Murielle Elizéon 

Since the beginning of my career, I have advocated for the relevance of the creative body to develop the full potential of the individual in relationship to the community where she/he/they live.

Engaging in embodied practices and creative projects strengthens physical health, body-mind connection, sense of relevance, emotional intelligence, resilience and helps us connect to a shared sense of humanity. The integration of a creative body-mind unlocks new possibilities at a physical, emotional, cognitive and even spiritual level. It allows a richer way of connecting, knowing, thinking, and... moving. 

Since I became a professional in dance about 25 years ago, I have looked for opportunities to create projects integrating participants of various ages and abilities and within various socio-economic contexts and demographics. I participated in international performance projects in France, Germany, Denmark and the US and worked extensively with professional dancers, actors, children of all abilities and seniors aged 65 to 95. Each of the projects I lead intentionally invited participants to explore and become aware of all levels of their individual experience, as well as their relationship to the temporary community assembled for the project, as a crucial part of the creative process itself.

I graduated in Dance Pedagogy in Paris (France), trained in Inclusive Dance with Dance Ability International in Vienna (Austria) and followed a Certified Teacher Yoga training in the US. I continue to practice and learn from Somatic approaches, meditative practices such as Mindfulness Meditation, Qi Gong and Feldenkrais Method.These different approaches are integrated at different levels of my creative work: from creating performances to collaboration with non-arts sectors such as medical research, and from movement/dance training to community development and leadership.

Tommy Noonan

In the 14 years that I have been a professional dance artist, the evolution of my work has seen numerous shifts in choreographic approach as well as in its context and reasons for engaging the dance medium. I have always understood myself as an innovator, and early on, my interest in innovation was focused on developing new choreographic movements and forms. My work as a choreographer, which has toured to dozens of cities in more than 7 countries, have often been engaged heavily in the shifting power dynamics between performer and spectator as a deep meditation seeing, witnessing and being seen.

When I moved back to my home state of North Carolina in 2014 from Berlin, I was interested in grounding my choreographic work in a sense of place, and reinvesting in the physical practices which underlie choreography in general. As Murielle and I settled in Saxapahaw, NC, I developed a number of connections with neighbors and community members outside of dance and even the broader field of art -- people such as farmers, carpenters, retirees, butchers, activists and others. These relationships have since begun to inform my current approach to dance creation, defined by its deepening investigation into physically emergent forms, its connection to broader non-arts communities, and the assertion of its relevance as social practice. This comes through a recognition that all people have bodies which exist within a social sphere, and those people and their bodies can be dynamically engaged using dance tools and processes.

As I have continued to develop work both at the American Dance Festival and elsewhere, it is my intention to further this direction of choreographic work, specifically exploring its links to social practice, and the power of seeing and being seen, especially in the crafting of choreography together with non-professional dancers. As a choreographer, I possess many tools which can be of benefit when taken as socially engaged practice: somatic learning, the practice of negotiation across lines of difference, developing comfort with the unknown and with processes. I remain committed to working in such processes and with non-professional populations as a means to develop as a human in my own community and as an artist in new approaches to choreography.