Larry McCullough presents solo dance works in Portsmouth

When dancer Larry McCullough steps in front of the crowd on June 19 and begins to move his body, it will mark his first public performance in 10 years—and his first ever on the Seacoast. The 60-year-old Eliot, Maine, resident has danced professionally in New York, Toronto, London, West Berlin and elsewhere, but he has not met a live audience since moving to the Seacoast in 2001.

“This is my first real public solo evening, and the whole evening is solo dance works,” McCullough said.

He will offer three performances at West End Studio Theatre in Portsmouth during the weekend of Friday to Sunday, June 19 to 21, debuting contemporary works collectively titled “Endangered Species.” McCullough wrote and choreographed the entire production, and he will perform it alone beneath the theater lights, aided only by inventive costumes and a classical music score.

McCullough is founder of the Pinetree Institute, a center for arts and human development based at Pinetree Farm in Eliot. The institute sponsors workshops, seminars and arts performances that aim to integrate the arts with personal development and sustainable living. The idea that art—specifically the art of dance—can help people go green is central to McCullough’s new work.

The 90-minute performance is split into two acts, the first of which consists of three dances called “Mystic Butterflies,” “Lost to the World” and “Wings.” The second act is composed solely of a new routine called “Endangered Species,” which is divided into seven movements. Each movement showcases a different fictional animal introduced with brief text pieces.

“Each of the dances has an imaginary creature that, for one reason or another, has been threatened in its survival,” McCullough said. “All of them have some unique characteristic that evokes a sense of sympathy or concern or identification in the audience.”

For example, there’s the “night plumage pedal wing,” which appears only one night each year, living within a night blooming cereus flower. The fanciful creature has large, prominent wings that evoke a sense of wonder and awe, drawing attention to the fantastic splendor of the natural environment. McCullough hopes the beauty and fragility of his imaginative creatures will elicit an emotional response from the audience, compelling people to cherish the rare spectacles of the natural world.

McCullough’s dancing style is geared toward achieving a similar reaction. Drawing on the themes of early modern dance, he attempts to reflect regular motions that viewers can relate to. “The style of my dance draws very much on natural movement patterns,” he said.

It’s a style first popularized in the early 20th century by Isadora Duncan, who McCullough’s dancing coach Cherlyn Smith calls “the mother of modern dance.” Duncan developed a method of dancing that incorporated natural movements and reached viewers on a gut level. The efficacy of her style is supported by modern neurological research indicating that when you watch a person move, the neurons in your brain react as if you were performing the movement yourself, McCullough said.

“Instinctively, Isadora Duncan understood that when you move in beautiful ways that feel good, people actually have that experience,” he said.
With “Endangered Species,” the idea is to take concepts usually understood only on an analytical or intellectual level—such as global warming or species extinction—and help viewers connect with those concepts in a more personal way. “It’s understanding the impact of destruction on an emotional level,” he said.

After watching McCullough rehearse the dance of the night plumage pedal wing, Smith said she connected with the animal’s plight. “You have an emotional resonance with the creature,” she said. 

Another critical component of the performance is the musical score, which includes work by Rachmaninoff, Mahler, Chopin, Debussy and Poulenc. McCullough said he tried to select lyrically expressive music that creates images that will correspond with the themes of his dances. Those images are bolstered by unique costume pieces created by North Berwick resident Astrida Schaeffer.

The idea for “Endangered Species” stems back to a business trip McCullough made to Hong Kong. While there, he saw an outdoor aviary that was full of birds from around the world with spectacular plumage. Most of the birds were endangered or nearly extinct, and the sight caused McCullough to ponder the strained relationship between nature and technology.

“This tension between our love of beauty and our love of nature is really at odds with our technological development,” McCullough said. “My artistic work really was reflecting that same theme.”

Although he turned 60 in January, McCullough does not consider his age an obstacle to dancing. Although increased age brings physical limitations, it also enables McCullough to implement his accumulated wisdom in the art.

Raised in the Midwest, McCullough began studying dance at a high school outside Chicago. He spent teenage summers at Green Acre Bahai School in Eliot, where he later restored a barn and started the Pinetree Institute. He danced professionally for several decades, at one point establishing a dance company in Toronto.

McCullough then lived in Boston for about 20 years before moving to New York, where he began taking classes at the Isadora Duncan Dance Foundation. There he met Cherlyn Smith, the foundation’s associate artistic director. The two have been working together ever since, and Smith flew up from New York to help McCullough prepare for “Endangered Species.”

Smith noted that dancing sensation Mikhail Baryshnikov is now over 60 but has discovered renewed demand. McCullough said he once saw a profoundly moving performance by a 94-year-old Japanese dancer. Age, he said, will not deter him.

“I still feel like I have things to say,” he said.

Performances are Friday and Saturday, July 19 and 20, at 8 p.m., and Sunday, July 21, at 2 p.m. West End Studio Theatre is at 959 Islington St., Portsmouth. Tickets are $18 for adults, $15 for students and seniors. For tickets or more information, call 603-433-5408 or email This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it