Vildwerk.: Inaugural Season – “Time to Protect Our Planet”
October 15 and 16, 2024
El Museo Del Barrio
New York, New York
Jerry Hochman
There are new performing arts organizations, particularly fledgling dance companies, that pop-up all around New York, seemingly on a daily basis. Most come and go without notice. Now comes a new one, Vildwerk., which has a far more intense focus than the norm – a mission to raise environmental conservation awareness and the serious issues affecting our planet through the performing arts – and a roster of high-profile artists and supporters that indicates it’ll be around for awhile.
Vildwerk.’s inaugural program, a program of dance dedicated to conservation awareness and protecting the planet to be presented on October 15 and 16, 2024, reflects its commitment.
Photo collage courtesy of Vildwerk.
The program reads like a Gala of star choreographers and dancers. Under the overall title “Time to Protect Our Planet,” the program will include 8 dances created by 7 different highly-respected choreographers — including Christopher Wheeldon, Joshua Beamish, Jacqulyn Buglisi, Mara Galeazzi , Briana Reed, Henning Rübsam, and Gianna Reisen – who have created ballets about ecological crises, including turtle extinction, butterfly migration, and climate change. performed by equally well-known dancers currently from or formerly associated with the Royal Ballet, American Ballet Theatre, New York City Ballet, San Francisco Ballet, Martha Graham Dance Company, Buglisi Dance Theater, Complexions Contemporary Ballet, LA Dance Project, and more.
A complete listing of the choreographers, the subjects of their pieces, and the artists scheduled to perform in each dance is provided below.
According to its website, Vildwerk. is a non-profit organization dedicated to raising global environmental conservation awareness through dance and the performing arts, creating a multifaceted platform for collaboration, innovation and forward-thinking. It is based in Manhattan, and, according to its website, is “supported by a community of world-leading artists, wildlife and nature conservationists, writers, thought-leaders, key influencers, business people and philanthropists all dedicated to help make this planet a sustainable home for everyone.” Further, it helps protect and preserve this planet “by inspiring and educating through the performing arts to save, rewild and restore biodiversity locally and globally.”
Although the program and its mission are extensive in scope, Vildwerk.’s inaugural program is narrowly dedicated: to a turtle and the process initiated to preserve her and her species’ existence. No, not the turtle like the one you had as a kid that managed to crawl out of its glass-enclosed tank and hide in the closet for a week. This turtle is Ruby, the only Burmese Roof Headed Turtle in North America. Her species is facing extinction, a plight to which Vildwerk.’s #therubyinitiative is dedicated.
Smuggled across borders from Myanmar to a wet-market in Hong Kong before arriving in the United States, Ruby was abused for 20 years, kept in a dark basement, in a cage too small to turn around or get out of the water. She is a third of the normal size she should presently be at her age and Vidwerk. believes it is a miracle that she survived the harsh conditions of captivity. Since being rescued, her location remains secret. Poachers and smugglers are an ever-present concern, as her face value on the back market goes into six figure sums.
#therubyinitiative is working to find her a mate but international politics, the civil war in Myanmar, and the rarity of her species make the search difficult.“vildwerk. hopes to help establish an assurance colony of Ruby’s hatchlings being rewilded to Myanmar, so that this species can thrive in her native habitat”, according to Vildwerk.’s founder Chiara Gorodesky. “Ruby has an estimated 50 years of viable eggs ahead of her.”
In Vildwerk.’s inaugural program, each dance considers a different ecological issue.
- Christopher Wheeldon will present This Bitter Earth (certainly an appropriately-titled dance for this Vildwerk. program). [Note that this is a very recent change from the new Wheeldon dance originally scheduled, a piece about cenote caves (limestone sinkholes) in Yucatán, Mexico. This new piece will be presented during the next Vildwerk. season.]
- Joshua Beamish choreographs two dances. The Golden Turtle is about trafficked and abused turtles, performed by Mara Galeazzi, with music by Felipe Perez Santiago, in collaboration with Re:Wild and Turtle Conservancy. His second piece is about migration of species in the rainforest, performed by Benjamin Freemantle, Luciana Paris, and Lloyd Knight, in collaboration with Nature and Culture International.
- Mara Galeazzi also choreographs and will dance – alongside Jason Kittelberger – in a work about extinction and loss of species.
- Briana Reed’s choreography will highlight climate change in Divinity in Paradox, with performers Fernando Montano, Luciana Paris, Eriko Sugimura, Amar Ramasar, Gabi Roller, Erin Gonzales, Sydney Williams, and Jacob Rodriguez.
- Gianna Reisen choreographs a piece on mycorrhizal fungi, with performers Jonathan Fahoury, Vinicius Silva, Peter Mazurowski and Alyssa Rose Bulin. This is an artistic collaboration with David K. Israel (score) and Samantha Bass (set visuals) with photo documentation by Stephanie Diani. The work is supported by the Mycorrhizal Fund.
- Henning Rübsam’s choreography is dedicated to butterfly migration, performed by Luciana Paris, Fernando Montano and Eriko Sugimura, in honor of philanthropist Barbara Tober.
- Jacqulyn Buglisi choreographs Moss Anthology Variation Number 5, performed by Buglisi Dance Theatre, with music by Jeff Beal, lighting by Jack Mehler, and costume design by Christina Giannini.
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Photo courtesy of Vildwerk.
In addition to the performances, patrons of Vildwerk. will have access to a photography exhibition, #therubyinitiative, with works by award winning photographers and visual artists Samantha Bass, Martin Broen and Stephanie Diani.
Performances are October 15 and 16, 2024 at 7pm, at El Museo del Barrio Theater. Tickets prices from $35. A drinks reception post-performance on October 15 with the artists and conservationists is available following the October 15 performance.
For additional information and tickets, check Vildwerk.’s website: www.vildwerk.org
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