Plant Your Feet

Return Dance Project and Samba Fogo present: “Plant Your Feet” Community Dance & Planting Festival, with tree-planting activities, dance classes with special guests, a premiere film screening, and a culminating dance and music concert where we will Dance A Forest To Life. Come dance with your feet on the Earth and your hands in the soil, learning from masters in the fields of African, Brazilian, and African-Brazilian dance forms, and leaving a grove of newly planted trees and a more united community in your wake. Engage with Earth-centered dance lineages, meet new friends, and engage in community planting with artistry, ceremony, and reverence for the sentient Earth.

The entire festival is being offered on a donation basis, in partnership with Return Dance Project, Samba Fogo, TreeUtah, SLC Air Protectors, West Valley Arts, Granite School District, and Tracy Aviary. The culminating dance concert will feature a live orchestra, Samba Fogo drummers, and over 25 dancers, including our three incredible guest artists, Rosangela Silvestre, Dandha Da Hora, and Mabiba Baegne. The concert will also feature 19 dance students from Granger High School Dance Company, and 12 dancers from Return Dance Project, a newly-formed dance company that is exploring the idea of “dance-planting;” utilizing choreographed and improvised dance movements and live music to plant trees, pollinator beds, and other restorative plants. Lynda Willden, native grandmother and local activist with SLC Air Protectors, will be offering a prayer and blessing to the land before we dig into Her.

FESTIVAL SCHEDULE & LOCATIONS:

9:00am-12:00pm Tree planting activity with TreeUtah
Tracy Aviary Jordan River Nature Center

11:00am-3:00pm Community dance classes with special guests:
11:00-12:15: Rosangela Silvestre
12:30-1:30: Mabiba Baegne
1:45-3:00: Dandha Da Hora
Utah Cultural Celebration Center (outside on lawn, or in dance studios in case of inclement weather)

3:00-4:00pm Premiere film screening: “Carry Me Home,” Return Dance Project film & documentary
Utah Cultural Celebration Center

6:30-8:00pm “Dancing A Forest To Life” live music and dance-planting concert
Tracy Aviary Jordan River Nature Center