"Entrance"

Once at the top, Josh and Laura immediately began to instruct us on the first segment of public moves; intersection. As we began, the movements evolved from sitting next to people on park benches, to following a group of Asian tourists who at one point began turning in circles to reaffirm their suspicions that they were being followed.

I proceeded into the next several segments of the performance with an open mind and an excitement that came with the anticipation of each instruction. After the “meeting” segment we lined up at the top of the hill and watched in awe as Laura and Josh crab walked like I had never seen anyone crab walk before to the level below.

Josh and Laura Crab-Walking

The group followed their way to the bottom of the hill and sat their wondering for a moment just how much stranger this could get.

Awaiting our Next Instruction

We moved on to the “circles and tangents,” which ended up being a great opportunity for me to dart up the hill or “tangent” and take pictures of what was going on below.

"Circles and Tangents"

Once everyone “disappeared” to the side of the hill we were instructed that we would be walking on all fours, sideways, up what seemed like a 45 degree angle. So we began around the side of the hill and proceeded to simultaneously lay down on the front of the hill. By this time we had an audience.

A sample of our audience...the two girls on the left look a little offended

We moved onto “family portrait” and ended with the “sunset.” We ran through the whole performance in its entirety. At the end of the rehearsal I was sad to see what I thought was going to be the longest two and a half hours in my life, end so quickly. At this point, I would be lying if I said I wasn’t excited and anticipating the performance on the 26th.

On Sunday, October 26^th, after searching for a place to park for a good 20 minutes, I made my way up to the third floor café of the Visionary Arts Museum along with several class mates. After being greeted with free bottled water and bagels, I knew it was going to be a good day. I was overwhelmed and really excited to see that so many people had shown up to perform. After a short pep talk from Laura and Josh, the crowd was split into two groups and we made our way to the entrance points at both side corners of the hill. I entered on the right side of the hill and waited for the cue from the megaphones for “intersection.” Instead of taking the easy way out by standing next to tourists and walking in circles, I really wanted to have fun with the opportunity to mimic people’s moves. Because of this attitude, I found myself rolling around on the ground in unison with complete strangers. The “meeting” segment was much more overwhelming than the rehearsal, because it is quite a different experience to be pulled through a crowd of 20 people as opposed to 200. We lined up at the top of the hill and slowly proceeded down into the crab walking.

Crabwalking down Federal Hill

We were then plucked up one at a time to segue into “circles and tangents.”

This was the first time I really got to observe the audience that was being drawn in by the performance. The word “disappear” began to spread through soft whispers amongst the performers and we “disappeared” to the sides of the hill. We then crawled back to the front of the hill and all lay down. I can imagine that from the harbor it looked like humans had been sprinkled onto federal hill like salt and pepper. Once everyone had made their way to the front and sprawled out, we made our way to the center of the hill and sat on each other’s metaphorical “couches.” Once “family portrait” started, the performers were weeded out groups at a time by the cues of “go” and “relax.” Once it was literally down to the last man standing, we were waved back to line up at the top of the hill for the sunset. Though I so desperately wanted to take pictures of the performance, I opted to hand over my camera to my boyfriend and put my faith in him that he would get some good shots. He did not disappoint. Once the performance was over I wanted to see the pictures that he had shot right away. I began scrolling through my camera until I came upon this picture:

After seeing this image, I knew it was all worth it.

I will admit that I wanted to be a spectator of this performance almost as much as I wanted to perform. Public Moves was a great experience and I am very proud to say that I was a part of it.

*All Pictures of the Rehearsal were taken by myself; All Pictures of the Performance were taken by Jacob Tanenbaum

The warmth of the day is gone and I find myself outside taking pictures of grass. I’ve gone home, miles and miles away from the city, and everything around me is dark. A revelry of crickets and locusts echoes around me. The grass is wet and cold against my bare feet. I am using the sporadic strobes of light from the flash to guide my way through my front yard, hoping that I won’t run into the giant St. Andrew’s cross spider that I photographed the day before. The grass is lit for a moment against an abyss of black, and I have my shot.

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