Being/With is a performance experience that connects two solo audience members at a time, each in a different location. A guided interaction with a stranger, Being/With is an embodied exploration of separation, connection and the power of listening. People with divergent life experiences move together, share stories, experience being seen and heard, and together find the tender spaces to know each other. There are three chapters:

Being/With:Live is a live feed video installation that takes place in two venues simultaneously. Audience participants enter the installation one at a time to meet a participant from the other venue in a guided encounter of movement and conversation.

Video Clip

Being/With:Home takes place in each participant’s own home (connecting through the internet). Embracing the objects and memories that populate their own space, each participant is invited to build something new, with someone unexpected.

Video Clip

Being/With: Group Workshops conviene groups of 12 people at a time in an online experience. Facilitated by NCDC artistic director Nichole Canuso and Spiral Q co-director Jennifer Turnbull, these workshops invite a web of connection between participants. As a group they explore the themes of the project (absence/presence; communication over distance; the power of listening) in a process of co-creation. Each workshop will bend to reflect the interests and experiences of the participants.

Credits/Collaborators

Collaborators Credits:

Written and Directed by Nichole Canuso in collaboration with Pablo N. Molina (Video and Lighting Designer/Software Architect), Jesse Garrison (Co-Video Designer and Software Developer), Sadah Espii Proctor, (Composer/Sound Designer), Tojo Rasedoara (Assistant Sound Designer), Adiah Hicks (Assistant Programmer), Christopher Ash (Set and Installation Designer), Emily Schuman (Props Designer), Tenara Calem (Audience Engagement Liaison), Jennifer Turnbull (Workshop Facilitator and Community outreach Facilitator),  Rebecca Kanach (Costume Designer), Nic Labadie Bartz (Production Stage Manager), Payton Smith, Anna Sorrentino and Brandon Ehrenreich (Stage Managers), Santino Lo, Emily Pratt and Mike Fabia (Production Manager), Peter Smith (Technical Director), Colin J. Sass (Lighting Director and Systems Engineer), Meredith Boggia (Producer), Suzanne Snider (Oral History Interview Consultant), Sasha Kostyrko (Audience Communications) and Annie Wilson, Lillian Ransijn, Izzy Sazak, Rhonda Moore, Jennifer Kidwell (Performer/Guides).

Philadelphia neighborhood interviewees: Liljana Alimadhi, D’Wayne Drummond, Victoria Ellisa, Linda Furia, Cass Green, Bruno Melone, Vernoca Michaels, Brother Rahim Muhammad, Derrick Pratt, Jade Rota, Terri Schockley.

Our gratitude to collaborators who contributed to earlier phases of the process: Mikaal Sulaiman, Chris Saninno, Sarah Gardner, Elizabeth Scanlon, Robin Stamey, Matt Saunders, Chelsea Murphy, Eun Jung Choi, Guillermo Ortega
“(Being/With) is engaging, uplifting, thoughtful and introspective… It’s beautiful… you will connect and you will feel. In today’s world, I think that’s exactly what we all need.”
– Jillian Ashley Blair Ivey, Broad Street Review

“…complex and rich…With every direction from the audio guide, I felt layers of myself peel back to be shared…and the connection I felt was as potent as it would be had we been in my kitchen dancing together.” – AmericanTheater

“The remarkable trick of Being/With:Home is that it manages to pull you inside somebody else’s intimate space — physically and mentally — without taking you out of yours… to create something new and worth exploring.” – NoProscenium

Being/With project caught me off guard with a rich and satisfying vehicle to connect with other humans from a distance…The experiences left a taste in my mouth akin to that of chance meaningful encounters in public space (remember those?) that leave us vibrating with the power of happenstance.” – ThinkingDance

“… a fleeting, beautiful interaction with a stranger. Being/With calls to the forefront something deeply lacking in pandemic life: meeting new people. …comfortable and compassionate every step of the way.” – Art Intercepts

Funding/Commissioning partners

Being/With has been supported by The National Endowment of the Arts, a William Penn Foundation New Audiences / New Places grant, New England Foundation for the Arts, National Dance Projects Award, the Pennsylvania Humanities Council, the Federal-State Partner of the National Endowment for the Humanities, and support from our presenting partner, FringeArts. Being/With: Live has been supported by The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage. Development residencies include MacDowell Colony (NH), Bryn Mawr College (PA), Headlands Center for the Arts (CA) and Hambidge Center for Creative Arts and Sciences (GA). Production residency funded by the New England Foundation for the Arts’ National Dance Project, with funding from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. Being/With is on the touring roster of NEFA/NDP, with presenting subsidy available to interested presenters. Touring dates available October 2021 – June 2024.

Logistical considerations for Being/With: Live

Being/With: Live is a 45-minute duet encounter for 2 audience members at a time. A typical run can accommodate up to 10 duets a day (20 audience participants). We travel with all necessary technical and scenic equipment. In each venue we install a gallery area for ticketed and non-ticketed patrons to engage with (sample room layout available on request). We recommend running the installation for several weeks if possible and requires a 40′ x 40′ x 15′ footprint. We are particularly interested in non-traditional spaces.