Dance Group Will Dress In Plastic Bags, Perform On The Toxic Gowanus Canal

GOWANUS, BROOKLYN — A Brooklyn dance group will dress in plastic bags and do a performance on the Gowanus Canal next weekend in an effort to raise awareness for "global water issues."

Artichoke Dance Company, located on Sterling Place in Park Slope, is holding the dance Saturday, June 24 at 12:30 p.m. at the Whole Foods promenade.

"We’ve upcycled thousands of plastic bags for a festive costume parade followed by a dynamic dance and drum performance featuring Artichoke Dance Company, students from PS32 and PS372, and community members," a Facebook event for the dance says.

Lynn Neuman, artisti director for the company, told Patch that they'll be performing in canoes so they won't have to touch one of the nation's most polluted waterways.

"They're going to be some dancers that are in canoes," Neuman said. "No one's going swimming in the water, but there will be dancers that get paddled down the canal as part of the piece. But most of the action happens on land."

Things kick off at 1 p.m. with an eco-tour of the canal by the Gowanus Canal Conservancy. The costume parade and dance starts at 2 p.m.

In the lead-up to the event, Artichoke will be holding classes so people can learn the dance themselves and perform alongside them on the big day — off the water, of course.

"We've been rehearsing in (the canoes), and dancers have pretty good balance," Neuman told Patch. "We're not going to lose anybody in the canal. If somebody fell in they’d have to go get a tetanus shot, probably. But that’s not going to happen."

(h/t Brooklyn Paper)

Image courtesy Artichoke Dance Company