As part of Chicago Park District’s Night Out in the Parks series, 2023 Guggenheim Fellow in Choreography Nejla Yatkin will surprise visitors in parks around Chicago with pop-up performances of her interactive and joyous Firebird dances for visitors to attend free of cost. Accompanied by live music, the meditative dances will be created in a sustainable relationship with nature. For four weeks starting on Thursday, June 8, Yatkin will perform 16 dance meditations that spark hope and deepen connections between people and their surroundings. At the end of each dance, park visitors of all ages will be invited to join in a collective bird movement meditation guided by Yatkin to prepare for the final Firebird Parade on Saturday, July 8.

The full schedule and locations are online at www.ny2dance.com.

“My creative work is very much influenced by my pastoral nomadic heritage,” shares Nejla Yatkin. “Similar to my nomadic heritage in which people travel seasonally to regenerate the land, I travel from place to place and put down creative seeds. My ‘nomadic’ creative practice has taken me to all continents of the world and has connected me, in a very intimate way, with diverse communities everywhere. From my multi-cultural background, I weave multiple cultural influences into choreographic tapestries of my own design. I explore multifaceted identities in solo dances, choreograph trans-cultural ensemble dances for stages and sites, collaborate on plays and film/video projects, and educate young and professional artists.”

The park pop-ups and workshops will encourage participants—and roaming visitors—to create their own firebird costumes, sounds, and movements that they can bring to the final Firebird Parade. Participants are invited to gather at the Caracol Gathering Space in the Burnham Wildlife Corridor on July 8 at 5:00pm for a performance of Firebird followed by a festive parade with costumes, sounds, and dances to conclude the Firebird ceremony.

For more Stories From The 78, follow @tombarnas78 on Instagram and @storiesfromthe78 on TikTok.