Catherine Gallant/DANCE presents Escape from the House of Mercy on Friday, March 21, 2025 and Saturday, March 22, 2025 at 8pm at The Performance Project @ University Settlement, 184 Eldridge Street, NYC. Tickets are $25 and can be purchased online at https://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/6506171.

Escape from the House of Mercy is a 21st-century women’s view of our social support systems measuring both the ground gained and the distance yet to be traveled. It is an abstract choreographic rendering of sensations and images evoking the spirits of women whose lives were forever changed by the workhouses and laundries in the US and Ireland. Flesh and tears haunt the dreams and shattered hopes of escape. The ghost-filled air surrounds the dancers as they wrap themselves in transparent net fabric, both isolating and protective, from the forces at work against them. Catherine Gallant/DANCE now invites audiences to wonder and reflect upon why these places from the past are important now and how history connects us to the present condition of women’s rights around the globe. Our work shines a thought-provoking light onto these stories.

The House of Mercy was one of several institutions at Inwood Hill Park in NYC. It was a home for abandoned and troubled women; most inhabitants were brought there against their wills. A young woman could be locked up for years for an offense such as dancing in public or walking alone at night. Inhumane and demoralizing treatment was disguised as rehabilitation as the rights of the poor, especially women were completely denied.

The 50-minute work unfolds in segments and contains recorded soundscapes/music, spoken text (poetry and fragments of interviews and research citations), songs, and props including rope, men’s shirts, 50 yards of tulle and tea cups. Our background research made us think more about our responsibility as a society to care for and protect the most vulnerable. We learned about workhouses, asylums for the mentally ill, hospitals, and prisons in NYC, around the country, and the world. We read the chilling interviews collected by the Justice for the Magdalenes organization and went on to study the Irish Workhouse system through a residency at Portumna’s Irish Workhouse Centre.

Choreography: Catherine Gallant in collaboration with dancers: Anne Parichon-Buoncore, Erica Lessner, Charlotte Hendrickson, Cecly Placenti, Kelli Chapman,
Megan Minturn, Halley Gerstel, Jessie King and Jasmine Oton
Costumes: Ivana Drazic
Video Design: Erica Lessner
Various music selections by Dana Lyn and Kyle Sanna, among others