Hangar B at Floyd Bennett Field, NY, was the stage, and vintage military aircraft were the props, for Breaking Ground: A Dance Charrette last week. Each of five choreographers presented a five-minute dance work

tailored to the performance space, which had been revealed to them only five days before the performance date.

The performances this past weekend marked the third presentation of Breaking Ground, a project directed by Joanna Haigood. Breaking Ground is produced by Dancing in the Streets, which is directed by Aviva Davidson. The project allows choreographers to create site-specific works in historic areas

throughout New York City.

Breaking Ground’s subtitle: A Dance Charrette illustrates the idea behind this choreography experiment. “Charrette,” originally, referred to a test that was assigned to architectural students in Paris during the 1800s. For this exam, students had to solve an architectural design problem within 72 hours, place their plans in a cart (a “charrette”), and deliver their finished works to the school. Dance Charrette incorporates the idea of a design problem, as choreographers have only five days to examine a performance site, evaluate its history, identify the site’s challenges, and create a piece of movement that will complement the site.

This year’s Breaking Ground included works by choreographers Jonah Bokaer, Tania Isaac, Stephan Koplowitz, Gus Solomons Jr., and Nami Yamamoto. In creating their works, the artists placed dancers in, around, and on restored airplanes that are part of the Historic Aircraft Restoration Project (HARP), housed in Hangar B.

Previous installments of Breaking Ground put choreographers at the Tobacco Warehouse in Dumbo and Fort Jay on Governors Island.

You can read the New York Times’ review of the performance at this link.

Image Sources:

• Breaking Ground 2008 (by Piotr Redlinski for The New York Times)
• by Vidiot on Flickr, in OHNY 2008 album