"A house seemed like the perfect place to create a curated dance experience in an intimate setting," says choreographer Kate Watson-Wallace. That's especially true for House, her dance-theater piece being performed in what else — an unoccupied West Philly row home (3922 Sansom St.). "It's exciting for the performers to know that there's a whole house to explore and that there are options you might not have in a more traditional setup."

Meanwhile over in Northern Liberties another domestic abode (221 Poplar St.) is being turned into a theater for Christiane Muller zieht um. The members of German dance-theater troupe Two Fish will, however, actually find themselves performing in and around the furnishings of the house's owners, artists Janet Fitch and Scott Thorne, who've lived there for 20 years. Fitch and Thorne needn't worry about broken furniture: Christiane Muller zieht um premiered in a willing German's flat in 2004 and has been staged in other people's apartments all over Europe since then.

Martin Clausen, the Berlin-based company's co-director, explains from Germany: "The first idea was more to see if our theater piece also worked in a private space without the usual environment and direction of the theater space. How does movement look or how does a text sound in a private surrounding?"

Dancer-choreographer Angela Schubot, Clausen's partner, agrees that the cozy setting necessarily informs the piece. "Rhythm and timing change in such an intimate location."

"There is something exciting," says Watson-Wallace, "a sense of freedom for the performers and the audience, all crammed together. Boundaries change. There are options that you might not experience at a movie theater, or watching television or sitting in a theater."

House

Six dancers perform while leading a small audience through House, currently a vacant two-story dwelling owned by Penn, which was "cool enough to let us use it," she says. Originally she'd hoped for a house that was still occupied, but when she saw the site she "appreciated the simplicity of the vacant rooms" and decided to leave it more or less that way. Each room will contain just one piece of furniture. (If you saw Living Room, an excerpt from House performed at DanceBoom!, you're familiar with the living room's red sofa. It will be there — just not dangling from the ceiling.)

In fact, the rooms are likely to seem full from the minute you walk through the door. Watson-Wallace collaborated with lighting and sound artists as well as videographer Ricardo Rivera, and polished the piece under the eye of dramaturge Sebastienne Mundheim. You'll be surrounded by intangible, imaginative stuff.

"It is really important to me that people can see what is going on and make choices," says Watson-Wallace, who's limiting the attendance to 20 for each performance. "We'll be leading them through the piece, but there even will be space — back doors, hallways — where they can leave at any point."

Christiane also plays to a small audience who will be up close and personal with its five performers. The Germans will utilize the space to explore relationships, what they call "the jungle of the performative private lives of [their] fellow men." The Northern Liberties audience also will have choices. Clausen calls the traveling piece "a chance to connect the work with the culture and everyday life of the foreign country by using private spaces. So every city and every country has a special version connected to the special flat."

Watson-Wallace is considering touring her House, but worries because she has "a very clear through-line to the piece. What happens up in Room A flows into what eventually happens down in Room D. It would be very different in another house."

(j_anderson@citypaper.net)