The 2022 Great Northern Festival, Jan. 27-Feb. 6, already announced it will feature an ice-enclosed greenhouse in a downtown St. Paul alley this winter. Last week, the annual festival released its full schedule of events, which include a site-specific performance by 50 dancers on Como Lake.
The Great Northern features performances, food events, site-specific art and highlights ongoing Twin Cities winter events, including the St. Paul Winter Carnival, City of Lakes Loppet and U.S. Pond Hockey Championships.
The Como performance on Feb. 5 will be created by dancer/choreographer Dimitri Chamblas. Titled “Slow Show,” it’s described as “a 20-minute intensive, collective dance whose movements are minute, precise and concentrated – inspired by principal roots of trance, exultation, telepathy and unconscious memories.” The dance on Como will feature accompaniment of samples, live electronics and guitar by Eddie Ruscha.
The functioning ice greenhouse, titled “Conservatory,” will be located at 340 N. Sibley St., near Mears Park and will have black coneflowers, velvet petunias, mondo grass, coleus and more, celebrating Black life. The artists say the installation will provide a space for Black life to thrive in harsh conditions.
Other Great Northern events include a troupe of five local Latinx performers sharing a comedic take on adjusting to life in the North and an iconic 1970s Fluxus performance art piece reimagined with an ice cello dyed black and embedded with electronics, played and translated into sound. Also on tap, according to festival organizers: “Learning from Place: Bdote,” an outdoor experience inviting participants to expand their understanding of local sites with deep significance to the Dakota people; time at an anechoic chamber, at one of the quietest places on Earth; thermic bathing programming throughout the city; and an outdoor festival launch party in Northeast Minneapolis.
For more info: thegreatnorthernfestival.com.
Copyright 2021 Pioneer Press.