FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 22, 2015
Contact: Marylee Hardenbergh
Email: director.gsp@gmail.com
Phone: 612.788.2349
THE SPLASH HEARD 'ROUND THE WORLD
Third biennial world dance inspires reverence, action for water.
GLOBAL WATER DANCES -- June 20, 2015
On the day of June 20, 2015, people from over seventy communities across six continents
will assemble to revere, renew, and inspire solutions for our precious resource of water.
Global Water Dances is calling on choreographers and dancers around the globe to create a
dance in their region for those who will assemble; over one thousand artists are already
responding and more are needed!
Changing Our Attitudes
We are born in water. It is our rite of birth, yet so many treat it worse than garbage. On
Global Water Dances day, the movements of thousands of people around the world will
change that. The Water Dances will highlight the importance of water and hold it up as a gift,
cherished and appreciated, for all of humanity.
“It is our most precious resource. Everyone deserves clean water,” says Global Water
Dances Director Marylee Hardenbergh*. “Garbage infests our oceans and acid rain flows
through our streams. Our dances call upon humanity to shift away from attitudes allowing
degradation, toward treating water with the same honor as a country’s flag, or a sacred book,
or an ancient statue. Our dances unite us internationally, just as water girdles the globe.”
Artists and their communities will work in the company of environmental groups to generate
solutions for local water issues. The ensuing Water Dance will highlight the water issues and
imbue the audience (who become dancers themselves as part of the event) with energy to
move, not only on Global Water Dances day, but afterward to participate in achievable and
meaningful solutions.
Why Dance
Water is a universal resource; dance is a universal language.
“Studies have shown that the quickest way to make people feel connected is to have them
move together to the same rhythm,” explains Hardenbergh. “The Water Dances create
connections on two levels. We use dance locally to connect to our communities, and we
connect over the globe, community to community.”
The Global Water Dances Event
Performances take place for 24 hours on June 20, all broadcast live online.
Dances begin in the Pacific Rim and roll westward through the time zones. Sydney, Savar
(Bangladesh), Tel Aviv, Cairo, Athens, Gburma (Ghana), Warsaw, Berlin, Buenos Aires, New
York, Bogota, Lima, Mexico City…just a few of the cities participating in the 2015 event.
Each Global Water Dance has its own professional choreographer who selects a unique
performance locale. With community and environmental groups, the choreographer focuses
on a local water issue. They create and produce a three-part site-specific performance.
The first part reflects the importance of water as seen by that local community, with
movements and music for that outdoor location.
During the second part, all dancers worldwide perform to the same short piece of music.
The third part concludes the event with the local audience joining the dancers, performing the
same simple movements as their counterparts in all other locations – movements that reflect
the water cycle. Overall events are 30-60 minutes.
“These aren’t just professionally choreographed stage performances that have been moved
outdoors. People of all ages and abilities from the local communities will be participating,
next to water,” explains Hardenbergh.
A desire to do more
Global Water Dances was organized by an international network of dance and non-verbal
communication experts who attended a 2008 conference in England on Environmental
Action in connection with Laban Bartenieff Movement Studies. The Global Water Dances’
international steering committee of choreographers from Halifax, Bogota, Washington DC,
New York City, and Bremen, Germany watched the video One River Mississippi and were
moved to do something on a grander scale.
Dancing with intention
The steering committee designed Global Water Dances as a model of participatory art to
raise consciousness about water and to bring people together to work on solutions for water
issues.
“Through Global Water Dances, we want to connect the local to the global community, we
want to safeguard the access of all humans to clean drinking water, so that the water flowing
through us is sustaining and not harming us. There is power in being part of the
performance, part of this community dance. This is dancing with intention: It gives people the
opportunity to connect their art – which is something they love – to something relevant in the
world. Together we are appreciating water with a renewed heart,” says Hardenbergh.
The first and second biennial Global Water Dances took place in 2011 and 2013 with over 70
cities around the world; 2015 marks the third biennial event.
To find the Global Water Dances location closest to you, make a donation, volunteer, or join
the mailing list, visit http://www.globalwaterdances.org.
*Marylee Hardenbergh has been coordinating site-specific dances for more than 30 years.
Her 2006 ‘One River Mississippi’ project, which involved simultaneous performances in
seven locations along the Mississippi River, served as the template for the international
event of Global Water Dances.
Can you see the sea in the background? GWD in The Netherlands (Choreographer Joan van
der Mast, Photographer Ray Hartman)
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