Cell (2006) is a performance journey for one audience member at a time. A dispatcher leads the audience member on a mission through city streets and abandoned buildings. Who is part of the performance? Why is everyone always on their phone? Am I being watched? Headlong collaborated with technology artists Jennifer and Kevin McCoy, to create an experience that is sometimes paranoia-inducing, sometimes warm and fuzzy, and always intense. The journey ends with the audience member engulfed in a private dance that is all their own. Premiered Philadelphia Live Arts Festival. 60 minutes.
Shosha (2006) is a literary and theatrical work of dance theater that examines I.B. Singer's eccentric characters in 1930's Warsaw through the lens of Singer, the author, in 1970's America. Believing that they can finally free themselves and the audience from their existential shackles, the performers dance beautifully and ridiculously, cajole each other and the audience shamelessly, and change their lines recklessly. Ultimately, the troupe, like the characters in Singers novel are on a "soul expedition" searching for the divine in the shadow of war. Premiered at the Wilma Theater: DanceBOOM! Festival.
60 minutes.
60 minutes.
Mixed Tape for a Bad Year (2005) is a grab bag of dances to carry you through a long, crappy year; featuring “Hippie Elegy,” a comic, summer-of-love-inspired duet, and “Yonder,” a haunting suite set to traditional music from the American South. Mixing dreamy utopianism and searing disappointment, these dances keep bouncing back, coming back to love and life. Premiered at the New Festival. 90 minutes.
Hotel Pool (2004) takes place in and around a hotel pool, and was a runaway hit at its Philadelphia Live Arts Festival premiere. The piece transforms the sanitized space of a hotel swimming pool into a site for dreams, longing, and epiphany. Original music by Rick Henderson. 60 minutes.
You Are So Beautiful (2004) is a collaboration between Headlong and their Japanese soul-mates, Arrow Dance Communication. Reach out, log in, and grab the Dance Dance Revolution. Premiered at the Kyoto Art Center, Japan. 70 minutes.
Swinginging (2003) is a structured improvisation for three women about rhythmic riffing and "fitting in". Done with no music and hardly any moving in space. Performed by Nichole Canuso, Christy Lee and Amy Smith. Premiered at the Stonington Opera House in Maine. 15 minutes.
Britney's Inferno (2002) is an evening-length piece about the rise and fall of a star in a pop-cultural hell. A big, flashy show with moving lights, live video projections, confetti cannons, and fog. Creepy, but funny. Performed by HDT with Lee Etzold and Kate Watson-Wallace, plus a local Chorus of 5-10 dancers. Premiered at and was commissioned by the Philadelphia Fringe Festival. 60 minutes.
Subirdia (2002) is a fantasia on a suburban community populated by bird-people. They all want to fly, but are earth-bound. A dreamy Spaceman might come down and save them from the sameness, if they will only believe. Performed by David Brick, Nichole Canuso, Christy Lee, Heather Murphy, Andrew Simonet and a guest Spaceman. Premiered at DanceBoom at the Wilma Theater. 25 minutes.
Gracelessness (2002) uses the awkwardness and beauty of contact improvisation as a starting point to create a mysterious post-apocalyptic landscape. Performed by HDT with Niki Cousineau. Premiered at Dance Boom at the Wilma Theater. 25 minutes.
The Story of a Panic (2001) was based on a short story by E.M. Forster. The movement palette is an exploration what happens to people in the moment of panic. Premiered at the Painted Bride Art Center. 30 minutes.
Pusher (2000). You meet someone on a street corner. They sell you a dance. You follow the runner to a park. You sit in a swivelling chair. The dance happens around you. You are led away. Performed by HDT with various guest artists. Premiered at the Philadelphia Fringe Festival. 5-10 minutes.
Your Heart Turned Left, I Was On The Right (2000). A site specific old-time country music honky-tonk romp set in a club with live music. Premiered at Upstages (nightclub). 50 minutes.
Ulysses: Sly Uses of a book by James Joyce (1999). Commissioned by the Rosenbach Museum and Library for their Bloomsday celebration, the dance investigates Joycean theories of narrative - while telling a sad love story. Premiered at the Drake Theater. 60 minutes.
ST*R W*RS (1998) is Headlong's "Bessie"-award-winning fantasia on the film and growing up in the 1970's. Featuring 70's music and giant bean-bags. Performed by HDT with Orlanda Taylor. Premiered at the Philadelphia Fringe Festival. 45 minutes.
Teen Tragedy Trilogy (1998). A suite of dances loosely based on high-school shooters and the Prom Mom. Created in collaboration with David R. Gammons. Premiered at the Philadelphia Fringe Festival. 15 minutes.
Specimens (1998). A piece directed by Ishmael Houston Jones in collaboration with HDT, Paule Turner, and Stanya Kahn. Premiered at Christ Church. 60 minutes.
Car Alarm (1997). Our most famous dance - a folk dance set to the "song" of the car alarm, this dance is sweeping the nation just like the Macarena. Premiered at the Drake Theater. 7 minutes.
Pop Songs (1997), a concert of short pieces, mostly to pop songs, including "Lost in Love", "Girl in a Box", "Violent Femmes Suite", and "Galaxie". Performed at the Drake Theater.
Dances of My People (1996). A suite of dances responding to the assigment: if you were a culture, what would your folk dance be? Made in collaboration with Grace Mi-He Lee and Liz Smullens. Premiered at the Painted Bride. 15 minutes.
Rolywholyover, John Cage Exhibit: Blue Bodies on Wood and Dance Events 141, 148, 155 and 162 (1995). Two dances inspired by and using the techniques of Cage (one of our heroes). Performed by a throng of local dancers. Peformed at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.
Take 3 (1994). HDT's tribute to mentor Richard Bull, this dance has the three Co-Directors each giving their own "take" on the dance as they make it. Premiered at the CEC. 15 minutes.
Permit (1994) is a duet in which the dancers must receive permission for their next move before doing it. Premiered at the 20th Century Garage (HDT's first studio). 12 minutes.