Home in the Dark

Hi there,

My name is Shannon Murphy. I am a dance artist, educator living on Lenape land currently known as Philadelphia. My collaborators Danielle Currica, Patricia Dominguez, Beau Hancock, Marisa Illingworth, Megan Quinn, William Robinson, Michele Tantoco, Sara Yassky and I share a rich 4-year history of practice. We activate the digestive system as a movement score, developing practices that are inspired by the human body’s ability to sustain and collaborate. During quarantine we did everything they could to feel our connections to one another. An overflow of practices, adjacent to the dances we make together, began to spill outwards. Over the last 18 months we have been examining the porosity of time, place, and memory dilating our improvisational performance practice. Luckily for us the Painted Bride Art Center in Philadelphia will support a public facing event for us to share and celebrate our work together.

Home in the Dark, reveals all that has been found and all that has been left behind. I am using a maximalist approach exhibiting a constantly reforming display of portraits, collage, poetry, dance, and live original music created in partnership with Steve Surgalski. Part gallery exhibit, part live performance, audiences can visit the Painted Bride September 18, 19, and 20th. Enjoy the installation ranging from tiny sketches on paper to large digital collages adorned with love notes from the guts before or after the 5 live performances which each run 60 min long. Audiences are welcome to contribute reflections or mementos to the already abundantly exposed artifacts of living at Home in the Dark. The dance is bold, intimate, imaginative, and responsive to its environment. Light falls on sparkling entrails, exposing the insides. The feeling of home, love, and ecstasy seep through porous walls. The memory of touch, of holding and pushing floods over each performer and their sweat merges at the same rate that the past yields to the present.

I have a fundraising goal of $3000. While this feels advantageous for my first-ever crowd sourced fundraiser, this total is only a fraction of what this show costs to produce. I have saved about $3000 myself and am asking for public support to match me. I am stewarding 9 other collaborators. Much of their time and dedication to the practice is donated, however, I would like to offer a modest performance stipend to them. I am also negotiating production costs for large format printing, installation of set, sound, projection and costuming.

I hope you will consider supporting Home in the Dark. Every little bit helps! I feel that it is important to give a Home to the many treasures we found in the last 18 months. I hope that it will help shed some light on what we have gained and how we can continue to reach towards one another as we move through life in a pandemic.

Many thanks,

Shannon