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\n\t\t\t\t\t\tMiami’s National Water Dance is coming to an end after 12 years.\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\tMiami’s National Water Dance is coming to an end after 12 years.\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
Photo by Lisa Nalven<\/p>\n
Choreographer Dale Andree<\/a> has been dancing in Miami since the 1980s. She knows this city through and through. So when it came time to choose the location for the final performance of her National Water Dance<\/a> \u2014 the project she conceived and built from scratch alongside other South Floridians more than a decade ago \u2013 she didn\u2019t pick a black-box theater or a manicured park. She picked the fountain outside the Stephen P. Clark Government Center in downtown Miami, flanked by oak trees and palm canopies, with plenty of locals walking by and roosters<\/a> strutting the grass like they\u2019ve got somewhere to be.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIt is emblematically Miami,\u201d she tells New Times over a quiet evening Zoom interview. \u201cAnd the natural beauty of that location is just so iconic for this type of work.\u201d<\/p>\n The National Water Dance, also known as NWD Projects, will dance its last dance on Sunday, April 18, after years of bringing its \u201cmovement choir\u201d \u2014 a concept Andree traces back to dancer and theorist Rudolf Laban, who, in the early 20th century, gathered dancers and non-dancers to move outdoors for a shared cause \u2014 to public spaces throughout Miami.<\/p>\n After Andree got certified as a Laban movement analyst herself, her idea took root. She launched the Florida Waterways Dance Project, a Florida-based beta version, in 2011. Then, nudged by collaborators, she took it national.<\/p>\n Deering Debut<\/p>\n The first National Water Dance debuted at Deering Estate in 2014. The way it worked was deceptively simple: Andree collected movement phrases from participants around the country, then selected one to open every performance and one to close it. Everything in between was up to each site, and that\u2019s still the case with this year\u2019s final Miami performance. At exactly 4 p.m. EST, dozens of locations across the country will begin dancing simultaneously.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWe build the community through the internet, through communication, and then come together on that one day,\u201d Andree explains.<\/p>\n Twelve years later, Andree says she selected the site of Miami\u2019s final edition with intention. Government Center\u2019s West Park Fountain sits in the heart of a city that is increasingly defined by questions of climate, heat, water access, water clarity, and selective protection. The National Water Dance has always leaned into those tensions.<\/p>\n \u201cHow we relate to the environment is ultimately how we relate to each other,\u201d says Andree of the message behind the performance. \u201cAnd the only way we can move forward is collectively. We can\u2019t save ourselves without saving everybody.\u201d<\/p>\n The Collective<\/p>\n Andree and Ralph Ariza, executive director of Citizens for a Better South Florida, will introduce the final performance, and it will close with a land acknowledgment by Houston Cypress, a Two-Spirit poet, artist, and activist from the Otter Clan of the Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of Florida.<\/p>\n The performance is also interdisciplinary. Sound designer and composer Juraj Koj\u0161 built a soundscape around recorded water samples and live water manipulation by the dancers. Spoken-word artist and community activist Arsimmer McCoy has also gathered written reflections from participants across the country and shaped them into an original poem, which will be performed live and woven into Koj\u0161\u2019 score.\u00a0<\/p>\n Participating dancers come from local organizations, including Miami Arts Charter and Jubilation Dance Ensemble (MDC Kendall Campus), as well as professional companies, including Dance Now Miami and Karen Peterson and Dancers. Percussionists Ray Robinson and Pedro Ortiz, longtime collaborators of Andree\u2019s, will provide the live rhythmic foundation.<\/p>\n An Enduring Legacy<\/p>\n NWD Projects has always been a grassroots operation \u2014 participating sites do not get funding or large institutional backing. Instead, Andree and co-organizer Kristen O\u2019Neill (who teaches at Emory University and has been involved nearly from the start) hold the whole thing together. That\u2019s part of the reason they\u2019re taking their last bow.<\/p>\n \u201cWe realized that we can\u2019t build it, we can\u2019t make it bigger,\u201d Andree explains. \u201cWe just felt that it was reaching its fulfilling end. We wanted to do it at a time where we felt like there was a lot of energy and we could go out gracefully.\u201d<\/p>\n But that doesn\u2019t mean the story ends here. Andree says some participants have already spun off their own projects from the National Water Dance model. She considers it a promising sign that the project\u2019s legacy will continue.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s almost like rays of light,\u201d she says. \u201cWe know they\u2019re going to be taking this idea and, within their community, creating something else that\u2019s ongoing.\u201d<\/p>\n