Blog
The world looks and feels a lot different than one year ago. We started 2020 with a series of performances in NYC and then began working on a new dance that was to premiere on Earth Day. Then a whole lot changed. A priority since March has been to keep artists employed and engaged in creatively connecting and responding. During the pandemic, we’ve offered several series of virtual and in person events. Now we need your help to keep innovating. Please support our ground breaking and timely work.
2019 was an amazing year for Artichoke Dance. We reached over 5000 people with our performances, workshops and engagements, made our west coast debut, and saw significant pay off in or plastic bag efforts with the passing of legislation in New York State. Dance activism works! We couldn’t have done it with out you. Find out how our work is making a difference, take a sneak peak at 2020, and please support us with a year-end contribution.
I live 4 blocks from the Gowanus Canal, New York City’s first designated superfund site and one of the most polluted waterways in the United States. It’s also slated for the largest rezoning in New York City in 20 years. Yet it remains a toxic area. Gowanus can serve as a microcosm of larger development issues and begs some important questions.
The past month I’ve been in residency at Governor’s Island, a 172 acre island in New York harbor, with Works on Water and Underwater New York, two organizations who focus on water as a point of departure to further examine ecological change and the city respectively. Continuing my work with plastic bags, my objective was to create a glacier-like structure out of bags and begin to develop ideas for the performance piece the glacier will be featured in, We Are Drowning. What I landed on surprised me, opening new pathways.
I was recently in Los Angeles scouting sites for an upcoming project along the LA River. My last stop was Golden Shore Marine Biological Reserve to participate in Friends of the Los Angeles River’s annual clean up. While the majority of volunteers collecting debris gathered on the protected wetland side; I opted for the rocky terrain running along the river. Scaling down the rocks toward the water, I stopped at a sizeable gap, crouched down and began to collect piece after piece of Styrofoam. The more I dug the more was exposed. Quickly a quandary arose, do I go for large handfuls and include the natural debris (leaves, reeds and sticks) the Styrofoam is intertwined in? Do I just go after larger pieces? I spent about 20 minutes at this one 12x12 inch nook and, minus a fairly intact cup, a few straws and a Visine bottle, I seemingly did not make a dent here.
