City of Forest Day with Artist in Residence Jody Sperling, Time Lapse Dance, and Young Ethical Explorers

City of Forest Day is a city-wide day of community events celebrating urban forest and NYC’s seven million trees.

At the gathering at Lighthouse Park on Roosevelt Island, at 2:00PM Society Artist-in-Residence Jody Sperling and her Time Lapse Dance ensemble will perform two ecologically themed works exploring the connections between humans and their habitat.

All ages welcome! Our Young Ethical Explorers will also be taking a field trip to Roosevelt Island for the day. RSVP with Youth and Families Coordinator Audrey Kindred at akindred@nysec.org to join.

About the Performance:

Radically transformed by costuming fashioned from hundreds of plastic bags, the dancers of Plastic Harvest appear as frolicking and foraging creatures arisen from the anthropocene. The piece creates a surreal spectacle while provoking contemplation about the beauty of that—and who—society throws away.

Following, the company performs Arbor which explores human kinship with trees. In voluminous costumes meticulously painted with tree limbs (by textile artist Gina Nagy Burns and costume designer Mary Jo Mecca), the dancers spiral, billow, and encircle one another in gusts of action resembling timelapses of arboreal motion. Both works deepen the climate-engaged collaboration between choreographer Jody Sperling and composer Matthew Burtner.

IN THE EVENT OF RAIN, PERFORMANCE WILL BE HELD IN GOOD SHEPARD CHURCH, 543 Main Street, Upstairs Sanctuary, Roosevelt Island

Can’t make it to Roosevelt Island? Find your closest City of Forest Day gathering here!