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Photography by Agaton Strom

last days/first field involved the planting of a small indoor field. Why? Influenced by the writings of deep ecologist Dolores LaChapelle, poet and environmentalist Wendell Berry, and food historian Michael Pollan, I had been thinking at length about our connections to the natural world, the stance of patience and care involved in planting, and the “affection” that Berry refers to that ties us to our humanity.

During the process, the dancers and I visited a number of small, educational or community farms– among them Red Hook Community Farm and Eagle Street Rooftop Farm in Brooklyn, Battery Urban Farm in Manhattan, Sylvester Manor on Shelter Island, and the Center for BioRegional Living in Ellenville, a site for permaculture education. It felt fitting to share the act of planting which we have both witnessed and experienced with an audience as an act of our own affection.

In its inimitable way, the Center for the Arts at Wesleyan University came to my aid and gave me an opportunity to practice planting a field of seedlings in a dance studio! In November 2012, we held a workshop about art, activism, and durational practice in which 10 students joined me, dancers Donna Costello and Paloma McGregor, and composer Kristin Norderval in planting a small field of blue corn.

This spring, I commissioned two young farmers, Henry Sweets and Camilla Hammer, to plant our seedlings. They grew kale and basil in a cold frame built by Henry in a backyard in Bushwick, as you can see in the pictures below.  Thanks to Henry and Camilla, the seedlings grew into sturdy little performers.  Back up crops of organic basil and blue corn were also grown at Wesleyan University by Jeff Gilarde, who runs the Wesleyan greenhouse. Through the kindness of Jeff and the Center for the Arts, we knew we’d have plants even if the outdoor crops in Brooklyn were to fail. Basil and corn were transported to Brooklyn on May 9 and delivered by the generous help of Professors Bill Johnston and Lori Gruen and fellow Creative Campus artist Eiko Otake! So for our May 9 performance we planted three crops (kale, corn, and basil) which audience members took home to their yards and windowsills after the show.

For last days/first field I had the good artistic fortune of working with fashion designer kymkym on the costumes. We share a common interest in issues around environment, waste, and natural processes. And she’s just a super talented designer! Check out her tumblr here:

http://kymkym.tumblr.com/

I want to share what she’s written about the costumes for this piece:

Jill challenged me to create wardrobe for the apocalypse. Think peak oil, barren land, hazy skies. Her work addresses the feelings and issues associated with sustainability, the mechanization of agriculture and mass consumption of resources. As such, I’ve taken a familiar approach to the design of costumes for this piece.

Entirely constructed from reclaimed materials that capture the utilitarian aspects of clothing one might wear in an environment much more devastated than we see today, the pieces incorporate vinyl shower curtains, plastic tarps, construction netting, wool, refuse packaging and distressed denim. I’ve used many materials that are purposely non-biodegradable to invoke the prospect of making clothing from what the Earth will not reclaim. Things we must deal with. Use. Destroy. And use again.

This is a photo of Sally’s costume before the premiere:

Here’s a photo from the performance of Sally wearing the beautiful finished product:

As part of our studio practice, we created hand drawn maps of the piece.  Here are some examples:

You can read more about the experience of “last days/first field” from our press coverage.  Here are some links to reviews + interviews, with wonderful writing from Siobhan Burke, Eva Yaa Asantewaa, and many others!

Why I Choreograph, Dance Magazine, May 2013

Soon the Earth Will Be in the Square, Brooklyn Rail, May 2013

Jill Sigman at the Invisible Dog, Culturebot, May 2013

Jill Sigman’s Field of Dance, InfiniteBody, May 2013

Before You Can Plant, Dance Through the End of the World, The New York Times, May 2013

The Dancer in the Dell, The Dance Enthusiast, May 2013

Dance Listings May 3-May 9, The New York Times, May 2013

Photography by Rafael Gamo

last days/first field finally had its premiere in NYC May 7-9th at The Invisible Dog Art Center! Here is some info about our final cast and support team, along with my reflections just before going into production…

last days/first field
a dance by jill sigman/thinkdance

Choreography by Jill Sigman (with the performers)
Visual design by Jill Sigman
Performed by Hadar Ahuvia, Corinne Cappelletti, Donna Costello, Sally Hess, Irene Hsi, Paloma McGregor, Jill Sigman &
Devika Wickremesinghe
Original musical score created and performed by Kristin Norderval
Costumes by kymkym
Lighting design by David Ferri
Plants by Camilla Hammer & Henry Sweets

Press representation by Janet Stapleton
Project consulting by Jane Forde
Video documentation by Nic Petry
Production assistance by Robin Cherof, Fernando Romero, Larissa Sheldon
Box office by Chelsea Adewunmi and Christian Smith-Socaris
Event Consulting by Stephanie Ehrlich

last days/first field was co-commissioned by Wesleyan University’s Center for the Arts with support from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. This project would not have been possible without the developmental support, care, and understanding Wesleyan provided. It has received additional developmental support from Gibney Dance Center and Yggdrasiltunet Art Center in Norway. These performances have been generously supported by a grant from the Bay and Paul Foundations. Thanks to Matthew Cumbie, Elke Luyten, and Andrew Drury for their earlier artistic contributions to this creative process.

Artist’s Statement
last days/first field is a movement ritual for our time. I have spent the past 3 years building site-specific structures out of trash (The Hut Project)—gathering cast-off materials in different parts of the world, serving tea to strangers, and connecting with urban farmers, permaculture practitioners, compost educators, environmental communicators, climate adaption experts, garbage activists, and anthropologists in an effort to make sense of how we live on this planet. last days/first field is a culmination of this research and an attempt to kinesthetically process my experience through live performance. As the planet heats up and we grapple with environmental and economic instabilities and anxieties, how do we deal? What do we do? And where do we go from here?

The dancers and I have been reflecting on these questions through our shared practice. It has been a practice that swallows everything—work with movement in the studio, visits to farms and green spaces (weeding, planting, dancing), Arctic stones, our experiences of Hurricane Sandy and the fallen branches we have collected, our observations of hipsters on the L train, our reading about fields and food and rituals, our own real estate and economic tribulations, and finally, our being with you here now. last days/first field questions and exorcises and connects and reminds. It is simultaneously a dance, a durational ritual, and a part of real life.  –Jill Sigman, May 2013

We have just finished our fall rehearsal period for “last days/first field”. Here are some photos from our recent rehearsals (taken by Rafael Gamo). Some of these images show our work with objects found after Hurricane Sandy. We are developing a practice of “reading” the objects.

Here are photographs taken by Shannon Welch from THE FIELD student workshop!