Artichoke Dance Company’s Human Mapping Project
August 30, 2010
It’s site-specific, environmentally conscious, historically reflective, and interactive! Artichoke Dance Company combines performance with ecological activism and volunteerism in a new project on New York shorelines, Your Planet: The Human Mapping Project. Director and choreographer Lynn Neuman collaborates with scientists and architects from the Urban Design Lab’s Plastic Trash Patch Project, part of the Earth Institute at Columbia University, to focus on one of New York’s greatest assets, its shoreline (there are over 600 miles of shoreline across the five boroughs). Performances, which are aligned with beach clean up days, sponsored by the American Littoral Society, bring awareness to the impact of human consumption on local littoral areas while celebrating the earth. The dancing draws on movement rituals historically connected with the earth and capitalizes on the unique surface area of sand.
Audience members can join the company at the culmination of the performances with a walking ritual to the water. Community members can become more involved by lending their hands to help implement Olek’s costume design in an Assembly Line Project, sponsored by the Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts on September 1, 6:30 to 9 PM, or participate in beach clean up from 10 AM to 1 PM prior to each 1 PM performance.
Saturday, September 18 at 1 PM at Manhattan Beach
Oriental Avenue at Hastings Street (ocean side of the bath house)
Rain Date: Sunday, September 19 at 1:00pm
Public Transportation: Route 1: B or Q train to Sheepshead Bay, then the Kingsborough Community College bound B49 bus to Hastings Street; Route 2: Q train to Brighton Beach, then the Kingsborough Community College bound B1 bus to Hastings Street.
Saturday, September 25 at 1 PM at Coney Island
West 8th Street at Surf Avenue/New York Aquarium (at the boardwalk)
Rain Date: Sunday, September 26 at 1:00 pm
Public Transportation: F or Q train to West 8th Street/New York Aquarium. Exit at West 8th Street and follow the footbridge to the boardwalk.
Saturday, September 25 at 6 PM at West Harlem Piers Park
125th Street at the Hudson River
Public Transportation: 1 train to 125th Street. Walk 2 blocks west to the Hudson River.
Sustainable Dance Floor XL
July 11, 2010
At the 2010 Winter Olympics, over 8,000,000 watts of energy were generated less than a week into the games thanks to Sustainable Dance Floor, a special floor that produces energy as people dance on it. Sustainable Dance Floor is a product of Sustainable Dance Club (SDC), a Rotterdam-based company that enables clubs, festivals, and events to become more sustainable by combining creative approaches with innovative technologies. SDC recently released Sustainable Dance Floor XL, a short video that visualizes how dancers’ movements can create energy on a stadium-sized floor (which lights up just like the floor in Michael Jackson’s “Billie Jean” video). If this floor is realized, it would be the largest LED screen in the world, fully powered by human energy. Pretty cool, no? Watch the video below.
Dance for the Climate
December 21, 2009
In spite of the disappointing outcome at the climate talks in Copenhagen, the below video is inspiring. Over 10,000 people gathered on a beach in Belgium this past August to literally create movement in support of an international climate change agreement. Visit Dance for the Climate to learn more.
Life and Art Aboard the Waterpod
August 18, 2009
The Waterpod, photo by Michael Nagle
Over the weekend, I joined a quartet of chickens, a garden full of greens, and several artists and crewmembers aboard the Waterpod, a floating, nomadic, self-sufficient barge for living, working, and creating art. For the past few weeks, the Waterpod has been docked at Pier 5 in Brooklyn Bridge Park, allowing the public to explore the sustainable structure at certain hours before moving to the next location (it will be towed to Staten Island today). Two artists, Mary Mattingly and Alison Ward, have been living on the Waterpod since June, along with a rotating crew of volunteers. Although the goal is both to work and make art aboard the Waterpod, it seems like the majority of time is spent working: tending to the chickens, working in the garden, cooking meals (which consist of eggs, greens, and rice grown from an on-board rice paddy), harvesting water, and composting waste. Still, the Pod’s largest space, which is framed by a dome that resembles a smaller, non-commercial version of Epcot and includes seating made out of black styrofoam, is a venue for arts events. Saturday afternoon’s event was “Blackout”, a lineup of performances and lectures commemorating the 2003 blackout throughout northeastern US. I expected a larger crowd after the Waterpod was featured in last week’s NY Times, but the group of about thirty still filled up the space. The gentle rocking of the barge combined with the quiet surroundings almost made me forget I was in New York, until I looked outside and saw Manhattan’s skyline across the water.
Visiting the Waterpod and living on it are two very different experiences. As a visitor, I only got a taste of what it’s like to live and work full-time on the floating structure, which has taken on many identities: it’s a home, a farm, a venue for artistic expression, and an exhibit. Most of all, the Waterpod is an admirable model for sustainable, communal living and creative exploration. And Maddingly, the Pod’s founder, should be commended for her vision, resourcefulness, and ability to successfully implement the project.
The Waterpod, photo by Mary Mattingly
Dry Earth: What Came Before
May 30, 2009
After a year of research in Fort Greene Park, Dry Earth is sharing its work on Sunday, May 31 at 3 PM and 5 PM. Dedicated to notable Fort Greene resident Walt Whitman on his 190th birthday, What Came Before takes a fresh approach to the traditional historic walking tour, replacing facts and figures with experiential learning and immersive performance.
The starting location for the tour will be the Fort Greene Park Martyrs’ Monument, between DeKalb and Myrtle Avenues. Tickets are $15. To reserve a space, email contact (at) dryearth (dot) org.
Dry Earth will also present at the Judson Memorial Church on June 1 at 8 PM, as part of the Movement Research at Judson Church series. Admission is free. The church is located at 55 Washington Square South. A/B/C/D/E/F/V to West 4th Street, R/W to 8th Street, or 6 to Astor Place.
Photo courtesy of Dry Earth on Facebook.
