A Manhattan-based choreographer, performer, graphic designer and filmmaker, Cynthia Berkshire brings her imagination to the surrounding world, intuiting and investigating its content, form and energy.
Please enjoy this 1 min. improvisation honoring earth day, shot in a NY Botanical Garden tunnel accompanied by a growing seedling. Influenced by EXPERIMENT for transformation, a dance film evolving into an installation, a new set of short films are in development. Working with 3 dancers, inspired by movement of this growing seedling, a plant and chair, the project continues.
earth day began in the United States in 1970. Gaylord Nelson, a U.S. Senator from Wisconsin, and San Francisco activist John McConnell, separately, had a vision to create the national holiday celebrating our world and discuss how to best protect it. Receiving bipartisan support, the celebration lead to the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency, as well as the passing of the Clean Air, Clean Water and Endangered Species acts.
earth day: ideas to celebrate our interconnection with the life energy of plant world:
• have a conversation with your plant
... send your plant a love letter
... dance with your plant
... draw your plant
... hug your plant, gently
• send the drawing, poem, dance to a good friend
• send the drawing, poem, dance to Me, cberkshire@nyc.rr.com
Current Projects
VEIL: Two Sisters
‘genius’ — Barbara Jordan, songwriter, music supervisor. APAP 2021
‘VEIL: Two Sisters’ reveals two sisters lured into a link between the earthly and heavenly realms. Within a layered video environment, the siblings’ tenacious dream of connection becomes an enchanting poem. Throughout the work, the sisters are offered guidance by a chorus of three women, as themes of forgiveness, mortality and community emerge.
Building on the enthusiastic reception of last year’s performance, and the edited video documentation, both the live performance and video projection will be making future appearances. VEIL brought together a gifted team of collaborators, see work sample below, University Settlement, March 2019.
“beautiful. your show was fantastic! what a journey”—Melvin McCray, filmmaker, professor at Columbia University
“your themes are deep, and dangerous because they are personal and idiosyncratic” —Debby Karpel, singer, writer
EXPERIMENT for transformation
‘EXPERIMENT for transformation’, initially a dance film series and now an installation, began in March 2020. The project features experimental Studies exploring four homebound characters’ response to a new reality, juxtaposed with movement in nature. The three film Studies are set up to form a triangle, while growing seedling imagery and wind further engulf viewers in the world of nature, emphasizing how the resilience of humans and nature co-exist in parallel.
“'I loved the design element in your video ... You created a space that was not recognizable, and I was brought into your world”—Myrna Packer, Bridgman|Packer Dance