelphia Inquirer for work that has "a presence, a right-thereness in the moment like a great slowed down slapstick routine," the company uses subtle gesture, explosive movement, clowning, unconventional audience participation and interactive design, focused on developing hybrid dance projects situated at the crossroads of movement, visual art and theater.  Since its inception in 2004 Nichole Canuso Dance Company has embarked on projects that reach out to the fertile artistic community of Philadelphia and its diverse audiences. The company's collaborations include works with theater directors and set designers (Fail Better), rock bands (The Mural and the Mint), filmmakers (Drafting), and larger collaborations encompassing all of these (Wandering Alice).  Presenters include Dance Theatre Workshop (NYC), DanceBoom Festival (Philadelphia), The International Festival for Art and Ideas (CT) and The Philadelphia Live Arts Festival that granted the company a partial commission for the development of the site-specific Wandering Alice.  Artistic Director Nichole Canuso was a co-director of MOXIE dance collective (1999 - 2004), is a company member of Headlong Dance Theater (1997 - present) and recently appeared in The Happiness Lecture with Bill Irwin.

The Mural and the Mint creates music spanning the spectrum of acoustic lullaby to epic sweep.  Obsessed with the marriage of acoustic and electronic sounds, the band draws melodies and harmonies from anything they can find - guitars, cajon, analog keyboards, bike wheels, plastic cups, digital loops, pianos and most importantly, voice - challenging the boundaries of what a pop song can be.  Recordings include the full-length Private Pockets and the EP Caterpillar-Cocoon-Butterfly.  Founded in 2007, The Mural and the Mint has performed everywhere from a solar powered venue at the 2009 Philadelphia Live Arts Festival, to living rooms, the great outdoors, rock clubs, as well as the Philadelphia Arts Alliance. 
 
This production features dancers Nichole Canuso, Niki Cousineau, Meg Foley,?John Luna, Shannon Murphy and Christina Zani, and musicians Corey Duncan, Eliza Jones, Michael Kiley, Jebney Lewis and Joshua Ramey.  As the Eyes of the Seahorse includes Lighting Design by Mark Omaley. ?
 
This project is presented as part of HERE's hemispHEREs initiative, an open, artist-led curatorial process that pairs innovative national and international hybrid visiting artists with HERE's local resident artists.  Timed to the presentation of As the Eyes of the Seahorse, Nichole Canuso Dance Company and The Mural and the Mint will open their rehearsals to HERE Artist Resident Program (HARP) artists, conduct a workshop and attend a HARP artist meeting, deepening their engagement with HERE's larger artist community and inviting them into discussion about the work.
 
Since 1993, the OBIE-winning HERE has been one of New York's premier arts organizations and a leader in the field of producing and presenting new, hybrid performance work which we view as a seamless integration of artistic disciplines-theatre, dance, music, puppetry, visual, multi-media art.  Past productions include Basil Twist's Symphonie Fantastique, Hazelle Goodman's On Edge, Trey Lyford & Geoff Sobelle's all wear bowlers, Young Jean Lee's Songs of the Dragons Flying to Heaven, Corey Dargel's Removable Parts and Theatre of a Two-headed Calf's Drum of the Waves of Horikawa, among many other standout works.  HERE's work is challenging and alternative and offers audiences the opportunity to feel that they are part of something new and fresh.  Its core program is the HERE Artist Residency Program (HARP), which invites artists to develop complex hybrid work at HERE over three years.  Each season, HERE produces 4 to 6 Resident Artist productions as mainstage works.  By providing varied levels of artist participation - Resident Artists, Visiting Artists, and Guest Artists through HEREstay, its curated rental program - HERE keeps the artists' vision paramount.
 
As the Eyes of the Seahorse plays Thursday, December 9 at 7:00 PM and Friday, December 10 and Saturday, December 11 at 7:00 & 11:00 PM.  Tickets are $20 and can be purchased at www.here.org or by calling (212) 352-3101 or at the HERE Box Office (4 PM until curtain on show days).  HERE is located at 145 Sixth Avenue, one block below Spring Street.
For more info, visit www.here.org.
 
The creation of As The Eyes of The Seahorse was made possible in part by The Joyce Theater Foundation, The Philadelphia Live Arts Festival and The A.W.A.R.D. Show! 2009: Philadelphia grant funded by a generous contribution from The Boeing Company. This project is partially supported by a grant from Pennsylvania Performing Arts on Tour, a program developed and funded by The Heinz Endowments; the William Penn Foundation; the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, a state agency; and The Pew Charitable Trusts; and administered by Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation.