Merián Soto’s BRANCH DANCES will incorporate winter into site-specific performance January 7 at Wave Hill
Wave Hill
West 249th St. at Independence Ave.
Saturday, Jnauary 7, free with grounds admission of $8, 3:00
718-549-3200
www.wavehill.org
www.branchdances.blogspot.com
As part of the generated@wavehill project, Puerto Rico–born choreographer Merián Soto is in the midst of a commissioned twelve-month residency at Wave Hill, one of the city’s most beautiful oases. Branch Dances consists of four seasonal site-specific performances on the grounds of Wave Hill, the public gardens and cultural center in the Bronx that started life as William Lewis Morris’s country home in 1843. The Philadelphia-based Soto, who earned degrees from NYU and Columbia, is up to the second section of Branch Dances, taking place on Saturday at 3:00, with dancers Beau Hancock, Shavon Norris, Jumatatu Poe, Olive Prince, and Marion Ramirez and percussionist Robert (Tigger) Benford incorporating winter into their organic movements. On her blog, Soto explains, “The branch dances are slow, meditative works designed as performance frames for an improvisational movement practice I have been developing since 2005. Focusing attention on connecting somatic, energetic, and mental processes, the dances with branches are centered on consciousness in action, in performance, in practice. The work involves the practice of moving into stillness; the detailed sequencing of movement through inner pathways; the investigation of gravity through dynamic shifting into balance and alignment; and the investigation of speed including very slow movement approaching stillness.” The forecast is for clear skies with temperatures in the forties, with the sun setting at 4:43. If you go a little early, admission to the grounds is free from 9:00 am to 12 noon, so you can take your time checking out the greenhouse, the Glyndor Gallery, and the conservatory, where you’ll find such blooming plants as the golden mimosa, canary bellflower, evolvulus, flame vine, and paintbrush lily.