Headlong Dance Theater announces Do-It-Yourself-With-Headlong, an unprecedented opportunity for area residents to create self-produced shows in their own homes under the guidance of one of Philadelphia’s most innovative performance companies. Headlong will offer a series of three free workshops open to all Philadelphia area households on Sunday, May 20; Sunday, June 3; and Sunday, June 10 from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. Aspiring performers will be given tools and techniques to use dance, theater and music to tell the stories of their home.

“Watching dance and theater is wonderful, but making a show is incredible.  We’re offering people a chance to make their own performances about their worlds, the stories and rhythms of their home,” says Headlong Co-Director Andrew Simonet.

The Do-It-Yourself workshops were inspired by the company’s current performance project, This Town is a Mystery, that will journey into four Philadelphia households, selected by Headlong to create performance works. “We had over forty Philadelphia households apply for This Town is a Mystery, and we could only work with four of them,” continues Simonet.  “We want to give everybody who wants to make a show the chance to go through an artistic process with guidance and tools from professional artists.  We think this work can change your life.”

Participants will take home Headlong’s Do-It-Yourself workbook, full of rehearsal ideas, assignments and principles for making the show. Any area household can participate, including children and adults.  No previous experience is required and the workshops and book are free. Households may perform their shows just for friends, or they may choose to present them for the public with guidance from Headlong.

“It’s a chance to learn about yourself, your home, and the beautiful and challenging art of performing,” says Simonet. “Don’t just watch the show, make the show.”

For more information, or to sign up for this free program, visit http://www.thistownisamystery.com or contact Andrew Simonet, Andrew@headlong.org, 215-767-6881.

Do It Yourself with Headlong Workshops

All workshops will be held at the Parlor
1170 S. Broad Street, Philadelphia, 19146.
(Ellsworth/Federal stop on the Broad Street Subway)

Sunday, May 20, 2012            1:00 pm – 4:00 pm
Sunday, June 3, 2012             1:00 pm – 4:00 pm
Sunday, June 10, 2012           1:00 pm – 4:00 pm

This Town Is a Mystery has been supported by The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage through Dance Advance, The MAP Fund, a program of Creative Capital supported by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and the Rockefeller Foundation, The National Endowment for the Arts, and The Stockton Rush Bartol Foundation.

About Headlong Dance Theater

Headlong Dance Theater is a collaborative performance company founded by Amy Smith, Andrew Simonet, and David Brick. Since 1993, Headlong has created collaborative dance theater in Philadelphia, and toured nationally and internationally. Recent projects include CELL, a performance journey for one audience member at a time guided by you cell phone, and Hotel Pool, a dance theater piece performed in and around a hotel swimming pool. In their current project, This Town Is a Mystery, Headlong is creating dances on four Philadelphia households, using the homes as the setting and residents as the performers.  Headlong’s work has been produced by The Philadelphia Live Arts Festival, Dance Theater Workshop (NYC), P.S. 122 (NYC), Central Park Summerstage, The Jade Festival (Tokyo), The Kyoto Arts Center, The International Contemporary Dance Conference (Bytom, Poland), The Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art, and the Portland Institute for Contemporary Art.  Headlong’s work has been funded by the national Endowment for the Arts, The Creative Capital Foundation, The Pew Charitable Trusts’ Dance Advance Program, The Rockefeller Foundation MAP Program, The Japan Foundation, The William Penn Foundation, The Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, and others.

Each fall, the Headlong Performance Institute offers college students and recent college graduates a semester program in experimental performance with full college credit.

Headlong’s work in the Philadelphia arts community includes hosting Dance Theater Camp, a month of workshops and collaboration for professional artists that is entirely artist-run and free for all participants, and Artists U, a professional development and planning program for individual performing artists in Philadelphia.