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A Postcard from Alice Farley on the One-Night Only "If there were a moon" at Madison Square Park

Published on July 11, 2018
Photo: Fernando Azevedo

Alice Farley Dance Theater's If there were a moon

July 19, 2018; 7:00 PM

Madison Square Park (24th St. and Madison, New York; Enter from the East)

Presented by Madison Square Park Conservancy

If there were a moon is an imaginary landscape I have created for a free performance at Madison Square Park in conjunction with the Delirious Matter exhibition, which features the sculptures of Diana Al-Hadid.

This is not so much a dance as a shifting geometry of images and gesture. This piece was inspired by long-time collaborator Peter Garland’s composition “Moon Viewing Music.” The challenge that I presented myself with was to make moonlight visible — even during the day, even in a city where no one looks up.

A woman in red lays on the ground. We can't see her face.

Felicia Norton in Alice Farley Dance Theater's If there were a moon; Photo: Fernando Azevedo

What is the secret life of a park? What shadows are there? What creatures are at the edges of our mind’s eye?

There is a conscious geometry in the path of the moon and its shifting phases. All living things are affected by that and we [too] are not immune. How can we make that visible?

A stilt walker performer is dressed like a black bird wearing a black hat that looks like a bird's slender head and feathers cover their neck and chest.

Mark Mindek in Alice Farley Dance Theater's If there were a moon; Photo: Fernando Azevedo

I have been joined in this exploration by ten collaborative dancers, led by extraordinary artist and Sufi teacher Felicia Norton, powerful and inventive stilt dancer Mark Mindek, and beautiful dancers from around the world, including Terence Kepher Kephara, Tingting Zhou, Ezra Shipen, Hildegard R. E. Wohler, Kali Therrien, Lily Grace Cummings, Susana Botero and Carlos Florentino.

I designed the costumes and choreography, and music is by Peter Garland.

-Alice Farley