The sun is still bright at 5 PM as I enter the sheltering
forest, the oldest section of Brooklyn Botanic Garden’s expanded Native Flora
Garden. This wedge of deep woods, sliced with a small brook, is a snapshot of
the woodland that once covered Brooklyn. Densely green, the filtered sun
creates delicate patterns on the plants and people below. It has always been
one of my favorite parts of the garden, a hidden refuge from the world outside.
Tonight, (August 13,) it comes alive, and not only with small furry creatures.
Inside the multi-hued green are forest sprites hidden near trees and perched on
logs.
Down a winding, wood chip path, curves of log fence guide me deeper
into the trees. In a small glen, a white clad being holds a magical twist of
white branch, a Forest Guide. Outside the garden Jiemin Yang is a Queens
College student, today he leads mortals through the sites of Enchanted, choreographer Edisa Weeks’
and composer Katie Down’s lovely, late summer idyll.
Dressed in live foliage, flowers, raffia, a small forest of
twigs on a back, the dancers are distinct in shades of brown, grey and green. Each
performer’s solo—nestled into greenery, seated on a log, luxuriating on a bench—begins
with an offering, a gift of a tiny box, taken from a larger white box, given to
someone in the audience. This is one of Weeks’ strengths, one of several unique
aspects of her choreographic approach. Direct interaction between audience and
performer is rare in performed dance. Weeks fosters a different environment.
Her dancers, her sprites, hold audience member’s hands as they dance in front
of them. Angel Chinn gently waves her fingers, like grass, or a breeze, in front
of the faces of the audience changing the light, like a magical conjuring.
Devin Oshiro simply stops her legs wide in a powerful plié, torso slightly off-center. With a
sharp twerk of her head she makes eye contact with each person pulling the
audience in to her world.
Each sprite is different; their movement vocabularies as unique
as their costumes—Joshua Dunn’s long-legged reaches, Chinn’s ripples through her
body, Oshiro’s command of space, Josh Palmer’s sensuous curves and trick of
disappearing into the shadows. Fluidity punctuated with sharp shoulder
gestures, quick changes of direction, are common to all Weeks’ work.
Using instruments of found seeds, wood and natural detritus,
as well as violin and wind instruments, composer Katie Down’s soundscape played
on the soft breeze. Dancers and musicians, gesture and sound, sometimes one
leads, sometimes the other. In the second half of the work, two group sections outside
the deciduous forest, the music is still delicate but richer and more nuanced in the
open spaces.
Along the edge of the Native Flora Garden’s new bog is a
more formal dance, perhaps a fairy’s quadrille. Bidding the audience, sitting
on both sides of the boardwalk, farewell, dancers hold our hands, escort us
from one side to the other. We are invited to join the music with cardboard-tube
shakers.
As conjured by Weeks and Down, it’s easy to imagine midsummer
beings, celebrating in this magical stretch of the Botanic Garden, inviting us
“mere mortals” to join them. And it is not the first time The Garden has been
so inhabited. In 2011 and 2012 Yanira Castro’s Paradis brought a very different group of mid-summer residents to different
parts of the garden. Let’s hope new creatures appear every summer.
Enchanted
Delirious Dances.
Brooklyn Botanic Garden: Native Flora Garden.
July 23 and August 13.
Choreography
by Edisa Weeks in collaboration with the dancers.
Music
composed by Katie Down.
Costumes by Meghan E. Healey and Mirembe.
Dancers: Angel Chinn, Joshua Dunn, Devin Oshiro,
Josh Palmer.
Musicians:
Sam Bardfeld, Terry Dame, Matt Darriau, Katie Down, Jessica Lurie, Uri Sharlin (not all musicians
performed both evenings).
Guides: Ilianna Alaya, Leora Graber, Tamika Ramsay,
Jiemin Yang.
Mugwort
is a perennial and native to Europe, Asia, North Africa and Alaska. It is an
amazingly resilient plant that will grow anywhere, including the most nutrient
depleted soil! It will grow in sidewalk cracks, empty lots, and dominate
roadsides. It can create extensive mono-cultures that choke out other plants.
Mugwort does have a variety of practical uses. It's been used as an alternative
to tea leaves; to make beer before hops became the plant of choice; to protect
against evil spirits; as a way to fatten sheep and goats who apparently love
mugwort; as an herb for cooking lamb; and a tonic for indigestion, irritability
and urinary disorders. The oil in mugwort has been used to induce uterine
contractions and to re-orientate a breached baby. It is practically impossible
to remove Mugwort as the tiniest rhizome root left in the soil will generate
new plants. Round-up by Monsanto will kill it, but it also will kill plants you
want to preserve, and there are big concerns about round-up’s effect on humans
and the environment.
