“When I see something good that reminds me what dancing can be at its most basic, I’m faint with pleasure,” hailed Deborah Jowitt in The Village Voice after seeing the Seán Curran Company in performance. Pleasing audiences is exactly what the Company has been doing since it burst onto the dance scene in 1997. Known for his wit, intelligence, ingenuity and uncanny physical humor, Seán Curran successfully blends a myriad of influences into a purely original style.

Since its formation, the Seán Curran Company has been commissioned for new works and presented by The Joyce Theater, The New Victory Theater, Dance Theater Workshop, Danspace Project at St. Mark’s Church, Symphony Space, the 92nd Street Y Harkness Dance Project, Central Park Summerstage and Celebrate Brooklyn. With the 1999 National Dance Project commission by the Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival, the company achieved national prominence, and has since been recognized for its artistic excellence with grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, New York State Council on the Arts, Arts International’s Fund for US Artists, the Harkness Foundations for Dance, the Greenwall Foundation, Mary Flagler Cary Charitable Trust, The Jerome Foundation and the Altria Group, Inc.

The company's most recent work, Left Exit,  premiered in fall 2010 at the University of Notre Dame. Left Exit examines spirituality, faith, and religion, illuminating the common desire for significance and purpose in one’s life. For choreographer Seán Curran, who was raised as a strict Catholic, the subject is both intensely personal and universal in these times of social unrest and economic decline. Some questions that Curran addresses are: Can we live without God? Must everything truly mean something? The catastrophic world events, ever-sensationalized in our digital media age –hurricanes, floods, genocide, and war – are they punishment from God? Or are we projecting meaning where really there is none, calling it punishment as a way to ease our conscience, taking comfort in religion and allowing us to make sense of a chaotic world?  The company looks forward to bringing its work to Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic, and Turkmenistan as part of the U.S. Department of State’s DanceMotion USA initiative in spring 2012.

In addition to his work for Seán Curran Company, Seán continues to work with opera and theater companies in both choreographic and directorial capacities whenever possible.

Later this year Curran will embark upon a new collaboration with The King’s Singers, one of the world’s most celebrated vocal ensembles. Solstice (working title) is a collaborative work-in-development that will serve as the centerpiece of a touring program of repertory by both companies. The project will include music from acclaimed composer Joby Talbot, to be sung by the six members of The King’s Singers, while the six dancers of Seán Curran Company will articulate Curran’s physical and conceptual exploration of landscape, horizon, and time.

Both The King’s Singers and Seán Curran Company promote a shared philosophy through their commitment to building and educating audiences through international touring, free and reduced-price performances and an extensive annual teaching schedule. This collaborative program has the potential to attract and build audiences across genres and presents a wealth of opportunities for classes in dance and vocal techniques, post-performance Q&A’s, and “Meet the Artist” events.

Seán Curran Company and The King’s Singers plan a fall 2012 residency for the mounting and premiere of this collaboration, with additional touring dates available in spring 2013. For this new project the creative team will include: Mark Randall of World Studio (who will create an architecturally-inspired set), lighting designer Joe Doran, and costume designer Christina Bullard.

Solstice is made possible by the New England Foundation for the Arts’ National Dance Project, with lead funding from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and additional funding from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. The work will also be eligible for National Dance Project tour support for 2012-13.