The Magic Hour

WINNER BEST FEATURE FILM – NYC Indie Theatre Film Festival 2021

In this ecstatic SWG dance/theatre work, performers fling themselves through a scary/happy/sad dreamscape in search of how to be, how to make an impact, and how to fade away. The Magic Hour attacks the existential problem of unstoppable time with ferocious energy as the performers grasp at immortality.

The Magic Hour’s concept and choreography are the brainchild of Sarah Weber Gallo, a senior member of the Metropolitan Opera Ballet at Lincoln Center, and the Dance Director at Mile Square Theatre. Her choreography has been presented at numerous international and national venues including MST (Much Ado About Cucumbers & Cigars, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Goodnight Moon, and You’re A Good Man Charlie Brown), Jacob’s Pillow, The Ohio Theatre, Das Pumpwerks (Berlin), Roulette Intermedium, Links Hall (Chicago), Indy Convergence (Indianapolis), Center for Performance Research, Purdue University, and the University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee. She is an adjunct professor of Ballet at Montclair State University, an instructor at the Joffrey School of American Ballet, and a former Rockette. She holds an M.F.A. in Dance from UWM and a B.A. in Psychology from Goucher College.

Joseph Gallo directed the live performance film Much Ado About Cucumbers & Cigars, and the short films M*O*N*E*Y and No Parking. He co-created, and wrote the text for two dance/theatre pieces Tannhauser: A Dance Play (with choreography by Sarah Weber Gallo) and 80% of Love, both of which debuted at the Obie award-winning Ice Factory Festival; the latter done in collaboration with company Rindfleisch, and subsequently transferred to the Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival.