I have wanted to work with the amazing visual artist – Bill Will, for a long time. He has worked on and off with choreographers for many years, and I have always deeply admired his wit, subtle politics and use of materials. I considered it a milestone in my own making when – about 10 years ago, he went out of his way to let me know that he thought my then current project was really exciting. For me, it was a huge affirmation about how I was working. So, when it was clear that the Artist in Residence Program was going to go forward, I called him up to see if he wanted to collaborate on a major scale project for the park. Most often empty and lonely for activity, I wanted to create an event for the South Waterfront Neighborhood Park that would help to dream it into being; tatto it with the life and energy that neighborhood parks should have. This one will become a formal neighborhood park by June of 2009. The short story is that Bill said yes, and we began the very daunting process of trying to create a work that could, in scale and energy, inhabit the nearly two city blocks of open space that the park occupies. Many stunning ideas have lived and died over the last 9 months. A neighborhood in constant, dramatic physical transformation is a tough place to work. One turns around one day and the whole thing looks different. How to create something that can ride the flux, weather changes? Bill’s installation 20×20 and our shared creation of Promenade are our responses to the land, the history, the natural elements and the spirit of gathering that parks instill. Working in close collaboration with sound designer Seth Nehil and lighting designer Bill Boese, along with a core group of dancers: Daniel Addy, Noelle Stiles, Tahni Holt, Eric Nordstrom, Kathleen Keogh, Katie Arrants, Rebecca Harrison and Tracy Broyles, we are creating a very singular performance gathering. We hope you will join us on Saturday, July 19th an hour before sunset. PROMENADE

• Saturday, July 19th
• South Waterfront Neighborhood Park, SW Moody@ Curry
• gathering begins an hour before sunset
• Free; picnics and all ages welcome
• Go green with the tram, streetcar, bicycle or a carpool
• Safe, secure and free bicycle parking available at SW Moody and Curry

One-of-a-kind and unrepeatable, Promenade is an episodic dance, sound and light performance event that involves more than 30 performers, bicycles and a rising moon. Coinciding with Bill Will’s July guest artist residency as part of the AiR Program, Promenade will emerge from Will’s installation - 20 x 20, on Saturday evening, July 19th. Almost two city blocks in scale, 20 x 20 is a site-specific installation using simple materials that calls attention to the land, its simple proportions and subtle topography, as well as emphasizes the movement of the sun and wind throughout the day and the changes evoked by the natural phenomena of sunset, dusk, and moonrise. Promenade invites the viewer to traverse the installation at one’s leisure – sitting, resting and engaging as desired. One night only, Promenade references the rural, the urban, the past and the future of this area of the city.

The South Waterfront is begging to be used as a community-gathering place and as stage for performance. Johnson will collaborate with visual artist Bill Will to create a dance event that extends the scale and energy of the South Waterfront district.