Photos and story by Katharine Wilson
The world premiere of “Grass is Green” premiered at The Clarice as a part of the visiting artist series on Mar. 10.
“Grass is Green” is a dance focused on themes of destruction and rebirth inspired by the AIDS epidemic, wildfires and the COVID-19 pandemic. This piece was created by Chuck Wilt and UNA productions.
“The Clarice is really interested in these kinds of social and topical works. It felt like a really good curatorial choice,” said Artistic Planning Coordinator for the Visiting Artist Series Tariq O’Meally.
The visiting artist series invites professional artists to perform and to work with University of Maryland’s School of Theatre, Dance and Performance Studies students. UNA productions went to three dance classes at UMD leading up to this performance to work with students on their improvisational skills and sharing pieces of “Grass is Green”.
Wilt’s vision for this piece was to start and end with joy. The performance begins and ends with dancers dancing joyously to upbeat music, while the middle is more serious and heavy.
“It was important to me in creating this work, to sort of move us through these darker places and these harder places and hopefully, show us a way out of them or show us how everything is cyclical. Everything will sort of recycle and renew and refresh,” said Wilt, who is the choreographer, artistic director and a performer for this production.
A drag queen performer, who goes by the drag name of Rose Nylons, plays the piano and cello during the production. They start the show as well with a drag performance. When asked about why he included a drag performer in the production Wilt said drag “is a very quintessential part of our [queer] community.”
After the premiere, the performers did a talk-back for the audience. During this, the audience was asked to shout out things that stood out to them during the performance. They said “power,”“transformation” and “freedom.”
“The movers themselves had so much like individuality… and that was very beautiful to watch,” said Julie Akerly, who attended the premiere.
UNA productions started the production of this piece in 2019 and production was halted due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Something that it’s given me is just reminding me how sacred and amazing of an opportunity it is just to dance and just to be able to perform with each other,” said Wilt.
Wilt had worked with UMD dance students previously by virtually setting their Spring Dance concert in 2021.
Correction: a previous version of this story said that Nylon played the violin.
