Dance Among the Water Lilies • Robyn Orlin, How to thank flowers for their fleeting abundance

“I’ve always liked Monet’s various works depicting water lilies, and my new work, How in salt’s desert is it possible to blossom, helps me remember why. This new piece was created in the northwest of the Cape in South Africa, near the Namibian border, in a little town called O'Kiep. This semi-desert area is a real phenomenon as, after South Africa’s winter rains (between July and August), it’s filled with more than 3,500 different species of daisies, and although they’re daisies not water lilies, the way this carpet of flowers overwhelms the imagination creates an immediate “calm”, very similar to Claude Monet’s Water Lilies. What these images have in common is an explosion of colors, whether it’s the lilies’ blue-green textured mass or that explosion of brilliant colors. Nature is present and means to remain so, independently of its different stories in different parts of the world, and reminds us that, as humans, we’re alone but with so much beauty and serenity around us. Let’s embrace it!!!!!!”
Robyn Orlin

Robyn Orlin, choreography
With Byron Klassen, dancer from the Garage Dance Ensemble,
Original music composed and performed by Anelisa Stuurman