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.