Climate Artists

EARTH
The NYC-based Eryc Taylor Dance Company presents a stunning multisensory movement reflection on the global warming crisis.
TRANSCRIPT
In the Big Bang, I'm emerging from dirt and mulch.
What I'm feeling when I'm doing the solo is that I'm being born and I'm the creator of
a new universe. I feel pain, fire, sorrow, happiness and the
feeling of creation. I almost feel like I go into a trance when
I do this dance. About two years ago, we were thinking about
what our next project was going to be, what our next big thing was going to be. Eric came
in one day and was like, "I have this great idea. I have this amazing dream. We're going
to make a a piece about climate change." With what we are doing here, we're telling
you that we're talking about climate change and that we're trying to make a difference
here and teach you this lesson, but we're not giving you all of the answers. Our goal
as as artists is to create this catalyst for a conversation that can grow.
think the dance is a really wonderful mode of expression and communication. Also in dance,
we are able to take thousands, millions, billions of years and compress them into one little
icon of artistic idea and present that in front of people.
We're discussing narratives of love and loss in contrast to themes of climate and man forgetting
earth. There's going to be a lot of intimacy but tension. At the same time, we talked about
building up movements with lifts and towering to resemble buildings and factories. Also,
we're using the imagery of sheets of glaciers falling into the sea.
I felt that it was important to get the audience to that place of appreciating the stillness
and beauty of this relatively tranquil and stable moment in which humans can thrive.
It's very important to take people through the catastrophic geological events that led
us to this moment. I employed huge sounds, crunches of chords, almost an assault to the
ear using timpani and trombone and tuba and other instruments.
I feel that my piece as part of a larger structure is really bridging the gap and letting this
full narrative that Eric is putting it together. How can it move forward and how can we really
tell the story of evolution through this one 12 minute section alone?
Jordan's done a wonderful job at adapting the movement from the earth and evolving with
cannons and level changes. Really, we can see the depiction of evolution and the evolution
of our planet and then the evolution of man. Our timeline shows earth dying at the end,
but our goal is to teach you that it doesn't have to be that way, that let's start the
conversation now. We haven't made it to the end of that timeline yet. Let's curve that
ending and hopefully save what we can and improve our practices as a community.