Category: dance

Napo Wildlife Center

Arriving on May 6 we spent four days at the Napo Wildlife Center deep in the Amazon jungle. The center is owned and managed by the Kichwa Añangu Community providing a community-based tourism project. It is located in the Yasuni National Park which is arguably the most biologically diverse spot on Earth.

Getting to the center is an adventure in itself. From Quito we flew over the Andes and into the Amazon rainforest landing in the small city of Coca. From there we climbed into a motorized canoe for a two-hour ride down the river to the community center.

There we transferred to human powered canoes for a two hour ride up Añangu Creek to the lodge. We did have a bit of a delay. About halfway up the creek we encountered a tree that had fallen across the waterway blocking our progress. We waited while a couple of villagers arrived by canoe with a chain saw and they quickly cleared the way.

It was amazing to see this lodge with luxury amenities in such a remote place. Even more amazing were the excursions we had going out in canoes and on foot to explore the environment.

One of our adventures took us by canoe and then on foot to a viewing tower. We climbed a 120 foot tall tower to arrive at a viewing platform in the top of a kapok tree overlooking the rain forest. What a view! While we were on the platform the clouds thickened and our guides broke out ponchos to keep us dry.

I guess one has to expect rain in a rain forest, but the rain did put a damper on our bird watching.

On another outing we traveled by canoe back down the creek to the community center where we were introduced to some of the native culture. Here’s a photo of our guide Juan instructing Joann in the use of a blow gun. Amazingly enough she hit the target on the first try!

The women offered us a welcome dance, demonstrated some of their musical instruments and offered us tea and other native foods including roasted palm grubs, which were actually quite tasty.

And of course, the wildlife. On one of our outings, we spent quite some time watching a sloth slowly making its way up a tree while stopping to munch on the vegetation. We also saw at least four species of monkeys, and a variety of birds.

We visited two clay licks where birds are known to visit. I invite you to visit my online gallery for more photos of our trip to the Napo Wildlife Center.

Global Cooling Event 2019

Global Cooling Event at Dance-A-Rama 2019.

It remains to be seen what effect our Global Cooling Event will have on global temperatures. If nothing else, we raised some awareness of global warming and had some fun in the process.

The event took place as part of Dance-A-Rama 2019, an annual open studio event with free dance performances. While I do not profess to be a dancer, I have been involved with Dance-A-Rama since 2003. I had been working with dancers on a dance photography project for several years and one of the dancers suggested that I do a performance piece.

At 2:45 this afternoon, I stepped out into the middle of the performance space and invited the audience to join me. After a few minutes assigning roles to the willing audience members, we had one person holding a large inflatable globe, three people with fans cooling the earth, two people holding a scroll with the words of Brother Eagle Sister Sky, an excerpt from a speech by Chief Seattle, and three people with cameras capturing images. At the sound of a chime, the earth begins orbiting the room. The fans, and photographers follow. A reader begins reading the words on the scroll. I continue to use the chime to direct the motion of the earth. When the reading ends I thank the participants and they return to their seats. I have yet to compile the video and still images into something presentable, but here are a few stills from the event.

Dance-A-Rama is sponsored by Terrain A Dance and Performance Collective. I would like to thank fellow Terrain members Mary Reid, Ruth Botchan and former Terrain member Ann Swigart for their help with today’s piece. I would also like to thank the members of the audience that were courageous enough to leave their chairs to join us on stage. Dance-A-Rama marks a 20 year anniversary with today’s event.

Global Cooling Event 2018

The Global Cooling Event took place at 2:50 this afternoon in Western Sky Studio in Berkeley California. The event was part of Dance-A-Rama 2018, a National Dance Week event. Dance-A-Rama included performances by 10 dance companies with some amazingly talented dancers. My piece, A Global Cooking Event involve inviting members of the audience to perform and included a narrator reading from of Chief Seattle’s Brother Eagle Sister Sky. I had four cameras capturing video as well still images. The camera operators were all volunteers from the audience. I’ll be posting a video clip at a future date

Global Cooling Event 2018. Performed as part of Dance-A-Rama 2018 and National Dance Week.
Global Cooling Event 2018. Performed as part of Dance-A-Rama 2018 and National Dance Week.
Global Cooling Event 2018. Performed as part of Dance-A-Rama 2018 and National Dance Week.
Global Cooling Event 2018. Performed as part of Dance-A-Rama 2018 and National Dance Week.
Global Cooling Event 2018. Performed as part of Dance-A-Rama 2018 and National Dance Week.

A big thanks to all the people that turned out for Dance-A-Rama, the dancers, and the people from the audience that were brave enough to step forward and help cool the planet.