“We are mere bodies and the whole world at once.”
—David Brick, co-artistic director of Headlong Dance Theater

What goes away and what stays?

Body parts go away. Pretty much all possessions go away with the exceptions of pets and houseplants. Dancing stays. Music stays. Chronic pain, anxiety, regrets—all go away. Fear stays. So for those of you who have a lot of fear that can be rough. Family goes away. And some people are very happy about that.

Sex stays, but it shifts into something more like farming.

In more., Headlong imagines a dance of our bodies after our bodies have gone away. In an ever-shifting landscape, a house is built, dismantled, and built up again. Rooms morph into sculptures strewn with bodies. An office party gathers by a horse field where dancers gallop about and are honored for their long years of service. Though it all, a furious dance of what the body isn't tears across a domestic world. Two years in the making, Headlong uprooted their 16-year collaborative approach to create more., the company's most intense and gripping work to date.

For more., Headlong's artistic directors were inspired by in depth conversations and provocations from choreographer Tere O'Connor (Rammed Earth, Live Arts Festival, 2007). Headlong's past Festival shows include Explanatorium (2007), Hotel Pool (2004), and Britney's Inferno (2002).

"Amy Smith, Andrew Simonet, and David Brick make some of the most affecting dances around."
—The Village Voice

Direction and Choreography: David Brick, Andrew Simonet, Amy Smith Dramaturg: Mark Lord Production Designer: Maiko Matsushima Performers: Nichole Canuso, Niki Cousineau, Devynn Emory, Jaamil Kosoko, Kate Watson-Wallace, Christina Zani

Executive Producer: Christie Hartwell

Read blog articles about this show by clicking here.

David Brick’s (direction/choreography) first movement vocabulary was sign language. Many years of gymnastics gave way to modern dance when he entered Wesleyan University. Previous to starting Headlong with Andrew Simonet and Amy Smith, he danced and toured with the Richard Bull Dance Theater. Other projects include co-directing Madam Douce Amere with Fins for Wings, choreographing Love Unpunished for Pig Iron Theatre Company, and dancing for Nichole Canuso Dance Company. He teaches contact improvisation at the Parlor and dance composition at Bryn Mawr College. He wears contact lenses.

Andrew Simonet (direction/choreography) is a dancer and choreographer. He studied dance at Wesleyan University and at the Center for New Dance Development in the Netherlands. He is fascinated by the act of reading movement, interpreting dance. He loves seeing dances by Maguy Marin, Koosil-Ja Hwang, Baneto, Richard Bull, New Paradise Laboratories, Takeshi Yazaki, DeFacto Dance, and Moxie Dance Collective. In 1995, Simonet started the dance program at the Lawrenceville School, a private high school in New Jersey; his students were the inspiration for Headlong’s Britney’s Inferno.

Amy Smith (direction/choreography) grew up in Ann Arbor, Michigan, where she studied ballet, jazz, and tap. At Wesleyan University, she studied modern, composition, improvisational forms, ballet, Bharata Natyam, and Ghanaian dance. She also majored in religion. After college, she spent a year at the Center for New Dance Development in Holland, where she soaked up European New Dance and learned from Stephanie Skura, Ishmael Houston Jones, and Steve Paxton. Besides Headlong, Smith has performed in the work of Deborah Hay (lamb, lamb, lamb. . .), Ishmael Houston Jones (Specimens), and many others.

Niki Cousineau (dancer) is a Philadelphia-based choreographer and dancer. In Philadelphia, she has performed with Group Motion Company, SCRAP Performance Group, and Nichole Canuso Dance Co, in addition to Headlong Dance Theater. Niki has received eight grants to create new work from Dance Advance and fellowships for choreography from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts and the Independence Foundation. She was a 2006 Alpert Award nominee and was awarded a 2007 Pew Fellowship in the Arts for Choreography. www.subcircle.org

Devynn Emory (dancer) is a Philadelphia-based choreographer and mover. Ongoing projects include participating in the annual 48 Hour Dance Project, making dance films, and choreographing music videos for the band Plastic Little. Her work has been shown in the Philadelphia Live Arts Festival, Philadelphia Dance Boom’s Motion Pictures, Arts and Ideas Festival in New Haven, The London International Film Festival at the Place, and Dance New Amsterdam in New York. Emory appeared in Jerome Bel’s The Show Must Go On, and will be showing work at BAX and at Movement Research Open Performance.

Jaamil Olawale Kosoko (dancer) is an interdisciplinary movement-based artist. Poetry and video-art contribute to how Kosoko renders concepts into dance. He has performed in the works of Ann Carlson, Yoshiko Chuma, Terry Creach, Lisa Kraus, Helen Lesterlin, Richard Siegal, Kate Watson-Wallace, Pig Iron Theatre Company, Headlong Dance Theater, Leah Stein Dance Company, Emergent Improvisation Ensemble, and Faustin Linyekula and Les Studios Kabako (The Democratic Republic of Congo, Africa). He has shown his own dances and dance films at Bennington College, Dance Theater Workshop, American Dance Festival, Danspace at St. Mark's Church, and Joyce SoHo, among other venues. www.kosokoperformance.org

Christina Zani’s (dancer) short works have been presented at the Painted Bride, The Parlor, the CEC, and Nexus Art Space. She is a member of the Mascher Space Cooperative, a creative workspace for emerging choreographers. Zani performs with Lisa Kraus, Headlong Dance Theater, Tania Isaac, and Nichole Canuso. In New York City she performed works by Simone Forti and David Gordon in White Oak’s PASTFORWARD at BAM and in dances by Anita Cheng, Artichoke Dance Company, and Sarah Van’t Hul. Zani studied dance at the University of Michigan and completed her BA at the New School. Her found-footage/handmade-filmworks have been shown at Galapagos, Robert Beck Memorial Cinema, and Millenium Film Workshop in New York.

Kate Watson-Wallace is a choreographer and director of anonymous bodies, an interdisciplinary performance company that creates site-based installation. Projects include CAR, a performance for four audience members who sit in the backseat of a moving car, and HOUSE, a show inside a row home. She was a 2007 Pew Fellow in the Arts in choreography. She has been presented throughout the US, including at the Philadelphia Live Arts Festival, Joyce SoHo, ODC Dance (San Francisco), and Velocity Dance (Seattle). She has danced with Myra Bazell (2000-06) and Group Motion Company (1998-2002). www.katewawa.com

Nichole Canuso (dancer) has been a Headlong company member for ten years and is the artistic director of Nicole Canuso Dance Company. She combines subtle gesture and explosive movement to explore the human condition through dance. Canuso’s work has been presented by Dance Theater Workshop (NYC), DancePlace (D.C.), Links Hall (Chicago), Lincoln Center Out of Doors Festival (NYC), The Philadelphia Live Arts Festival, and others. Nichole was a cofounder and co-director of Moxie dance collective from 1999–2004, has collaborated with many Philadelphia-based dance and theater companies, and created the three-women clown play FLOP with Pig Iron Theatre Company. www.nicholecanusodance.com