Hear from Murielle Elizéon and Tommy Noonan—the dancer/choreographers who co-direct Culture Mill, in Saxapahaw, NC—about their upcoming American Dance Festival performances in the Ruby.
They Are All is an original commission from the American Dance Festival, in which choreographers Murielle Elizéon and Tommy Noonan interweave the combined expertise of professional dancers, neuroscientists, people with Parkinson’s disease and data informaticists. The multi-generational work explores the relationship between cognitive engagement, interpersonal relationship, and movement. At once an artistic endeavor and a research project, They Are All probes the ways in which artistic technologies and perspectives can be useful to medical research, as well as the ways in which medical, technological and experiential expertise in movement disorders can generate new artistic perspectives in dance. They Are All intertwines an artistic creation with innovative research workshops, culminating in both a new dance work at ADF’s summer festival, as well as a scholarly report. This is a project by Culture Mill in Saxapahaw, NC, and is supported in part by RTI International and The William R. Kenan, Jr. Charitable Trust.
Both Elizéon and Noonan have created and toured their original works throughout North America and Europe for nearly twenty years separately and together, appearing in venues and festivals such as the American Dance Festival (Durham), Theater de la Cité Internationale (Paris), Forum PRISMA (Mexico City), Mousonturm (Frankfurt), Sophiensaele (Berlin), Festspielhaus St. Pölten (Vienna), and elsewhere. Their artistic projects trace common themes in creating a complex, fluid relationship between performer and viewer, celebrating the unknown, and emphasizing the body as the center of their work.
As teachers, Elizéon and Noonan have taught throughout France, Germany, Denmark, Switzerland, Slovakia and the United States for diverse groups (professional dancers and actors, seniors, people with Parkinson’s Disease, and children with special needs). Elizéon holds a BA in Dance education from RIDC, Paris, France, and a DanceAbility Certification. Noonan holds a BA in English and Art History from Vassar College.
In addition to their work as choreographers and performers, Elizéon and Noonan co-direct Culture Mill, a non-profit performing arts laboratory based in Saxapahaw, North Carolina. Culture Mill’s mission is to foster a creative ecosystem in rural North Carolina, through the cross-pollination of artist residencies, educational outreach, and groundbreaking immersive artworks from local, national, and international artists.
“Noonan and Elizéon’s works are lightning fields for pure perception and emotional response. They are vivid, full of stuff, but endlessly open. They prove, time and again, that despite the allure of beautifully embroidered fantasies, the body itself is more than enough.” —Critic Brian Howe for Indy Week
