This year brought new meaning to connecting and reconnecting. I recall the anticipation building from a conversation with the Battery Park City Authority when we decided to pivot our joint Earth Day offerings from online to in person outdoors following the relaxation of gathering restrictions. When the day arrived, there was much excitement. The dancers processed along the waterfront to the stage area, dancing more fully than they had been able to in quite some time. The audience enthusiastically joined us in a movement ritual for healing and during the post-performance discussion the dancers expressed the joy they felt in doing again what they love most. We were all very grateful.
Just Gowanus: an interactive performance tour premiered in July bringing audience to site in Gowanus
From there we embarked on engagements that took us to the East River and Riverside Parks in Manhattan, Albee Square and MetroTech Plaza in downtown Brooklyn, and to the South Street Seaport as the featured performance for the Art at The Blue Line Festival. We were able to mount Just Gowanus: an interactive performance tour, which had been delayed for a year, bringing audiences to environmentally significant sites along the Gowanus Canal to interact with the geography and choreography and engage in activism. This fall we hit the road for the first time since the pandemic, offering workshops and a performance at the Southern Vermont Arts Center, where 24 high school students joined in performing the opening section of Liberate the Earth with us. These connections have provided a lot of energy and we’ve built some activists along the way.
High school students performing with us in Liberate the Earth at the Southern Vermont Arts Center this fall.
I’m honored to have spoken this year at the Waterfront Alliance’s Climate Week panel on art, climate and social resilience, at the Global Health and Equity conference’s panel on the role of the arts in Covid-19 responses and recovery, and at the Dance/USA conference’s panel on arts activism in the face of climate change. I’m also pleased to share that I’m studying environmental policy at the New School as a university presidential scholar, adding to my knowledge and arsenal of tools to counter the climate crisis with creativity and compassion. With collaborator Robin Michaels, I also continue work on WasteSide Story, tracing single use plastics from cradle to grave through trashion photography.
WasteSide Story photo shoot at Rockaway Beach. 14 million tons of plastic ends up in the ocean each year.
This fall, we partnered with Seeds in the Middle, to offer Gowanus Produces, a farm, flea and arts market in Gowanus featuring fresh food, locally produced goods, and arts workshops. Gowanus Produces promotes healthy lifestyles, builds community bonds, fosters creativity, and provides job training and creation. We’re also working with a group of interns on the formation of the Artichoke Ambassador program, which will symbiotically align environmentally conscious art making with climate and environmental justice action at collective and individual levels. The program, launching in the spring of 2022, targets youth and young adults who want to creatively engage in climate action.
Dancer Nathaniel Davis presents an audience member with the gift of a flower during Just Gowanus.
As we continue to innovate and expand, we need your support. Please consider including Artichoke Dance Company in your year-end contributions. You enable us to continue our ground breaking, engaging and timely work.