Jenna Balfe: Organesis

“I consider the natural world a dance partner,” says Balfe, raised in jungly Coconut Grove. “When I dance outside I understand all these things connect – the health of the planet, the health of our bodies, the wind and trees. It sounds simple. But you end up in a profound place.”

Balfe has devoted herself to uniting creativity, community and nature. Since 2012 she has taught BodyMovement, her original blend of contact improv, yoga, theater, and childlike wonder. She teaches outdoors, on beaches or among mangroves, most recently on Virginia Key, where she’s working on a performance art garden, funded by an Oolite Ellies grant – a creative tropical oasis.

Balfe brings her instincts for play and inter-connectedness to Here & Now with Organesis, a mix of dance, original music with members of her band Donzii, performance, comedy and tenderness. The piece is Balfe’s invitation to look beyond capitalist structures – what can I buy, what’s my job – to a richer, more fundamental sense of our humanity, of the value of being part of the world. “We feel like we have a limit to how much we can give, how much we receive,” she says. “Consuming, that’s how you fill your void. I don’t have an answer. But I’m exploring that.”