About Us
Mission & Purpose
Treehouse Shakers’ (THS) mission is to create original dance-plays, workshops and artistic experiences that encourage multi-generational audiences to create a greater connection to their community. Since our 1997 NYC founding, we have created 20 original works that explore narrative styles through universal themes. Our roster addresses every age level within youth programming, from babies to teens. Helping solidify our role in the American theater scene, we were the first U.S. company to tour a dance-play specifically for babies, Hatched, in 2012. We remain one of the few companies making work for the Very Early Years. Our work is sometimes the first performance many young people experience. With each new performance, we aim to set the artistic bar higher, challenging our artistic process and the thinking of young audiences.
Increasing the reach of our work, we tour nationally and partner with local schools, community organizations and non-profits to provide thousands of free and low-cost tickets and programming to underserved youth and families. Complimenting performances, THS provides teacher trainings and residencies for students that focus on the arts including storytelling, dance, music, theater, and writing.
By the Numbers
29
Years of Performing
1,200+
Performances
20+
Original Productions
Our History
Treehouse Shakers, Inc., a non-profit dance and theater company, was co-founded in 1997 by Mara McEwin and Emily Bunning. Treehouse Shakers has created and performed 20 original dance-plays for young audiences and adults in many established performance venues, including theaters, festivals and schools across the nation. The company was awarded a Creatives Rebuild New York, a Project of the Tides Foundation Award for their expansion of their LGBTQIA+ programming. We were also awarded a commission from Performing Arts Center at SUNY Purchase under the leadership of Executive Director, Seth Soloway, for the production of The Boy Who Grew Flowers. We have received the CUNY Dance Initiative, Flushing Town Hall 2015-2020 Space Grant, selected artists for the New York State Presenters Network Roster, and were chosen to participate in the prestigious BAM Professional Development Program in association with the DeVos Institute of Arts Management for the 2014-2015 cycle. Treehouse Shakers created and performed the dance programming for the Television show, Alex & The Kaleidoscope, which won an Emmy. In partnership with UOutlook and Star America Preschools, we have led drama camps in Shanghai and Beijing, China and surrounding provinces. We also have awarded services to serve LGBTQIA+ youth, with our programming, Branching OUT.
Currently, Treehouse Shakers has several original performances for young audiences on a rotating tour across the nation including: Flutter, a discovery show about the seasons, for babies ages 6-18 months, Sail Away for ages 18-24 months explores the ocean, Hatched, for the viewers ages 0-6, is about baby animals and their life on the farm. Olive & Pearl is for ages 2-5 and follows the story of a young girl Olive and her grandmother. The Littlest Cove, is an immersive discovery play for ages 3-6. The Boy Who Grew Flowers, based on the book of the same name, for ages 5-10, is about diversity, empathy and celebrating individualism. We also tour the dance-mystery, Under the Tangle, about an orphaned girl who becomes trapped in an enchanted labyrinth, for ages 8+, The Deepest Breath for ages 9-13, and Let’s Talk About IT! incorporates world folklore, real-life stories, and video interviews of everyday teens. Pillow Fort is our 9-part web-series for ages 3-7, and Dance Break an interactive dance series specific for classrooms.
Since 2004 Treehouse Shakers has dedicated itself in providing free and low-income tickets and residencies to underserved, low-income and differently abled communities. We offer Title One schools tickets to the performances, and have created strong relationships with organizations across NYC to reach these disadvantaged communities. Many of the students we serve not only live in poverty, they have never left their NYC neighborhood or experienced a live professional performance in a city that prides itself on being a cultural capital. Treehouse Shakers also offers Relaxed Performances in our New York City Seasons. These performances are part of our commitment to making our work accessible to all. Relaxed Performances are designed to welcome audience members who will benefit from a less restrictive audience environment, including (but not limited to) those with sensory processing conditions, Autism, and learning or intellectual disabilities. Everyone is invited to these performances. Children with the tools of imagination are more likely to imagine themselves into a better set of circumstances as adults.
