By Marion Filler
Circus dance–an aerial performance set to music–normally takes place in a theater or tent. But the Morris Museum has a better idea.
“It’s more beautiful outside,” says Brett Messenger, director of live arts at the museum in Morris Township, where xoxo moongirl will take flight this Thursday and Friday, Sept. 24-25, 2020, on the back parking deck.
A huge scaffold has been erected. A dark starry sky promises a spectacular backdrop for Nicole Burgio, who will float through the air suspended by a swath of red silk and a trapeze.
She will be accompanied by Melanie Hsu’s original composition on cello and guitar, with live looping.
Preparing for ‘xoxo moongirl’ at the Morris Museum. Video by Marion Filler for MorristownGreen.com:
Xoxo moongirl blends dance, circus and theater to tells the story of Burgio’s past, which ricochets between hilarity and hard times.
The Manalapan native grew up with an alcoholic mother and an abusive father, and as she wrote about it, was encouraged to tell the tale through movement.
“Xoxo moongirl is not a sad story,” says Burgio. “It’s a story about hope, growth, forgiveness, and beautiful complexity.”
Burgio began training in gymnastics at age 5, and was a competitive, nationally ranked gymnast through her graduation from Temple University. Later, she studied aerial arts at the Philadelphia School of Circus Arts, the New England Center for Circus Arts, and as a resident at Montreal’s Ecole National de Cirque.
She holds a master’s degree from the Philadelphia School of Osteopathic Medicine in Clinical Health Psychology, and tours internationally as a performer and teaching artist. Burgio is founder and director of Project Beehive, a creative lab for professional artists working within ensembles.
The Morris Museum is thrilled to land this aerial talent.
“I had originally planned this production for February to take place in our theater,” says Messenger, referring to the museum’s Bickford Theatre, “and after we started doing outdoor concerts that were doing so well, I started to dream of the things I had planned for the 2020-2021 season. But not all of them worked well on the outdoor stage.”
Dance was problematic because he realized the audience in the back rows could not see an entire figure. Xoxo moongirl had completed a successful run at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, but its U.K. fall tour was cancelled by the pandemic.
So, fortunately for Greater Morristown, everything fell into place for the show to come here.
“We have concerts planned through the end of October, and now I’m watching the weather,” Messenger says.
“I’m not in a rush to move back inside. We might be able to do a few things in the theater this winter, but I’m more interested in when the snow melts and we can start doing things outside again. That’s the safest way to bring a crowd together for really exciting work.”
Xoxo moongirl at the Morris Museum: Thursday, Sept. 24, and Friday, Sept. 25, 2020, at 7 PM. Recommended for ages 16 and up. Tickets: $60 for a socially distanced block for up to two patrons. Masks required. Bring your own chairs. Rain date: Saturday, Sept. 26, at 7 PM. At 6 Normandy Heights Road, Morris Township, (973) 971-3704
