FLOWing the Santa Cruz River

 What to do at high noon on a sunny 100 degree day in Tucson?   Watch modern dance routines in the dry Santa Cruz river bed of course!   Gotta love Tucson!

 New ARTiculations Dance Theatre presented FLOW, an outstanding set of performances today in the Santa Cruz river park / river bed in Tucson.  The water themed dances began with "Drink" above.

 "Where There is No Water", swimmers at the Santa Cruz

 I really enjoyed this dance routine, "Flush", which paired a dancer and a toilet

 feet first...

 head first.

 "Wash"

 The first hour was held along the bank of the Santa Cruz river in Santa Cruz Park -- then to the pleasant sounds of flute music the dancers carried bowls of water to the audience for people to dip their hands in.

From the program:

"We are made of water.  We clean, cook, bathe, drink, and use water everyday.  Water formed everything you see around you.  Though the river beside you is now dry, once it supported mesquite bosques, cottonwood trees, as well as fish, bird, reptile, and mammal populations.   Over the years, cattle ranching, industry, agriculture, and population growth required more water, and all that pumping lowered the water table.   Today the Santa Cruz only flows during the monsoon season.   Take a moment to dip your hands in the water, offer gratitude for what we have, for life, for flow."

 The bowls of water were then carried to the bank of the Santa Cruz river and poured into the riverbed (see first picture of this post).  Cool ceremony.

Then the dancers descended to the (hot, sunny) riverbed to perform in the sand.

 Dancers with drummers from Odaiko Sonora

Dancers back up on the grass getting some well deserved applause for an outstanding 2 hour performance on a 100 degree day.   

FLOW was a very well done and enjoyable event, great sound system for the music, lots of variety.   Man that sand in the river bed looked hot to be dancing on.   I wish I had brought a stable tripod to shoot video of some of the routines -- there were people shooting video, so if they post it anywhere I'll come back and update this blog entry with links.

Here's my full picture set of today's FLOW event as a slideshow on flickr:

Way to FLOW, New ARTiculations!