The Healing Water Project – designed to integrate art with
environmental issues – culminated in a lakeside solstice
ceremony and a dance performance to live cello music on solstice, Sunday, June 20th,
2010. The event was focused on St. Mary Lake
and “healing” this vital ecosystem.
Dancers in the Rushes, Healing Water Project, St. Mary Lake from Karolle Wall on Vimeo.
The June 20th event began at 2pm with a ceremonial blessing by
local Peneluxuuth' elder Florence James. Two short dances were
performed beside the lake to the live music of local cellist Irving
Levin, and the event included songs about water and the
interconnectedness of all life from local choir, “Women of Note.”
Those attending brought flowers to help build a flower
labyrinth.
© Karolle Wall, Photo of Florence James
blessing St. Mary Lake
Dr. Seónagh Odhiambo initiated this project, which involved two
generations of dancers in a year-long workshop process. Originally
from British Columbia, Odhiambo now works as Assistant Professor of
Dance at California State University, Los Angeles. The project
involved several community members, including Caffyn Kelley of the
Islands Institute, along with local dancers Robbyn Scott, Anna
Haltrecht, Isabel Ma, and Wendy Judith Cutler during workshops held
between August 2009-June 2010. Odhiambo also worked with students
from the Gulf Islands School of Performing Arts, and their teacher
Sonia Langer helped students choreograph with movement derived from
the workshops. Dr. Odhiambo says, “I consider the creation of dance
to be an opportunity for community building and education around
issues. The Healing Water Project is about developing a ‘change of
heart’ in terms of how we think about water. The movement we created
is derived from the study of environmental issues as well as the
aesthetic qualities of water and its healing properties. The
dancers’ movements are fluid, and we considered water as a primal
source for this aesthetic inspiration.”
As this event helps raise awareness in our community about problems
with the water supply, the loss of biodiversity, and the impacts on
human, fish and wildlife, it simultaneously offers solutions. Caffyn
Kelley says, “I see the problem of contaminated lake water as a
cultural problem with cultural solutions. We have a culture that
wastes, and so we dispose of sewage by sending it downstream, or
ship garbage off to contaminate another area. Because of our ideas
about what is beautiful, we replace diverse lakeside vegetation with
monocultural lawns. This project suggests that we can invent and
practice a culture of balance, sufficiency, pleasure, appreciation,
beauty and craft. We can redesign culture as permaculture.”
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