Displaying items by tag: Chicago Park District’s Night Out in the Parks

 As part of Chicago Park District’s Night Out in the Parks series, Nejla Yatkin, dancer and choreographer is offering a series of FREE pop-up performances at parks throughout the City. I just saw her at West Ridge Park; there are fourteen more pop-ups between now and July 8 (I’ll get to July 8 in a minute).

Nejla has traveled the globe creating more than simply dance – she generates meaningful experiences for her audiences. She has devoted her long and complex career to exploring questions of freedom and equality, pushing the boundaries of traditional dance forms to explore the beauty and complexity of being human.  

She brings all this passion and insight to ‘Firebird’, but even more evident is her warmth and the rapport she weaves round the audience, enclosing and including all of us in the performance. The Park District venue is perfect for this: a small clearing with various stumps and boulders to sit on, and the bells mingle with the songs of resident birds. I was concerned at first about finding the right place (I’m a city girl; tracking is not one of my skills) but I needn’t have been – a trail of ‘breadcrumbs’ (bright flyers taped to the path) was laid to guide me.

Chicago’s motto, “City in a Garden”, is actualized by the Park District’s 600 facilities. Did you know there were so many parks? Me neither! This guide from Time Out Chicago, ‘The 28 Most Beautiful Chicago Parks’ will help introduce you to the wealth of beauty within our city. In the meantime, choose a park to see Nejla dance!

She started about 15 minutes early, drifting around the enclosure with Patrick behind her softly playing the bells. As more people arrived Nejla began distributing feathers, paying special attention to the kids, who ranged in age from twelve months to twelve years.

Then she danced.

The Firebird appears in Slavic folklore as a magical and prophetic bird from a faraway land which turns out to be both a blessing and a harbinger of doom to its captor. Stravinsky’s ballet The Firebird portrays the creature as half-woman, half-bird.

Nejla’s dance begins on the small stage, with the bird emerging from its egg. The fledgling becomes stronger and more confident, finally leaving the stage to visit every audience member in turn. Some people – particularly those with children – she enfolds in a cocoon of red silk wings (designed by costumer Katrin Schnab). The dance moves out of sight behind a little rise, remaining long enough that some of the smaller kids begin to worry. She reappears with 3-foot extension poles, expanding her wings enormously and closing the dance with great sweeps and billows of red silk.

But that’s not the end of the performance! Nejla invites the audience to join her, and one by one people move out into the clearing. Ultimately a dozen people, all ages and sizes, are swooping joyously about.

The pop-up performances will continue through June, and on Sunday July 8 there will be a Firebird parade (I told you I’d get back to July 8!). Everyone is welcome to participate in the parade and are encouraged to wear their very own Firebird costume. For any whose couturiere skills have gotten rusty, Nejla is offering a costume workshop on June 14 at Indian Boundary Park, AND a workshop June 28^th on Firebird Sound and Movement – in case you need a refresher course in squacks and screeches.

All of this – pop-up performances, workshops, and Parade – is FREE to Firebird-wannabes of all ages and persuasions.

More information, including a schedule of performances, HERE.