Lower Raritan Watershed Partnership (LRWP) and Rock Dance Collective are proud to present “Raritan Landscape Reemergence: Awakening Lyell’s Brook Through Dance”, a short filmed movement rhapsody that educates and engages audiences around connection and access to the Raritan River in central New Jersey as part of #lookfortheriver. This project features world premiere choreography by Rock Dance Collective artistic directors Cleo Mack and Blair Ritchie, building off of their decade of work in the region creating sensory experiences using sculpture, sound, and movement for audiences of all ages. The movement based work was filmed along the Lyell’s Brook corridor in the Lower Raritan Watershed and culminates at the newly installed #lookfortheriver sculptural FRAME at Boyd Park, in New Brunswick, NJ. The movement piece and frame work in concert to showcase the potential for new interactions between people, the built environment, and the natural landscape.

This project features world premiere choreography by Rock Dance Collective artistic directors Cleo Mack and Blair Ritchie, building off of their decade of work in the region creating sensory experiences using sculpture, sound, and movement for audiences of all ages. The movement based work was filmed along the Lyell’s Brook corridor in the Lower Raritan Watershed and culminates at the newly installed #lookfortheriver sculptural FRAME at Boyd Park, in New Brunswick, NJ. The movement piece and frame work in concert to showcase the potential for new interactions between people, the built environment, and the natural landscape.

The piece was filmed and edited and released two weeks prior to City of Water Day 2022 as part of outreach for City of Water Day in-person events throughout the New York/New Jersey Harbor Estuary. Rock Dance Collective works in both nontraditional and traditional spaces, responding to societal and environmental stimuli to create meaningful works. In addition to the filmed based work, Rock Dance Collective created an epilogue that was performed live at the Lower Raritan Watershed City of Water Day in-person convening at New Brunswick’s Boyd Park. 

This project is part of a multi-year collaboration between community partners, non-profit civic science organizations, city agencies, and socially engaged artists to create impact oriented artistic response projects that advance strategic planning goals of the Lower Raritan Watershed. In 2017 Rock Dance Collective, in partnership with coLAB Arts and LRWP, created an original piece on the Raritan River waterfront titled A Watershed Moment showcasing the historic and contemporary usages of the largest river in NJ.

LRWP and Rock Dance Collective continue their collaboration through active planning of a “Watershed Run-Off” project which will feature an environmental “smart mob” land contour and stormwater flows demonstration project for the City of New Brunswick, NJ. “The Run Off” is both a community stormwater planning exercise and a collaborative public performance. It is designed to engage City residents and those who work, attend school, visit and/or recreate in New Brunswick in stormwater management planning processes, interspersed with public performance events.

Grant funding has been provided by the Middlesex County Board of County Commissioners through a grant award from Middlesex County Cultural and Arts Trust Fund.