Mark your calendars for this exquisite event – Details to be announced !

Noisefloor is a unique collaboration between Palaver Strings the contemporary dance collective little house dance. In this interdisciplinary performance, twelve musicians and seven dancers join forces, premiering a new composition by Courtney Swain written specifically for choreography by Heather Stewart. This project seamlessly integrates the media of music and dance, involving dancers in the composition process and including musicians in little house’s movement language. Noisefloor plays with the subjectivity of human experience, including visual and auditory perception and the logic of dreams. Musicians and dancers will move throughout the stage and surrounding areas, expanding the audience’s audiovisual field and guiding their attention through the use of mobile light sources attached to their bodies. Noisefloor is an immersive physical, visual, and musical experience.

After the incubation residency at Mechanics Hall, Noisefloor will premiere at State Theatre in December 2023

little house dance is an artist-led contemporary dance company based in Portland, Maine on traditional Wabnaki land. Founded by Heather Stewart in 2020, little house dance’s current mission is to build an artistic platform based in practices of partnership, equity, good working conditions, ideation and collaboration, and mindfulness of craft. As dance is inherently a social art, our company’s work forges new community connections and partnerships in dance programming and production in regional and national spheres. We seek to build mindful working partnerships with venues, presenters, audiences, patrons, and production, particularly in Maine. Our aim is to create meaningful and deeply physical dance experiences with the people around us.

We value the dynamics of the creative process and an artist’s need for dedicated time, space, money, and artistic growth in concert with other artists. We are especially interested in the prioritization of mental health and meeting the needs of neurodivergent artists and individuals living with mental illness.

Palaver Strings is a musician-led string ensemble and nonprofit organization based in Portland, ME. For ten years, our mission has been to strengthen and inspire community through music. In our musician-led model, Palaver’s musicians share artistic and administrative leadership, guided by a passion for engaging new audiences, addressing social justice issues, and amplifying underrepresented voices.