Artistic Leadership
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Emily Bunning (she/her) is the Artistic Coordinator, Co-Founder, Choreographer of Treehouse Shakers and graduated from Stephens College in Missouri and is a Wyoming native. As a co-founder of Treehouse Shakers, she has choreographed, created and produced almost all of the original work. Her work has been presented in the New York area at Lincoln Center, BAM Fisher, The Ailey Citigroup Theater, GK Arts Center, Queen’s Theater, TPAC, DanceNow at Joyce SoHo, HERE Arts Center, Tribeca Film Festival, Westhampton Beach PAC, LICM as well as various theaters across the nation including Dennis C Moss Cultural Center and Kravis Center (FL) Pittsburgh Children’s Festival (PA), Alberta Bair (MT) Wharton Center for the Performing Arts (MI), Jacob’s Pillow (MA), Alden Theater (VA), and the Aronoff Center (OH). Emily danced with Aviva Geismar/Drastic Action Dance Company for nine years, with whom she toured to Germany and also performed in Canada, Milwaukee, and at West End Theater, Joyce SoHo, and Symphony Space in NYC, as well as attending Djerassi Artists Residency in CA. Emily has also performed with Gotham Group Dance, Dura Mater and Valerie Green/Dance Entropy, which included a tour of Serbia in 2001. She was invited back to Serbia in 2003 to choreograph/perform with the ERGstatus Dance Theatre. Her teaching experience includes workshops in schools across the U.S. while on tour with Treehouse Shakers, and guest artist at Western Wyoming College. She was a featured presenter at the Theatre and Dance for the Very Young Conference in 2022. Emily has a Master’s Degree in Traditional Chinese Medicine.
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Mara McEwin (she/her) is the Artistic Director, Co-Founder, writer, and director. Mara has also produced, written, directed and sometimes performed in all of Treehouse Shakers’ 20 original dance-plays including Hatched, which is recognized as being the first dance-play for babies to tour the U.S. by an American artist/company. She has created ongoing arts in education programming for preschools to colleges, and led numerous teaching artist and classroom trainings throughout the country for the past 30+ years. During the pandemic, she quickly transitioned the company to virtual programming. During this time Treehouse Shakers’ created Pillow Fort, for ages 3-7, a 9-part mini-series to engage young people through the arts at home. Also a Storyteller, Mara was named “Best Storyteller of New York” by NY Press and has performed throughout the nation’s schools, festivals, theaters, colleges, and community events. She is the featured teller for F.I.T’s Toy Design Department, Sugar Hill Children’s Museum of Art & Storytelling, as well as Baby Gap, Miramax, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Turtle Pond Publications, Chocolate Sauce Publishing, The Tribeca Film Festival, to name a select few. She is a writer, voice-over artist and story consultant for Activity Works, an interactive educational video-web series for classrooms across the U.S. She was the subject for a qualitative dissertation on the inclusion of storytelling in the classroom by Dr. Barb O’Neill and a featured 2019 speaker for O’Neill’s Transform Challenging Behavior Conference, the AATE 2021 & 2023 National Conference, and the Theatre and Dance for the Very Young Conference in 2022. Mara co-created Niñopalooza an all day rock concert for kids and Niño Nada, a summer festival of children’s work that was acclaimed by the New York Times. Favorite acting credits include Bloomsday on Broadway with Stephen Colbert and Alec Baldwin, which aired on NPR as well as The Sandpiper at Symphony Space, NYC. She has performed with companies such as Manhattan Theatre Club, Playwrights Theater, Eugene O’Neill by-the-Sea- Festival, Chekhov Festival, among many others. She has worked in film, print, television and commercials. Mara is a former long-term board member on the International Performing Arts for Youth (IPAY), NYC Storytelling Center, and served two-terms on the School Leadership Team at Metropolitan Expeditionary School Leadership School in NYC. To read more about life with Treehouse Shakers, living the artists’ life, or raising a creative family, visit her on Insta @maramcewin or at marastreehouse.blogspot.com.
Our Team
Our dedicated team of staff, company and board members bring our work to life on the stage and off.
Grants & Supporters
Support for Our 2024-2025 Season is Made Possible in part by the National Endowment for the Arts, New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature, New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, The Marta Heflin Foundation, Materials for the Arts, and Individual Contributions to Treehouse Shakers. Our NYC Performance Season is presented by Treehouse Shakers.
Branching OUT school programming is supported in part by New York City’s Discretionary Funding.
Special thank you to everyone who supports our Auctions, Benefit and Individual Treehouse Shakers’ Donors who support our programming throughout the year.
Help Us Grow Stories That Inspire.
Your generosity keeps stories moving. With your help, Treehouse Shakers can continue creating original, inspiring performances that nurture creativity and connection in communities nationwide.
