Nichole Canuso Dance Company

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Nichole Canuso Dance Company

Nichole Canuso Dance Company creates movement-based works that explore the complexity of the human experience.

Nichole Canuso Dance Company (NCDC) creates movement-based works that explore the complexity of the human experience. Using subtle gesture, explosive movement, humor, and interactive design, NCDC develops projects at the crossroads of movement, visual art and theater. NCDC brings dance out of traditional spaces to engage new audiences in adventurous ways.

09/26/2026

Lunar Retreat had an incredible run at the Pearstein Gallery during this year’s Philadelphia Fringe Festival. Deep gratitude to the many people who built, shaped, supported, and cared for this project with such thoughtfulness and generosity.

Thank you to every audience member who moved through the work, opened yourselves to its world, and brought your own presence into the experience. You illuminated it in ways we could never have created alone.

As the tide moves out, we’re reflecting on all the beautiful moments of connection, collaboration, discovery, and exchange that arose along the way. Thank you for being part of the journey!

09/17/2026

Accessibility is an ongoing part of our work, and Lunar Retreat is a tactile, multi-sensory experience that invites audiences to engage beyond vision.

With the guidance of consultants, Nichole creates her own audio descriptions, highlighting the details and nuance of the choreography that feel most important to draw attention to. In addition to working with Audio Describer Nicole Sardella, we’ve collaborated with Simon Bonenfant, Chairperson of Accessibility Cohort of Greater Philadelphia, and artist and dancer Shannon Brooks on sensitivity training and verbal and cane etiquette, training the dancers as guides for low-vision audience members.

We’re grateful to Samuel Foulkes and Quentin Roa at Clovernook for the swell form prints, braille poems, and 3D set, Tom Babinszki at Even Grounds for the 3D dancer models, and Tara Lynne Murphy at LAMP–the Library of Accessible Media for Pennsylvanians, for additional swell form prints and other tactile offerings for our touch tour.

Our 9/20 performance will be accessible to the d/Deaf community and feature ASL interpreters Hedie Kelly and Samantha Sammons.

To learn more about our accessibility work, check out Nichole’s recent interview on the White Canes Connect podcast at the link in bio.

09/10/2026

After years of exploring, learning, dreaming and collaborating, Lunar Retreat opens tonight! Thank you to the many people who have helped bring this work to life. We’re so excited to share it with audiences through September 20th as part of the energizing and inspiring Philadelphia Fringe Festival. See you at the Pearlstein Gallery.

Photos by Johanna AustinArt

09/08/2026

Lunar Retreat is guided by Nichole Canuso, the director, writer and choreographer of the performance, as well as one of its dancers. Through years of research and collaboration, Nichole has tended the many pieces of this work to create a shared experience that invites audiences to wander, witness, and reflect on how we move through care, loss, and transformation.

Nichole Canuso is a choreographer and performer working with movement, film, spatial design, and words. A dedicated improviser, Canuso’s career is grounded in ensemble processes that invite the bodies and memories of the audience into the heart of the projects. Her work’s passion is creating moments of connection across distances of geography, perspective, and emotion, and the intimacy of simple exchanges. The branching paths of collaboration bring her into contact with artists, activists, and community members of all kinds. They facilitate, perform, dialogue, and grow together. Her evolution through new training and perspectives is nourished by her roots in inquiry and collaboration. She believes both in the power of the local, and in the ethical obligation to reach beyond the familiar towards what challenges her.

09/05/2026

Behind the world of Lunar Retreat is a team keeping its gears turning with precision and care. They are the backbone of the experience–the foundation and support structure that makes the journey possible. Meet four of the remarkable people working behind the scenes to bring this performance to life.

Sarah Chandler has worked professionally as a freelance manager for two decades and recently began working as an Intimacy Professional, using these skills and tools to support safe, sustainable, and authentic creative practices. Both professionally and academically, Chandler’s research focuses on the artistry of management. Their work with Nichole spans 16 years, starting with TAKES (2010). https://www.acreativedoula.com/

Payton Smith is an interdisciplinary theatermaker based in Philadelphia. She has supported in the production of original work as a production/stage manager, designer, puppeteer, and performer. Payton is pulled to live arts by a love for the fleeting, the finite. As a manager of the creative, she is interested in sustainable spaces of care for audience and collaborators, equally. www.paytonesmith.com

Kat Moran (she/her) manages NC|BP’s core administrative functions, including CRM management, budgets, grants administration, marketing and communications, fundraising, and board development. She has been instrumental in the development and implementation of the Lunar Retreat workshop series, helping to bring the work into communities throughout the Philadelphia area.

