Title: Heathdale Celebration: The Restoration of a Glen

Premiere: June 6, 7, 8, 2002. Heathdale Glen, Nichols Arboretum, University of Michigan, as part of the “ArbFest 2002”

Commission: Ford Motor Company

Music: Michael Gould, traditional shakhuhachi; Michael Gould, composer and percussionist. (Note: there were two musicians named Michael Gould for this production!)

Costume Design and Construction: Suzanne Young

Dancers: Connie Jo Ferguson (clogger), John Frederick, Raphael Griffin, Beth Maderal, Ricki Mason (now Lou Henry Hoover), Rachel Mckinstry, Beth Wielinski (now Beth Freiman),

Musicians: Michael Gould, shakuhachi; Michael Gould, percussion

Description: This is an excerpt from a talk I gave on a panel at the American College Dance Festival Association conference at Ohio State University, describing the work: “In the spring of 2002, after a difficult fall, during which the world suddenly changed forever, I took on a choreographic project that was about landscape restoration, and that was truly restorative on a number of levels.  While the globe was still raw from the afterimages  of 9/11, I immersed myself in a project that was about healing and valuing the land in our own backyard——in an  arboretum that is shared by the university and the Ann Arbor community. Restoration was a central idea in the conception of the project, which was entitled Heathdale Celebration:  The Restoration of a Glen. I was commissioned by the Nichols Arboretum to create a performance event in celebration of the “completion” of the restoration of the Heathdale Glen.  The restoration of this site had been underway for years The site underwent a wonderful rebirth, involving years of work by hundreds of  dedicated university and community volunteers. I researched the evolution of the area, listening to the stories and experiences of the volunteers and project leaders. I especially listened to the stories of Jim Lempke who, as a graduate student at the University of Michigan was put in charge of renovating the site. In conversations with Jim, I learned he Is a Vietnam war veteran,   and the restoration of this site  for him became a deep kind of healing.  In immersing himself in the challenges of the project and in the beauty that surrounded him, he began to make peace with the horrors of his own past in Vietnam.   When he began work on the project, he couldn’t bear to  hear the sounds of the rescue helicopters from the nearby UM hospital without cringing.  But that subsided for him as he worked on the site.  In listening to his reminiscences, I began to understand  the site in part as a place of healing.  The UM Hospital encourages their patients to walk in the Arb for its restorative values. One patient walking in the Arb said:' The U-M hospitals are where I go for my treatments, but here is where I get my real therapy.’ Another story I was told in researching the  project had to do with the death of a child.  The renovation of the glen was generously supported  by Helen and Norris Post, to honor of their daughter Julie who had been a UM student.  Julie had particularly loved the glen. I was never told how Julie died, but she lost her life soon after college. In late October of 2001, over 150 rhododendrons, azaleas, mountain laurel and ferns were added to the glen and named the Julie Norris Post Collection of Appalachian Plants. As we rehearsed in the glen throughout May, new blooms appeared on a daily basis—we were constantly surprised and delighted by the changing  environment. Arb workers and volunteers were continuously clearing and cultivating the site while we rehearsed and I ended up including them in the performance.  Images of death and rebirth were embedded in the dance, in the actions of clearing the dead wood, and in establishing new plantings.The project was about many things-- how landscape restoration projects establish bonds and rituals within the community of the workers who restore the landscape; how an immersion in a very beautiful natural setting can bring us back to our senses. Working on this project was very gratifying. I loved entering the glen every day, to find new things growing, the world coming back into bloom. I found myself reluctant to return to proscenium work after this. But then there is the problem of Michigan weather. As the temperature dropped and our fall semester began, it dawned on me that I could move to an indoor botanical conservatory for a winter performance, which I did in February 2003.I created a performance in the lush indoor tropical conservatory of the UM Matthaei botanical Gardens .Then I created a third work on outdoor trails of the University of Michigan Matthaei Botanical Gardens in June 2003.”

This work thus became part of what I have called “A Triptych of Site-Specific Dances,” three evening-length performances created in 2002-2003. After a cold rainy month of May, Heathdale… was presented on the first weekend that there was beautiful weather, and there were many audience members who happened upon it, while others came as a result of the PR. Because of the rain leading up to the performance, we had to sprinkle sand on some of the slippery fallen logs the dancers were forming on. The musicians played on both instruments they carried with them as well as wood found throughout the site. There were also some portable amplifiers nestled hidden in the brush for a couple of the scenes. The funding allowed for a video crew, headed by Joseph Yunkman, to capture the performance. This was a “promenade” perforance, with the audience following the performers from scene to scene, first down a steep path, then pausing at a fallen log, a group of trees, a bench, before settling down to view the remaining scenes from the base of the glen.

Video: Triptych Overview

Press release

Program

Ann Arbor News preview

University Record