You’re invited!
For immediate release
“Dancing for Water” 40 States Dance Across America, Puerto Rico, Canada & Mexico
WHAT: 3rd Bi-Annual National Water Dance, with Keshet Dance in New Mexico
WHEN: Saturday, April 14, 2pm MST (Live streamed)
WHERE IN NEW MEXICO: Mill Pond Refuge, Sawmill Community Land Trust, Albuquerque NM [1751 Bellamah NW, #1101] For complete list of locations, please visit nationalwaterdance.org
TICKETS: Free & Open to the Community
Coming together on Saturday, April 14 at 2pm MST are 1500 dancers from across the country to perform a site-specific dance at a river, a bay, a lake, the ocean, or any water site nearby. Representing the water crisis in New Mexico, Keshet Dance has partnered with the New Mexico Water Collaborative to show movement in a specific location that celebrates the collaboration between various stakeholders to install an onsite wastewater treatment system and reusing the recycled water to support an urban green space.
Yvette Tovar, Executive Director, New Mexico Water Collaborative (NMWC) says, “We live in an arid climate with a new normal of less snow in the winter, less rain and hotter temperatures in the summer. We have a responsibility to conserve, recycle, and reuse water. Projects like Mill Pond Refuge demonstrate viable solutions to water scarcity in our state.”
Keshet Dance Company and Keshet Pre-Professional dancers will join over 100 other professional dance companies, colleges and universities, private dance schools, elementary, middle and high schools, across the nation uniting to take responsibility for protecting our Water.
The Mill Pond Refuge treatment system recycles 2000 gallons daily of toilet flushing water. All communities have a responsibility to use water efficiently. In Bernalillo County approximately 60% of water usage is for outdoor landscapes.
“The Keshet Dance and New Mexico Water Collaborative partnership highlights that we are all the solution to issues of water scarcity. Think about how much fresh water is pumped for your showers, toilets, laundry, cooking, landscapes etc. Think about opportunities to capture rainwater for reuse in your landscapes. Think about how much water your washing machine or toilet uses!” Silva Laukkanen, Keshet Adaptive/ Integrated Dance Director and National Water Dance participant said.
“We’re all connected,” said NWD Projects producer, Dale Andree, founder and artistic director of National Water Dance. “What we’ve done is create a community of dancers across the country, including Puerto Rico, Canada and Mexico, who want to involve dance in the national conversation about water issues. For the April 14th event, each dance institution will engage with their community creating their own event; and connecting everyone is the internet, where dancers share movement phrases, personal choreographic processes, and local stories about water. On Saturday, April 14 at exactly 4pm EST everyone will begin their performances with the same phrase, uniting us all through movement.”
“The fact that something like this is going on in so many different states is quite breathtaking and in the same breath it’s humbling to be a small part of the big picture,” Danella Bedford, teacher, Conchita Espinosa Academy, Miami.
About New Mexico Water Collaborative: NMWC is a nonprofit focused on solutions to water scarcity in NM by supporting water conservation and reclamation technologies. We are in a water crisis and consuming water at a rate that is unsustainable. New Mexicans use more than four million acre-feet of water per year for agriculture, industry and domestic use. That is about one million gallons of water per person. Water is a finite natural resource. Conserving water is crucial to ensure that water resources are available to sustain New Mexico communities presently and in the future.
About Keshet: Established in 1996, Keshet’s mission is to inspire and unite community by fostering unlimited possibilities through dance, mentorship and a creative space for the arts. In 2013, the Keshet Center for the Arts was created as a home base for Keshet’s production season and as a resource for Keshet’s national and global performing arts partnerships; a welcoming space to house Keshet’s community education and engagement programming; and the central location for the Keshet Ideas and Innovation Community (KIIC), a business incubator and resource center for arts entrepreneurs.
###