Petworth Dance Project charms with third performance
/The Petworth Dance Project third performance was on Saturday, July 11th at Petworth Park (8th and Taylor St NW). This time was a bit unusual, even for Petworth, as the first performance was in the spray park. It was a cool experience.
Light Switch Dance Theatre performed the "site-specific" dance. Choreographed by the group's artistic director, Sandra Atkinson, and performed by four dancers, the piece was titled "The Girl Child Project: Private/Water & Traffic." The dance was meant to represent the lack of water, indoor plumbing and privacy for women and children in certain parts of India. (These elements have been cited a reason for the rise in sexual assault of women and children.) The dancers moved in groups and individually around the structures on the spray parked, weaving the location into their story. From their faces, people seemed to really enjoy the performance.
Then Rainbow Joe played music and danced with the children (and with the little recorder he was playing, he had that "Pied Piper" vibe going with all the kids dancing behind him).
The third program of the night was back in the grassy field.
Petworth Dance Project organizer, Sara Herrera-Kopetchny
The next show is Saturday, August 8th and features Sara's own dance group, performing a program that she choreographed.
Sara worked as a dance teacher in the local area for 14 years, and last year decided to step away from teaching and re-focus on her own dancing, and bringing dance to the Petworth neighborhood.
"It's all about community," Sara said after the show with a big smile. "It's great to be able to do this in Petworth."
As with last month's performances, it's wonderful to have something of this caliber in the neighborhood. Seeing kids watching the performance, twirling in the grass and moving around the performers really is the definition of a community-engaged event.
You can support the Petworth Dance Project and help pay for the dancers by donating to their Indiegogo campaign.
