“Everything in dance is poetry. Every movement describes a story, a feeling. The dancer takes the audience into a world of fairy tales.” ~Farima Berenji
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We are Nature: Rising and Falling Solstice Celebration
June 24, 2023 @ 7:00 pm - 9:30 pm EDT
$39.19
NOoSPHERE Arts will kick off their outdoor season with a music, dance, and performing arts event celebrating the summer solstice. Held in the spectacular, one-of-a-kind setting of wildflower meadows stretching across the roofs of an industrial plant against the iconic backdrop of the NYC skyline, the event will be centered around a Sufi opening ritual honoring nature’s cycles, performed by Whirling Dervish Farima Berenji. Farima—a Sufi Master and Magi from the bloodline of Iranian Zoroastrian Magi—and her sacred dancers will be accompanied by the Klezmer music and Sephardic folk melodies of The Shul Band.
The ceremony has been designed as a unique blend of Muslim and Jewish elements—epitomizing the possibility of interfaith collaboration.
The main event will involve solo acts, duets and a whirling performance in which several participants—including Cyr wheelers—will interpret the movements of individual planets around a star. The show will also feature poetry readings and storytelling by Master Farima and be accompanied by the live music of the Shul Band. Following the whirlers’ performances, The Shul Band will keep playing against the darkening night sky.
In addition NOoSPHERE Arts will also unveil the highly anticipated site-specific installation by this season’s KWBS Residency Award winners, Ezra Campelli and Jeremy Clemente. Prepare to be amazed by “Westerlies,” a mesmerizing fusion of sound and sculpture meticulously crafted for the Kingsland Wildflowers Green Roofs.
Farima Berenji is an internationally acclaimed dance artist, ethnologist, choreographer, instructor, and archaeologist specializing in ancient, sacred, classical, and folk dances spanning the millenniums of Persian civilization, the Silk Road, and the Near East.
The Shul Band, led by Adam Feder, plays music rooted in Jewish folk music but drawing on the musical wellsprings of New York City and of the whole world. It is equally prayerful and raucous, meditative and joyful. The band has performed at major venues such as Carnegie Hall.
NOoSPHERE Arts’ Stage Roof will offer a spectacular setting for the solstice celebration with dance, music and art.