Weekend Programming: Ballet Among the Blooms

Posted in Programs and Events on September 5 2008, by Plant Talk

Andrew Haight is Manager of the Everett Children’s Adventure Garden.

Sounds of pitter-pattering feet, swishing legs, and giggling voices float across the pond. I see through the alders a dozen or more youngsters angling their bodies to dance as if flapping in a blustery wind. Under the watchful eye of a Teaching Artist from New York City Ballet’s Education Department, the children excitedly reshape their bodies into droplets of water, now hurtling through the air.

This group and several others like it were participating in Ballet Among the Blooms, which The New York Botanical Garden hosts annually in conjunction with the School of American Ballet. Spread out across the 12 acres of the Everett Children’s Garden, young visitors embark on a myriad of adventures through mazes, colorfully planted galleries, and, this year only, onto the inspiring Henry Moore sculpture Large Two Forms, on Daffodil Hill. Along the way Teaching Artists arrange impromptu dances and expressive movements. With each area different from the last, children eagerly scamper around the bends in the path to see what the next nook or cranny of the Garden may hold.

The afternoon culminates with a presentation by students from the School of American Ballet in the Everett Children’s Adventure Garden’s Discovery Plaza. Eyes wide with anticipation, the Garden’s youngest visitors peer at the dancers as they walk and stretch at the bar, just a few feet away. Framed by giant topiary caterpillars, the dancers then display their skills and techniques for the enchanted children.

In a day full of dance and flowers, excitement is found in the lighthearted adventure and satisfaction displayed in each child’s movement and expression.

This year’s Ballet Among the Blooms is Sunday, September 7, from 2 to 4 p.m. Entry included with an All-Garden Pass.

Check out Saturday’s Programming

Check out Sunday’s Programming