The Garden
The Garden is an adaptive performance installation designed for 6 participants at a time. The Garden premiered in 2013 and has lived in many forms, locations and languages. Each expression is adapted to its host location and language and takes the audience on an intimate yet expansive journey in which they are both viewer and participant. An individualized sound score by Michael Kiley accompanies audio cues, and each person navigates the shifting terrain of the performance. The Garden is grounded in the wisdom inherent in each participant’s body. Through a series of encounters, both tangible and ineffable, The Garden invites participants to meet the world and themselves with a bit more curiosity, wonder, and care. Each version of The Garden is designed to respond to the architecture, landscape and the community where it lives.
The Garden Series
The Garden: River’s Edge ran from September 6 – 22, 2024 at Arch Street Meeting House in Old City, Philadelphia as…
Information on previous versions of The Garden available HERE. United States Based Artists: Nichole Canuso (she/her) is a choreographer and…
June 7 – 12, 2022, Västerås, Sweden Presented by Scensverige at the Swedish Biennale for Performing Arts BIOS: Nichole Canuso…
The Garden at American Repertory Theater Adolphus Busch Hall, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA (October, 2016)
Guadalajara, Mexico (October 2019) * English and Spanish
Saratoga Springs, NY (June, 2015)
The Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center, College Park, MD (September, 2014)
Powerplant Productions, Philadelphia, PA (September – November 2013) The premiere of The Garden was made possible by the generous support…
Four participants at a time follow cues from an audio-guide as they navigate through the exhibit New Grit: Art & Philly…
The Garden of Forking Path is a movement and sound installation that leads audience members via audio prompts on a headset…
Press
“The site is perfect for such contemplation: I felt wrapped in its quiet, held in its ages with the scent of wood hundreds of years old, and close to the river that ran through the narrative. It was a welcome and much-needed moment of peace.”
– Broad Street Review
“…Guided into a delicious sense of presence…I’m all too ready to engage in the intricate exploration that follows…”
– ThINKingDance
“… a cool breeze blew into the space as I sat alone on a bench indoors and caught glimpses, through a doorway, of two dancers’ graceful movements in the nearby garden. Another attendee entered the room and we were both led, via our headphones, through a simple but intense dance, of sorts. It was incredibly refreshing to start on such friendly terms with a stranger…”
– The Boston Globe
“With high expectations going into this interactive experience, I walked out with my expectations having been blown out of the park… The choreography is absolutely stunning.”
– DC Metro Theater Arts
The premiere of The Garden (2013) was made possible by the generous support of the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Wyncote Foundation, the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, the Suzanne Roberts Cultural Development Fund, and our fabulous band of Kickstarter backers. Development of the work was supported by Creative residencies at Millay Colony for the Arts (NY) and was developed, in part, with assistance from The Orchard Project, a program of The Exchange (www.exchangenyc.org).
Audience Reactions
“I feel so lucky for this gift. I feel that the garden has given me a secret twinkle of joy; I keep it in my pocket but once in a while skip back inside of this world of sensation… proof of the human collective unconscious and proof that we are all connected.”
“I sincerely believe that everyone can find something to love in this show – that all different types of people would find it inspiring.”
“Thanks so much for my time in the garden. Such a moving experience. To be observer and observed, to be led and to be free. At moments I felt completely alone and at other times gently cared for.”
“I felt like a young child again… having those small “aha” moments upon discovering new things… a lone traveler given a new world to explore.”
“It was unbelievable to me how much you contained (both physically and conceptually) in that one show, and mind-blowing in its complexity, intricacy, and the ways in which you facilitated ease and a sense of being held within such a structure.”