Noli Timere, premiere 2025

“I believe people can have a profound experience by being surrounded by something beautiful—that’s what I aim for. My sculpture is about the way you feel when you’re standing under it and inside it. It’s experiential art.” —Janet Echelman

Director and Choreographer: Rebecca Lazier
Sculpture Designer: Janet Echelman and Studio Echelman
Composer: Jorane
Lighting Designer: Leigh Ann Vardy
Costume Designer: Mary Jo Mecca
Rigging: Jackie Deniz-Young with James Leonard
Arts Strategist and Dramaturg: Tonya Lockyer
Engineering Consultants: Sigrid Adriaenssens and William Baker

Performers: Joaquin Barral, Zed Cezard, Clark Griffin, Valmont Harnois, Bia Pantojo, Raphaëlle Renucci, Gillian Seaward-Boone, and Madi Ward.

Project Manager: Gillian Seaward-Boone

Producer/Tour Manager: Gregg Parks, Y2D Productions

For Inquiries and Bookings Contact:

Laurelle Favreau/GAMI SIMONDS: laurelle@gamisimonds.com

Current Funding: Noli Timere is made possible by the New England Foundation for the Arts' National Dance Project, with lead funding from the Doris Duke Foundation and The Mellon Foundation; the Guggenheim Foundation; Canada’s National Arts Centre’s National Creation Fund; Princeton University’s Lewis Center for the Arts, the Innovation Fund for Collaborations in Arts and Sciences and the Humanities Council’s Fund for Canadian Studies; and the The Canada Council for The Arts. Noli Timere was further developed during a four-week residency at PS21, the Center for Contemporary Performance.

Commissioning Support: Live Art Dance, Halifax and Princeton University.

Development support and residencies provided by Mocean Dance and Breaking Circus with support from Arts Nova Scotia and Nova Scotia Department of Communities, Culture and Heritage. Additional support provided by the University of Washington School of Architecture and Princeton’s Atelier Program, Council on Science and Technology, and Dean of Research.

Photos: Marie-Andrée Lemire

Thank you to all the participants of courses and workshops who have contributed to the ever evolving practice and process of creating and thinking through this work:

At the University of Washington: Students: Adam Bichir, Juan Granados Borreguero, Elena Cortez, Elana Darnell, Mark Delpierre, Yuting Feng, Jess Kuntz, Steffen Pawlosky, Nick Portman, Kristin Ramsey, Anton Sagun, Daniel Vu, Lorryn Wilhelm, Zixiao Zhu. Performers: Rachel Lincoln, Christopher Ralph, Brian Lawson, Cori Kresge

Princeton University Students: Michelle Baird, Sofia Bisogno, Sophie Blue, Heather Cho, Young Joo Choi, Claire Yinzki        Dong, Leah Emanuel, Leila Grant, Samantha Greyson, Abigail Hack, Jhor van de Horst, Sarah Hultman, Preeti Iyer, Nitish Jindal, Lauren Johnston, Jorina Kardhashi, Lyra Katzman, Serena Lu, Sydney Maple, Melanie McCloy, Vanessa Moore, An-Ya Olson, Melita Piercy, Dominic Saunders, Jack Shigeta, Allison Spann, Elizabeth Wallace, Audrey Yan

Artists in Halifax, Nova Scotia: Meredith Kalaman, Jessica Lowe, Lou Blanchette, Jacinte Armstrong, Dylan Brentwood, Madelaine Higgins, Genevieve Grady, Leah Skerry, Anastasia Wiebe, Aiyana Graham, Kastin Bradley, Nathalie Thibert, April Hubbard, Stephanie Mitro, Kyle Scott, Susanne Chui, Alexis Milligan, Dawn Shepherd, Lydia Zimmer.

The culmination of a 5-year collaboration between Director/Choreographer Rebecca Lazier and renowned sculptor Janet Echelman, NOLI TIMERE is a soaring aerial performance featuring a custom designed, voluminous Echelman net sculpture and 8 outstanding, multidisciplinary performers. The work is a fusion of contemporary dance and avant-garde circus; art installation and advanced engineering; public sculpture and social practice exploring how we navigate an unstable world.

Choreographed to an original score by French Canadian composer JORANE, NOLI TIMERE marks the first-time performers will be presented, up to 25 feet in the air, upon and within a suspended Echelman sculpture. This collaboration showcases a choreography and a sculpture which are continually transformed by one another.

NOLI TIMERE, Latin for 'be not afraid', uniquely renders interconnectedness visible, making tangible how a change in one element has cascading effects on its surroundings, demonstrating the fragility of our ecosystem and the need for innovative responses to global challenges.

This performance are available as indoor or outdoor events. The performance is a single 60-minute event. Between performances, the net sculpture can be activated as a civic gathering site for companion engagement programming.

“So much of this project is downright thrilling. Everything from its sheer scale and bold artistic leap to the extraordinary opportunity it creates for dance and circus arts.” —Randy Glynn, Artistic Director, Live Art Dance