The Seldoms to Present Chicago Premiere of FLOE Multimedia Dance Theater Work

The Seldoms, which presents multimedia performances exploring complex issues, will perform the Chicago premiere of Founding Artistic Director Carrie Hanson's Floe. Performances take place Thursday and Friday, March 12 and 13 at the Dance Center of Columbia College Chicago.

Floe is a dance theater work about the climate crisis: vanishing polar ice, rising sea levels, extreme weather, forced migration, the tension between denial and evidence, and adaptation and resilience. The work embodies the fragmentation of the global conversation on climate change as it veers from anti-science conspiracy theories to the very real and urgent impacts of global warming. Floe fits into The Seldoms' interest in the environment, with a body of performance work that conceives a relationship to Earth and to all life on Earth based in stewardship and sustainability, pluralism, and justice-and the fact that the new normal is change.

Choreographed and directed by Hanson, Floe features set/visual design by Bob Faust, projections by Liviu Pasare, lighting design and technical direction by Julie Ballard, costumes by Jeff Hancock, sound design and composition by Mikhail Fiksel, and text by Seth Bockley.

Floe premiered in January 2020 at the University of Wisconsin-Madison with a community cast, who performed their own responses to climate change in pop-up performances, and grad students from the Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies as audience guides, narrating their scripted climate research. In creating the work, Hanson learned from locals affected by the Wisconsin floods of 2018, the sea ice changes at the Arctic's Beaufort Sea Lagoon, and Houston's Hurricane Harvey, revealing that the body itself is the center of gravity in this human-caused climate crisis.

"We set out to make Floe because we believe that the fluent and articulate body is a powerful means to convey what is at stake in our warming world and a way to understand our culpability, fragility, and mandate," Hanson said. "We thank all the people who shared their experiences and expertise; we aim to carry those stories forward as best as we can, perhaps revealing something about this climate emergency that statistics cannot express. While we initially created Floe in 2019, it remains relevant; indeed, climate change is more obvious and urgent seven years later."

Prior to the Floe performances, The Seldoms hosts "The Selebration and ARC Award Night," a benefit on Friday, February 6, at 5 p.m. at The Arts Club of Chicago, 201 E. Ontario St., Chicago. The Seldoms introduces a new annual award to recognize Achievement in Remarkable Collaboration, the ARC Award. The inaugural recipient is artist/designer Bob Faust for his outstanding artistic contributions to five major productions by The Seldoms. This award highlights an important feature of The Seldoms-its strong emphasis on visual art collaboration. More information is available at theseldoms.org.