Dancing the park: Avilés and Thomson get Bronx-specific

photo ©2015, Eva Yaa Asantewaa

Roses don't really grow this way, like wildflowers. 

But, if we want, we can place markers for beauty where we envision it or need it to be. 

For Ritual Dance, Arthur Avilés turned the several green stretches of Owen Dolen Park (East Bronx) into sanctified spaces for white-clad celebrants reflecting the late-day sun in their formal handsomeness and pleasure.

Arthur Avilés Typical Theatre performers
approach their ritual site at Owen Dolen Park.
photo ©2015, Eva Yaa Asantewaa

Ritual Dance, featuring thirty dancers, was part of Dancing in the Streets' two-evening site-specific festival Dancing Through the Bronx.

Audience members could move about and watch from any number of vantage points, all good. With perfect weather and a convivial atmosphere, Ritual Dance drew many curious onlookers from the neighborhood--a dance placed on the green and in the open air, like unexpected blossoms.

Please enjoy these images from Ritual Dance.

photo ©2015, Eva Yaa Asantewaa

photo ©2015, Eva Yaa Asantewaa

Ni'Ja Whitson
photo ©2015, Eva Yaa Asantewaa

Ni'Ja Whitson
photo ©2015, Eva Yaa Asantewaa

Ni'Ja Whitson
photo ©2015, Eva Yaa Asantewaa

Arthur Avilés
photo ©2015, Eva Yaa Asantewaa

photo ©2015, Eva Yaa Asantewaa

Arthur Avilés
photo ©2015, Eva Yaa Asantewaa

In contrast to Avilés's playful, purifying light, David Thomson brought intimations of night's veil in his enigmatic short stories, a trio of diffuse but affiliated solos for women dancers--Emmanuélle Phuon, Jodi Bender and Omagbitse Omagbemi. The dancers migrated to various patches of green, carrying the mystery of their identity, intentions and interior engagements.

Emmanuélle Phuon,
above and below, in David Thomson's short stories

photos ©2015, Eva Yaa Asantewaa

Jodi Bender, this and next two photos
in short stories
©2015, Eva Yaa Asantewaa

Omagbitse Omagbemi,
above and below, in short stories
photos ©2015, Eva Yaa Asantewaa

Acclaimed site-specific choreographer Joanna Haigood, a longtime associate of Dancing in the Streets, served as artistic advisor for Dancing through the Bronx.

The second event in this series will be held tomorrow, Sunday, at 3pm at the Gaudí-inspired Hayden Lord Park. This program includes works by dance artists Marsi Burns, Shizu Homma, Monifa Kincaid and Rebecca Lloyd-Jones.

For directions to Hayden Lord Park, click here.

Dance artist and BAAD! artistic director Arthur Aviles (r)
with his partner and BAAD! executive director Charles Rice-Gonzalez
at 2008 Bessie Awards party at South Street Seaport
(photo ©2008, Eva Yaa Asantewaa)