HERO is an aerial-dance theatrical experience about a young man drafted into the Vietnam War.

All images and footage are from the 2015 thesis production at Princeton University, directed and choreographed by Eamon Foley

 In HERO, the high octane thrill of aerial-dance fuses with an epic new score to communicate the sheer intensity of the Vietnam War experience, and tell a story about love persevering in the face of brutality.

In 1967, Sam is unwillingly drafted to the corrupt jungles of Vietnam, where he undergoes an experience that turns his sense of self and understanding of the world upside down. Leaving his pregnant fiancé, Pheobe, stateside, he navigated an alien world with inverted rules and discovers a love for a fellow soldier, Tony, that is more than platonic. As a war rages on within and around him, Sam grapples with a shifting sense of morality and what it means to be a hero.

The story is communicated entirely through music and movement with no dialogue. Actor-dancers tell the story physically while three rock-god avatars simultaneously sing what is going on within their hearts. The three singers are linked to the three main characters: Sam, Tony, and Pheobe.

The choreography utilizes ropes, straps, bungees, and harness suspension to infuse it with superhuman energy and height, theatrically communicating the surreal intensity of the war and the emotions that come with it.

ABOUT EAMON FOLEY…

Eamon was cast in his first Broadway show at nine years old, Gypsy, starring Bernadette Peters and directed by Sam Mendes. He went on to perform in four other Broadway productions before the age sixteen, which were Assassins, How The Grinch Stole Christmas, 13! The Musical, and Everyday Rapture. He then went to Princeton University to turn his focus towards direction and choreography, where he founded Grind Arts Company, which is now a thriving non-profit that produces his theater and film projects. It was there where he first created HERO as his senior thesis.

After university, Eamon began his professional career choreographing Tony Award winning director Michael Arden’s production of Merrily We Roll Along, and went on to choreograph numerous productions with Arden including Guys and Dolls in Tokyo, Annie at the Hollywood Bowl, and Alien/Nation at Williamstown Theater Festival. Eamon also choreographed for Tony Award winning director David Cromer on Next to Normal and Home, a dance film.

As director-choreographer, he helmed the re-imagined, contemporary ballet-infused Sunday in the Park with George at Axelrod Performing Arts Center, Christmas at the Southern Palace, Northpole-a-palooza, and Freakshow at Six Flags in Dallas, Sweeney Todd, Nine, and The Last Five Years with Grind Arts Company, along with a slew of dance films and music videos for which he has also been the cinematographer and editor. He also directed and choreographed I Wish My Life Were Like a Musical and Cyrano at SoHo Playhouse, and looks forward to directing and choreographing Rent at Theater Raleigh in 2027.

Other choreography credits include His Story directed by Jeff Calhoun, Ragtime in Tokyo, The Wedding Banquet in Taiwan directed by Gordon Greenberg, Next to Normal at Barrington Stage Company directed by Alan Paul, Waitress at Theater Raleigh, and Hello, Dolly! at Olney Theater Center. Upcoming choreographic endeavors include A Chorus Line at Theater Aspen and The Hunchback of Notre Dame at Theater Raleigh.