Kathy Westwater’s PARK at the Freshkills Park site
Last Saturday, we hosted what has probably been the most provocative and unusual program we’ve seen yet at the Freshkills Park site (the gauntlet has been thrown down! Our open request for program proposals is here): choreographer Kathy Westwater‘s movement-based piece PARK, developed with collaborators Jennifer Scappettone and Seung Jae Lee. A total of eleven performers engaged the assembled crowd in a variety of abstract dance, song, text and play. The performance was full of spectacular moments: a line of performers, dressed head to toe in white, slowly windmilling their arms while positioned down the east slope of North Mound; the collected words of the attendees being spoken back to them in muffled tones, as if from beneath the landfill itself, through cups attached to epically long strings; a silver mylar cloud, shimmering as it boiled with a flurry of arms and legs underneath; a closing piece packing the entire company’s paper over-garments onto the person of the final performer. Our flickr photos are here; some of the tour attendees—much better photographers than us—have posted theirs as well.
We want to thank our many tour guests who came out, as well as Kathy, Jennifer, Jae and all of the performers for their commitment to and interest in the the site, its history and internal workings.
