A Dance Performance (with Garbage Bags) on West End Avenue

In celebration of PARK(ing) Day, an annual international event where artists, residents, and activists temporarily transform curbside parking spots into public spaces, Jody Sperling and Time Lapse Dance will present WE WALK: Streets For Connection, along the “Open Streets” of West End Avenue between 88th and 92nd Streets. The event will take place on Thursday, September 17 from 2-6pm.

Performers will be transforming the area with socially-distant music and dance performances, a temporary parklet (sidewalk extension)fwe , chalk-art, tai chi lessons, mask-making, streetscape visioning projects, and civic engagements.

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TLD will present excerpts from Plastic Harvest, a new dance work set to be released on film this fall. Plastic Harvest is choreographed by Jody Sperling and themed around plastic pollution on West End Avenue between 91st and 92nd Streets. In costumes fashioned from plastic bags, each of the dancers inhabits a world of her own creation. One dancer takes a bath in a hundred plastic bags filling a large cardboard tub. Another glides in a plastic-bag kimono enacting a transformative ritual. The dancers also take turns scootering around the avenue, serving up fantastical plastic antics.

In addition, a string quartet will play folk dance-inspired repertory as the dancers improvise to activate the streetscape.

Activities and stations will be dispersed to allow for safe physical distancing but will be connected with a common goal of celebrating streets for people and communities. WE Walk aims to collectively envision new ways to adapt street infrastructure and public spaces to promote health, vibrancy, and equity.

They’re partnering with with The American Society of Landscape Architects’ New York Chapter, Streetopia UWS, and Community Board 7 to present this performance.

For the past two years, TLD has produced “Spot for Dance” festivals in curbside parking spaces – including this 2019 performance on Broadway.

Public health and safety is central to the mission of WE Walk. As such, mask-wearing and social-distancing will be required in order to participate. To learn more, please visit timelapsedance.com/events/we_walk/.