by Lucy Curtis

Fifty feet above the ground, on the Morris Arboretum’s “Out on a Limb” structure, three dancers performed “In the Quiet,” a piece choreographed by Jenny Roe Sawyer, founder and artistic director of From the Earth Dance Project.

“In the Quiet” began with the three dancers moving around the netting which sagged below the platform on which audience was seated, mainly staying on their backs and stomachs. As the dance progressed their movements became more rapid and their sliding and tumbling around took on a playful quality.

The dancers’ movements were equal parts graceful and harsh, their bodies and sounds taking on the shapes and sounds of forest creatures.

“We worked with creating different kinds of creatures that would live there. Not imitating things that exist, but just creating movement that seemed like a creature that would inhabit that space,” said Sawyer, who choreographed and danced in the piece.

As the half-hour long dance went on the three dancers ran, jumped and scampered over all the parts of the raised platform. They interacted with the audience and each other, sometimes moving very quickly and sometimes standing almost perfectly still.

The only sounds came from the dancers, both from their movements as well as sounds they issued forth. The dancers were at times serene, and at other times wary, their bodies taking on mannerisms of the creatures in the woods surrounding them.

Because there was no music the dance was surprising and organic in its development.

“In it my real inspiration was that feeling of when I go out in the woods, when I’m dancing or sitting quietly, when I’m there long enough that I seem like part of the woods,” Sawyer said. “That kind of a moment, it’s so rare but it’s so special, I wanted to try and create that kind of a feeling for the audience. That they were witnessing something special and secret that they wouldn’t normally get to see.”

This is where the title came from, a desire to immerse the audience in their own special moment as part of nature.

The site-specific nature of the performance as well as small space and limited number of audience members created an intimate and unique experience that was truly special. The dance was performed only four times; twice on Saturday June 25, and twice on Sunday the 26th.

“In the Quiet” was performed by Jenny Roe Sawyer, Loren Groenendaal, and Janna Meiring. The dance was choreographed by Sawyer for the Morris Arboretum as the artistic director of From the Earth Dance Project. Sawyer founded From the Earth in 2012. The project began when Sawyer created a piece called ‘Upstream,’ which was choreographed for and performed in the Wissahickon Creek.

“I kept hiking there, and I kept imagining people dancing in the creek.” Sawyr said. “So finally I got some dancers together and we started working on that project.”

Sawyer went on to perform that piece twice more in different creeks.

Through choreographing and performing ‘Upstream’ Sawyer fell in love with the idea of dancing outside and in specific outdoor spaces, and from this the From the Earth Dance Company was created.

“The idea behind ‘From the Earth Dance Project’ is using human body and movement and dance to re-inspire people to connect to nature,” she said. “I feel like part of it is to get people out in nature and have meaningful experiences out in nature and inspire a desire to connect more deeply to nature. But I also think there’s something about human movement and when you put that in the beauty of a natural setting it kind of re-enlivens it in a new way.”

Besides performances, From the Earth also offers outdoor dance workshops. Sawyer said that “the goal of those is to invite people to explore playful and curious ways of physically interacting with nature that we all naturally have and tend towards. When we’re children it’s very easy to play in nature, but as adults we kind of get socialized out of it. It’s a re-invitation people to explore that for themselves.”

The workshops are simply venues in which participants take part in improvisational outdoor movement. Sawyer encourages those who participate to follow their impulses when it comes to interacting with nature. She said that instead of “looking at nature like a museum” she would rather have people enjoy and appreciate nature by touching and interacting with it.

Before founding From the Earth Dance Project Sawyer graduated from Oberlin College with a bachelor’s degree in both dance and environmental studies, with a concentration in choreography as well.

“I’ve been improvising and choreographing for a long time” Sawyer said. “For me I want the act of performing to more deeply connect the performers to the space and to the site and to the natural landscape, and become more connected to nature through the doing of it. But I also want to create that sense of connection for the audience.”

As she finds ways to interact more deeply with the world around her through dance, Sawyer is sure to create spaces and moments for her audience to do the same.