This post is from Barbara Parker.
You've all seen a canoe, yes? Long, slender boat, pointed ends, propelled by paddles. Sound familiar?
But have you ever seen 6 grown men, 1 artistic coordinator, 2 unsuspecting dancers, and a choreographer trying to plant canoes onto mud flats despite the fact that the water is rapidly rising and two producers must climb into knee-deep mud to pull the canoes toward drier land at regular intervals? I didn't think so.
Canoes are funny.
From the moment you step into a canoe, your balance is challenged. You make circular, horizontal arm movements in a desperate attempt to not fall headfirst into water. Funny, right?
There are many layers to what we are hoping to accomplish with our Face of America: Spirit of South Florida. Many layers. But one simple layer is to answer this question: What can I do when I visit the Everglades?
When we visited last year, we took several spectacular canoe trips. All had two things in common. One, the landscape was wildly beautiful from a point of view so close to the water. Two, there was a certain amount of humor to the trips.
We dealt with two-person canoes where one rower would be diligently, strenuously paddling to find that their partner was distracted by a bird or a ripple in the water. We dealt with near misses in the above mention desperation to not fall head first into the water.
We are answering the question of what you can do when you visit the Everglades with one word. Canoe.
Our location: Mud flats at Florida Bay, Everglades National Park
The dancers: Sarah Braverman and Eric Bourne
The music: "Nyatiti" from Andrew Bird's Useless Creatures
As you may have guessed, this duet is lighthearted. A couple navigating the waters of the Bay and of their own relationship, all the while determined to not topple the canoe.
I apologize for the lack of pictures in the post. Clearly, a camera was just one more thing we could potentially have dropped in the water.
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