Grounding Feeling: Performance Series

Organized as part of the exhibition Trees we breathe, Grounding Feeling is an afternoon of outdoor performances by Emergent Improvisation, Chloë Engel & Nora Raine Thompson, and Tanika I. Williams.  

In our anthropocentric world, strict delineations of selfhood emerge as problematic tools for perpetuating feelings of human superiority over non-human species and the hyper-individualization of society. Privileging the singular human subject in this way is not only correlated with the rapid progression of our current climate crisis but also feelings of isolation and alienation.  

Focusing on the senses, the artists in this performance series will commune with their immediate surroundings at Wave Hill as well as the audience in order to foster a sense of collectivity and connectivity between ourselves and the trees. Through both embodied and academic research, these performers activate the histories of trees at Wave Hill, attuning us to their particular needs, traumas, desires, and memories. With experimental artistic practices that incorporate writing, dance, improvisation, and meditation, the artists will also invite the audience in as participants and collaborators. In this way, these performances become scores for new, more sustainable modes of life that the artists and audience build together with the trees. In doing so, the artists are guided by their physical senses and what it means to be with the trees and our broader ecology.  

12PM | The Native / The Naturalized: A Ceremony for the Trees by Tanika I. Williams  
Wave Hill’s oldest tree is the red oak that stands unwavering behind Glyndor Gallery, holding whispers of the forest before the privatization of the land. The wisteria winds along the house’s exterior, stashing secrets from faraway lands. What stories remain tangled in their roots?  A Ceremony for the Trees is a site-specific performance series about unearthing delicate histories embedded in unassuming places. The Native | The Naturalized calls attention to the history of Wave Hill—a private residence turned public garden—to challenge notions of belonging, ownership, and authorship.  

1:15PM | Tree Hugger by Chloë Engel & Nora Raine Thompson 
Please note that this performance requires audiences to walk across grass on an incline or view it from a distance.  

Two dancers respond, in performance, to a tree over one hundred years old. It is scarred with human carvings of declarations of love, requires regular medical care, and needs ample space. Two dancers research the origins, valences, and trappings of the term “tree hugger,” feeling into the problematics of loving a tree as if we are merged with it, as well as the problematics of loving a tree as if it is utterly separate from us. Two dancers who have been friends for over twenty years will dig into the choreography of embrace as a method of caring, clinging, holding, objectifying, and loving. The two dancers compete against their own limits to investigate “survivalism” as a trending way of confronting nature, asking us to consider how interactions with the nonhuman mimic relations between humans, as failed attempts to understand. Do we need to hold on or let go? What is ethical connection on unceded Indigenous land? 

2:15PM | tree (v.) by Emergent Improvisation  
Emergent Improvisation (Mikaela Brandon, Lucia Gagliardone, Susan Hwang, Uila Marx, Troy Ogilvie, Alexis Vinzons, and Omar Zubair) present a site-specific, interactive performance with improvised soundscapes and dance scores that investigates how tree systems map onto human interdependence. Through play, performance, and community gathering, the group builds new visions for resilience, care, and survival. Engaging biomimicry—the use of the natural world’s complex patterns and systems in solving human struggles—to come into a greater understanding of human relation that prioritizes care and nourishment for each other, tree (v.) will ask: How do we share space? How do we share the sky? What do your roots connect you with? and What kind of tree are you? 

Registration encouraged but not required, online or by calling 718.549.3200 x251.

Grounding Feeling is curated by Afriti Bankwalla, Curatorial Administrative Assistant 

The Glyndor Terrace Garden is accessible via a bluestone path that begins south of the Glyndor House entrance and continues along its western perimeter towards an ADA-compliant ramp located at the Glyndor Terrace Garden’s north entrance.