Programs

PERIPHERAL CITY, a project of Creative Capital was a 3-year program in which Red Dive worked with community members, organizations and dozens of artists to create public events and guided tours that expanded the perception of an environment or issue that exists on the "periphery" of the public eye or perhaps is in a state threat or considered unsafe. The PERIPHERAL CITY vision aimed to increase awareness and challenge audiences to examine the role of art and citizenship in relationship to their daily lives and the places they inhabit. See event history below to read more about Peripheral City.

Event History

PERIPHERAL CITY: Downtown (2005)
Dressed in orange jumpsuits, Red Dive led audiences on a not-your-usual urban experience through the winding and cavernous streets of the financial district. Red Dive’s performance tours explored the physical and psychological changes taking place in New York’s financial neighborhood by entwining history with personal stories from interviews conducted with people on the street. Through distinctive Red Dive touches, audiences witnessed a "fisherman" searching for old New York in back street sewers, a snare drummer and a trio of business women dancing in a cobblestone alleyway, and an improvisatory marching band parading down Fulton Street. This event was a part of the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council’s Downtown NYC River to River Festival sponsored by American Express.


PERIPHERAL CITY: City of Refuge (2005)
The City of Refuge walking performance-tour incorporated live music, dance, video installation, and street corner stories to explore the Chinatown neighborhood as a refuge over time for those in the pursuit of the universal human need for safety and security. Defined by its landmarks, neighborhood lore and US immigration policy, Chinatown provided an intimate setting for stories of discovery, loss and rebirth that come with a new life in America. Using both historical text and stories collected from current residents of Chinatown- actors, musicians and dancers staged these narratives and invited visitors to question one's own sense of place, while living in a world of rapid global change. This event was produced in partnership with the Museum of Chinese in the Americas.




PERIPHERAL CITY: Rediscovering The Gowanus Canal (2003)
A series of artistic, eco-boat tours down Brooklyn’s Gowanus Canal, a neglected industrial waterway experiencing an environmental rebirth. Commissioned performances occurred on bridges and at unexpected points along the banks while an audio documentary of local stories and myths was amplified in the boat breathing life into the canal’s history and current state.

ONE LESS SENSE: Vision Without Sight (2000)
A 45-minute, guided blindfolded tour of an old school building in which audience members explored the potentials of limitation. Without benefit of sight they heard, felt, touched, and even smelled a crafted series of works by dancers, musicians, performers and installation artists. " . . .traversing the psychic and physical spaces of this audacious interactive environment [ONE LESS SENSE] produces an experience as private and singular as wiggling a loose tooth with your tongue . . .." -- DANCE INSIDER

INHABITED: AFTERLIVES (1998, BESSIE AWARD)
An intimate, performance-installation tour of the Lower East Side Tenement Museum that explored the haunting, transformative aspects of New York’s Lower East Side immigration history.

INHABITED: GHOSTS OF HOME (1997),
This first performance-installation tour of the Lower East Side Tenement Museum envisioned the memories and sensations of home as seen through the lesser-known urban tenement experience.

FOOD FOR THE SOUL (1997)
An interactive dinner event hosted by cultural scholar Cornel West as part of The Foundry Theatre’s Hope Conference. Red Dive created room and table design as well as sculptural representations of the theme of Hope in order to transform the dining experience into an "eating of ideas."

POOL (1996)
A "party" in an old garage in South Williamsburg Brooklyn that transformed a 200 cubic foot oil-changing pit into a thriving, freshwater bog. A series of live music and performance art presentations further expressed the evening’s theme of re-use and transformation.