Global Water Dances Return To Flint This Weekend

Every two years, cities from around the world participate in Global Water Dances. This Saturday, June 12, at 7:30 p.m., FIM's Flint School of Performing Arts will perform its second Global Water Dance at the Flint Riverbank Amphitheater. Global Water Dance events invite choreographers to explore local water issues through dance activism.

"The Global Water Dances international event focuses on environmental justice. This is an area of visible importance to the Flint community," said FSPA's Dance Division Chair Karen Jennings.

This year, FSPA is approaching the Global Water Dance as a way of healing.

"We have encouraged dancers to consider water outside of the impact of the crisis. These explorations have resulted in some student-generated work being included in the work we are sharing," said Jennings.

Five of the performances were choreographed by FSPA, including new work from three faculty.

The first Global Water Dance took place in June 2011 with 57 participating locations. FSPA participated for the first time in 2017.

The founders of Global Water Dances believed that community-based dance performances could be a powerful non-verbal way to mobilize people to take action to protect access to safe drinking water. And with the Internet, it was possible to coordinate a sophisticated but inexpensive online production, both live and pre-recorded, that would allow people in all the performance locations to connect with each other.

This performance is the first time since December 2019 that the FSPA dancers are able to dance together and in front of an audience. The performance is free and open to the public.

GWD is a Music Around Town event and a program of the Flint Institute of Music, in collaboration with the Flint School of Performing Arts and Flint Repertory Theatre.