National Water Dance 2022 "Dancing Out of Time"

As part of the National Water Dance (NWD) April 23, 2022 we danced, walked and carried signs along Seattle’s Greenlake path to "Stand with Tribes - Breach the Snake - Save Our Salmon" (and ORCAS!) We chose a POPULAR lake in Seattle where many folks were out walking on a sunny day to raise awareness about this STATE issue. We live-streamed it with NWD and on our KSD IG.

Dance is vital to restoring our ecosystems for the human and more-than-human. So, with my fellow dance artists and activists we danced and walked for the removal of the four lower Snake River Dams to restore our wild salmon species.

The extinction of salmon could mean extinction of our Southern Resident Orcas.

Our collaborators: Anna Mansbridge of Creative Dance Center, Robin Cambell and Justice Beitzel of Splinter Dance/AJusticeNetwork; Karen Anderson and friends for Snake River Dam Activism Walkers

We danced salmon and orca phrases between the opening and closing NWD movement gestures. We repeated this structure, changing leadership of the group and each section, over and over again around the 2.8 mile lake. WHEW! Salmon Phrase #1: https://youtu.be/fgCZrBNmCV Salmon Phrase #2: https://youtu.be/FexmvGl5NVA Salmon Phrase #3: https://youtu.be/IFspEtM7eHs Orca movements: https://youtu.be/L5IscSXMu30

The activist walkers holding signs engaged many curious folks along the lake during our 1hr+ event to share about the lower four Snake River dams issue, wild salmon and the health of the Southern Resident Orca: Salmon are the main food source for Southern Resident Orca who struggle for survival; science shows that the 90+% loss of wild salmon would have a remarkable recovery if these four dams on the Snake river are removed; and the salmon of this river have been on the endangered species list for 30 years. We are indeed dancing OUT OF TIME! While we danced, the walkers also passed out flyers suggesting actions that could be taken to call for the removal of the Snake River dams. Jennifer Atkinson, a UW Humanities and Environmental Science professor, expert on grief and anxiety in the age of Climate Change, live streamed for us. During the event she heard an elementary school aged kid explain the issue to their parents! Pretty cool to hear that a kiddo already knew about the issue.

Please continue to dance, write, sing, yell or join a sign holding effort at Interstate 5 (email us for more info) for the removal of the four lower Snake River Dams!

The longer we wait for Governor Inslee and Senator Murray to take action to remove the four Lower Snake River Dams, the closer we get to the extinction of our wild salmon! These fish have been an endangered species for three decades! If salmon become extinct, orcas will starve. We face losing the souls of our waters!

Extinction doesn’t wait. It’s time for ACTION. See the latest Inslee/Murray report HERE.

Watch Dammed to Extinction to understand the critical issue regarding the Snake River Dams our wild salmon and Southern Resident Orca.

“Great protests are great art works.” - Sarah Sze, contemporary artist

JOIN US FOR NWD April 2024!!!!

National Water Dance Mission:

The mission of NWD Projects is to promote dance as a vehicle for social change by increasing awareness of environmental and social issues through collaboration with the artistic, educational and scientific communities. NWD Projects makes use of the internet to create a national community, which offers platforms for educating students and supporting artistic exchange among professional artists, while engaging and informing the public.

As artists we know that creativity is born from conflict: conflict that is fed by questions, by self-evaluation, by new and diverse ideas from those who challenge us as we begin the process necessary to change. NWD Projects commits to this journey of creativity and to the goal of equity for all by supporting diversity in its many forms. We recognize that our present systems are based on inequality and we eagerly step into the work to correct the past structures and find a more balanced future.

#environmentalactivism #artasactivism #artandactivism #removethedams #breachthesnake #savewildsalmon