LUNAR RETREAT

by Nichole Canuso / Branching Paths

Pearlstein Gallery, Philadelphia, 2026

environment design

Lunar Retreat is an interactive, multi-sensory performance inspired by the gradual distance growing between the moon and the earth. This immersive journey invites audiences to wander, witness, and reflect on how we move through care, loss, and transformation—both individually and collectively.

Created by choreographer Nichole Canuso in collaboration with ocean explorer and visual artist Rebecca Rutstein, experimental sound designer Bobby McElver, video designer Kate Freer, set designer Anna Kiraly, and a visionary cast of performers, Lunar Retreat opens a space for poetic, playful, and communal connection with the shifting rhythms of our planetary bodies. Lunar Retreat reflects on our deep evolutionary ties to the ocean and the moon, reminding us that we are all interconnected with the natural world.

Lunar Retreat is built upon gentle invitations, individualized prompts, and communal activities through which you are offered opportunities to engage along your own chosen path and move at your own pace. Come as you are. Wander. Reflect. Return.

Audiences enter the Lunar Retreat experience in three Waves, each 15 minutes apart, and they all end together.