PDP to Close Season with Subcircle Premiere, 4/3-5

Philadelphia Dance Projects closes a season full of regional and world premieres with the presentation of a moving new work by Choreographer Niki Cousineau and Designer Jorge Cousineau, together as Subcircle. The premiere piece, All this happened, more or less, will run April 3 - 5 at the Performance Garage.

All this happened, more or less derives its title from the opening line of Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse Five. "In this novel, alien concepts of time intertwine with attempts to comprehend the WWII bombing of Dresden, an event my grandparents only miraculously survived," explains Jorge. "My eventual birth and meeting Niki in the same place serve as a point of reference as we look back at our own twenty year history and forward to where this might lead us."

Together, Niki and Jorge perform as two artists creating a work that uncovers process, collaboration and design while in performance. The piece begins with the collapse of all elements so that rebuilding becomes the journey, exposing partnership, decisions and silences. They are supported by an ensemble epitomizing some of Philadelphia's best modern dance artists: Beau Hancock, Rosie Langabeer, Christy Lee, Scott McPheeters and Christina Zani.

Since being founded in 1997, Subcircle is known for creating poetic and moving theatrical works that focus on the space where performance happens; transforming both site-specific spaces and works for the stage by merging dance, sound, set design, lighting and film. The multi-media approach is rooted in collaboration, and aims to convey to the audience and performer alike an inseparability of performance from environment.

"I found the proposed transparency of de-constructing/re-constructing the performing space for this new Subcircle work intriguing," says Philadelphia Dance Projects Executive Director Terry Fox. "I know their usual collaboration to be meticulously thought out, where all the elements build an atmosphere that plays with the viewer's sense of what is real, and look forward to seeing Subcircle reveal this 'more or less'."

All this happened, more or less takes place Thursday, April 3; Friday, April 4; and Saturday, April 5 at 7:30 p.m. Performances will take place at the Performance Garage, 1515 Brandywine Street. Tickets are $20 general admission or $15 with a DancePass and can be purchased at DanceBoxOffice.com or by calling 215-546-2552. For more information, please visit PhilaDanceProjects.org.

About Subcircle | www.subcircle.com

Subcircle was founded in 1997 by co-directors Niki Cousineau and Jorge Cousineau. Their work transforms theatrical and site-specific spaces, merging dance, sound, set design, lighting and film. Whether site-specific or performance for the stage, the work aims to convey to audience and performer alike an inseparability of performance from environment. With collaboration at its core, the company has worked with choreographer/director Carol Brown (London/New Zealand), composer Toby Twining, actor Geoff Sobelle, and choreographers Darla Stanley and Gin MacCallum among others. Some of their works sinclude Just Between Me (2001), Crevice (2003), Somewhere Close to Now (2005), and Only Sleeping (2010). In January 2011 Niki traveled to Auckland, New Zealand to work with Carol Brown on Subcircle's SEED which premiered in November 2011. In 2012 Subcircle created forget me...forget me not as part of the site-specific Commotion Festival at Grays Ferry neighborhood in Philadelphia.

Subcircle's work has been performed throughout Germany in Potsdam, Berlin, Dresden, and Broellin, where they participated in the Body and Landscape Residency at the International Theater Research Center Schloss Broellin. In Philadelphia, they have been presented in DanceBOOM, the nEW Festival, Philadelphia Live Arts Festival, and Blindspot 2011. Their dance film HERE was presented at the Michener Museum as part of the exhibit Lucid Dreaming and in the Philadelphia Dance Projects' Motion Pictures mini-fest of dance on film/video. In 2010, Niki and Jorge collaborated with Arden Theatre Company's production of Sunday in the Park with George.

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