Carlos Diaz Stoop is an Artist Advocate and Creative Producer who brings projects to life across theatre, music, dance, opera, community engagement, and social justice projects. He offers Artist Advocacy, Creative Producing, Project Management, and Care & Safety Consulting services driven by a values based framework. www.cdscreativeproductions.com

09/01/2026

Meet three of the newest members of the Lunar Retreat ensemble. Bringing their unique presence and surprises to this unfolding world, they join a remarkable group of performers helping to shape the experience.

Tammy Carrasco (she/her) is a dance artist who choreographs as a way of thinking with place. In her work, domestic interiors, architectural edges, bodily structures, and the stories/histories that shape them are active partners in revealing interiority and the negotiations of shared space. tammycarrasco.org

Mel Krodman (they/them) is a Ta**us sun in the 11th, Cancer rising, and Moon and Uranus in Scorpio in the 5th house. They are ruled by the moon. Mel is a collaborative deviser of experimental performance, cultural organizer, caregiver, and trans non-binary parent.

Sigh C. K. is a Philadelphia based performer, singer/songwriter, and actor. She grew up performing and creating in the city and has had the pleasure of working with companies such as Pig Iron Theatre Company, Swim Pony, Nichole Canuso|Branching Paths, and Theatre Exile.

08/27/2026

These three performers have shared many years of creative practice with Nichole Canuso, embodying and shaping past works including The Garden (2013–2024) and Being/With (2020/2021). Now they’re bringing their unique presence to the world of Lunar Retreat. Come experience their brilliance at the Pearlstein Gallery.

Eun Jung Choi’s decades-long engagement with body and movement has manifested elegantly across a spectrum of roles, including dancer, choreographer, movement educator, graphic/web designer, videographer, installation artist, and bodyworker. Her career gracefully merges creative expression with a dedicated practice of healing. www.eunjungchoi.org

Rhonda Moore is a dancer, performance artist, educator and a founding member of the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company. She serves as adjunct professor at Boyer College of Music and Dance, teaching a variety of courses spanning from dance composition to the study of the development of jazz music and dance in the United States.

Annie Wilson is a Philadelphia-based choreographer, performer, and death doula. Her dances focus on the experience, rather than the appearance, of the body. She is a founder and producer of the Philadelphia Death and Arts Festival. www.theanniewilson.com

08/24/2026

For our next collaborator spotlight, we’re turning toward the performers who bring Lunar Retreat into the body. As audiences move through the experience, they’ll meet performers who become guides, companions, and fellow wanderers in this immersive and unfolding world. Meet three members of the incredible ensemble who will help shape your journey through Lunar Retreat.

Chloe Marie Newton is a performer and choreographer based on the Lenni Lenape land, also known as Philadelphia. She has been deeply engaged in collaboration and solo projects exploring identity, community, and the human experience.

Chelsea Murphy is a Philadelphia based dance artist, choreographer, and somatic therapist. Her work explores how attention is connection and dance is attention.
https://www.chelseamoves.com/

Helen Hale is a dancer, embodiment scholar, and floral enthusiast. Her work revolves around dance and plants as vehicles for transformation.
http://helenhale.com/

08/21/2026

In June, we spent three weeks developing Lunar Retreat on Governors Island as artists in residence with Lower Manhattan Cultural Council

The themes of this project—cycles, tides, the ongoing dance between holding on and letting go—felt especially potent during our time surrounded by water. We were deeply grateful for the space to explore, experiment, and allow the work to unfold.

The residency culminated in several open showings for the public. We listened as audiences reflected back what they were seeing, feeling, and wondering, leaving us with much to carry forward in the work.

Lunar Retreat premieres in a few short weeks. We can’t wait to share this work with you soon.

Photos by Emmett Levy

08/18/2026

The sonic world of Lunar Retreat unfolds in your headphones. Alongside the stories, facts, poems, and prompts spoken in Nichole’s voice, a layered soundscape brings together natural textures, songs, vocal arrangements, and echoes from past audience members. Behind it all are three artists listening closely and designing the sonic world you’ll enter this September.

Bobby McElver is a sound designer and composer for theatre, dance, and immersive experience. As an artist-engineer, McElver’s sound design research focuses on developing new spatial audio technology and applying the technology in the context of artistic work. www.bobbymcelver.com

Eliza Hardy Jones (she/her) is a musician and quilter. She has been a touring member of many bands including Grace Potter and Iron & W**e before joining The War on Drugs. She releases her own music as well as collaborating with other artists. www.elizahardyjones.com

Padra Crisafulli (they/them) creates theatrical experiences as a sound designer, composer, director, and generative artist, and is most energized when mixing the unexplainable with the unavoidable.

Address

Philadelphia, PA

Telephone

+12672597877

Website

http://www.nicholecanusodance.org/, https://forms.gle/Pfga3LJYtZ228SJcA

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