A very special night is in store for Saturday, Aug. 22 at Windhover Center for the Performing Arts in Rockport when the Boston Dance Theater debuts a contemporary dance production inspired by one of the North Shore’s defining landscapes.
The 7 p.m. outdoor performance will feature Four Seasons on the Great Marsh: Autumn, a work in progress conceived and directed by Boston Dance Theater founder and director Jessie Jeanne Stinnett.
The piece is part of a multi-year interdisciplinary project “exploring the ecology, history and changing seasons of the Great Marsh through dance, environmental research, sound, visual art and community engagement.” It’s a truly intriguing idea to create a dance production inspired by a rich, 24,000-acre marsh ecosystem that extends from New Hampshire’s Seacoast region to Gloucester.
The setting is certainly appropriate. Windhover, located on Granite Street in Rockport, is an intimate outdoor performing arts center tucked into the landscape of a former granite quarry.
Autumn explores harvest, migration, ecological interdependence, decay and transformation, and the preparations of the natural world for winter. Because the piece is still being developed, the Windhover performance gives audiences an unusual opportunity to encounter the work in its evolution.
The larger Four Seasons on the Great Marsh project is supported in part by the Manship Artists Residency and Artists for the Great Marsh, an initiative supporting creative work that calls attention to the beauty, importance and vulnerability of the marsh as coastal environments face the effects of climate change.
Also on the Aug. 22 program will be Delicate Blue, a completed repertory work by Brazilian choreographer Alessandro Sousa Pereira that similarly considers environmental connection and humanity’s relationship with nature.
Boston Dance Theater is a contemporary repertory company founded by Stinnett that performs works by nationally and internationally recognized choreographers as well as original interdisciplinary pieces (see photo).
The artistic team for the Windhover performance includes Stinnett, Sean Pfeiffer, Henoch Spinola, Wesley Urbanczyk and Ameia Mikula-Noble, with contributions from composer and sound artist Skooby Laposky, visual artist Kim Radochia and lighting designer Brent Woods.
The performance begins at 7 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 22, at Windhover Center for the Performing Arts, 257R Granite St., Rockport. Tickets are $27 general admission and $22 for students and seniors; children under 10 are admitted free. Also, the performance will be held rain or shine, and as with many events at this venue, guests are invited to arrive early with a picnic and enjoy the Windhover grounds before the program.
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