Somewhere To Land: Dances for Sea and Low Sky
Published on September 11, 2024
Oakland-Based BANDALOOP Known Globally For Their Awe-Inspiring Vertical Dance Brings Somewhere To Land: Dances for Sea and Low Sky to Alameda For Their 2024 Home Season As Part of the City’s Rising Tides Performance Series
BANDALOOP dancer Sarah Keeney performing the company's multi-year vertical dance theater migration piece “FLOCK” in Redding California prior to bringing "Somewhere to Land" to Alameda; image: Basil Tsimoyianis
The company’s fabled creativity comes to the island as part of Rising Tides, the public arts initiative designed to harness the power of art and performance to connect with people and inspire action around climate change; Somewhere to Land: Dances for Sea and Low Sky is a new, site specific vertical dance work that will use the metal girders of Hangar 25 at the western end of Seaplane Lagoon as a vertical stage to explore themes of rewilding through the metaphorical lens of birds returning to nest there in order to initiate the process of reclaiming what is the future site of De-Pave Park, that when complete will re-establish wetlands on what is currently dead tarmac
Somewhere to Land: Dances for Sea and Low Sky will take place on the façade of Hangar 25 located on the grounds of the former Alameda Naval Station for three performances, September 26-28; Admission is FREE
What: West End Arts District Presents BANDALOOP’s Somewhere to Land: Dances for Sea and Low Sky
When: Thursday through Saturday, September 26-28, 7pm pre-show, 7:30 performance
Where: Hangar 25, Alameda
Tickets: FREE
More Info: westendartsdistrict.org
Oakland-based vertical dance innovator BANDALOOP comes to Alameda for their home season in a series of three performances as part of Alameda’s Rising Tides public arts initiative that debuted in August of 2024 and will continue through to the summer of 2025.
Alameda’s West End Arts District is collaborating with BANDALOOP on the creation and execution of the piece that will premiere at Alameda Point.Somewhere to Land: Dances for Sea and Low Sky is a new work will use the metal girders of Hangar 25 at the western end of Seaplane Lagoon as a vertical stage to explore themes of climate adaptation, rewilding, and sustainable development in alignment with the vision for the City of Alameda’s De-Pave Park project,developed with CMG Landscape Architecture.
De-Pave Parktakes the idea of rewilding and reclamation and makes it manifest by restoring natural habitat that transforms what is now dead, concrete tarmac into a thriving ecological home for migratory birds and wetland habitat. Through embracing sea level rise, re-purposing materials, and maximizing carbon sequestration, De-Pave Park is a thoughtful and restrained approach with high impact for reclaiming our shoreline and creating “A place for people to experience the natural world in transition.”
Somewhere to Land: Dances for Sea and Low Skyis part of the company’s multi-part, vertical dance public art project FLOCK responding to sites and paths for human and bird migration. FLOCK is the first major body of work to incubate at the company’s newly expanded BANDALOOP Studios in Oakland, with development across national and international locations including Santiago the capital of Chile, Los Angeles and Redding, CA and now in Alameda, CA.
Somewhere to Land: Dances for Sea and Low Sky features an original live musical score by Bay Area luminaries Destani Wolf (singer with Bobby Mcferrin’s Motion, Cirque Du Soleil, and multiple Grammy-nominated albums) and Ben Juodvalkis (composer for BANDALOOP, Lines Ballet, Joe Goode Performance Group and many others).
“Wolf and Juodvalkis have composed a living multi-lingual song cycle around themes of bird migration and human migration” says BANDALOOP Artistic Director Melecio Estrella. “Migratory birds, directed by ancient internal maps, can perhaps inspire us to consider how our own personal migration stories and what wisdom they may hold wisdom for us as we navigate the ever increasing changes and challenges of environmental and social change.”
Somewhere to Land: Dances for Sea and Low Sky is a further distillation of work the West End Arts District’s Tara Pilbrow collaborated on with artistic director Melecio Estrella and his team in 2023. That work explored the spatial/technical possibilities of the structure and other notions including how the performance on the building by the dancers who seem to literally fly can represent its return to nature.
What: West End Arts District Presents BANDALOOP’s Somewhere to Land: Dances for Sea and Low Sky
When: Thursday through Saturday, September 26-28, 7pm pre-show, 7:30 performance
Where: Hangar 25, Alameda
Tickets: FREE
More Info: westendartsdistrict.org
About RISING TIDES
The City of Alameda and local arts organizations are collaborating to explore the impacts of climate change through art as sea levels continue to rise. Through the RISING TIDES initiative, residents of Alameda and the greater Bay Area are invited to participate in year-long programming that unites the community and illustrates how collective action can positively impact climate change. West End Arts District, Radium Presents, and Rhythmix Cultural Works are collaborating to organize diverse public events, including dance performances, visual arts exhibitions, and interactive experiences that foster dialogue about the local climate crisis and envision a more resilient future. These experiences will empower the community to take action to shape a climate-friendly future. This initiative emphasizes Alameda's role as a cultural arts hub and leader taking a stance against the impacts of climate change, ensuring the City is resilient and invested in sustainable redevelopment efforts for future generations.
About Rhythmix Cultural Works
Rhythmix Cultural Works (RCW) celebrates 17 years as a community arts center bringing people of all ages together for a wide range of high-quality arts experiences. Only five minutes from downtown Oakland off Hwy 880, RCW offers a beautifully renovated 150-seat theater, art gallery and classroom as affordable space for live performances, exhibitions, and arts education opportunities for youth, families and adults. Rhythmix is in Huichin in Chochenyo-Ohlone Territory.
About West End Arts District
West End Arts District was founded in 2015 as a community-led initiative to foster and celebrate the performing and visual arts in the West End of Alameda. Known for their flagship programs Blues, Brews & BBQ, and Fiesta Alameda, the organization aims to serve as a resource for art innovation and programming that provides a sense of place and community for all, and to establish the West End as a regional destination for the arts.
AboutRadium Presents
Launched in 2017, RADIUM Presents is an initiative to establish a performing arts center in Alameda, California that would cater to the needs of the local East Bay arts community.RADIUM envisions a center focused on creative innovationencouraging established artists & companies to develop new works, introducing extraordinary emerging artists, and sharing these new works through a distinctive and accessible space.
About BANDALOOP
Oakland-based BANDALOOPis one of the Bay Area’s greatest artistic exports drawing crowds all over the world to their awe-inspiring vertical dance performances. Seamlessly blending contemporary dance with climbing and rope access techniques, BANDALOOP has performed in over 330 cities on six continents and holds year-round workshops and classes at their West Oakland homebase, BANDALOOP Studios, at 18thand Peralta.
TheRising Tides project is supported by funding from Bloomberg Philanthropies and the City of Alameda.
About City of Alameda’s Economic Development Division
Public art and cultural programming are vital to Alameda's cultural identity, diversity and history, and help to create a unique sense of place for residents, workers and visitors. The City of Alameda Economic Development Division manages the City’s Public Art Program which includes but is not limited to cultural arts programming, such as artistic experiences and events designed to engage and enrich the community, and site-specific art such as sculptures and murals. For more information about where to find public art in Alameda, the City has developed a user-friendly website dedicated to public art in Alameda. Visitalamedapublicartwork.comfor more information.