Holding ears of corn and other items from the nearby Grove Street Farmers Market, Meagan Woods and her company of dancers weave between the shoppers with an air of ritual.
There is something very primitive in their movement, perhaps inspired by the down-to-earth atmosphere of the market, or by some connection between earth and dance that goes back to the roots of human society.
“I like to do interpretive dance,” Woods says during a break, breathing hard from the exhilarating series of movements that drew the attention of market-goers away from the booths.
Yet as primitive and ritualistic as this dance seems, it is one of the modern dance pieces that she and her group have performed across the northeast, from New Jersey Center of Performing Arts and Ailey Citigroup Theater Grounds for Sculpture to the George Street Playhouse and Crossroads Theater.
Locally, the group has strong connections to Art House Productions in Jersey City.
Woods says interpretative dance is part of their routine, and at the Grove Street PATH Plaza, she and her fellow dancers try to evoke the feeling of the market and its connection to Gaia, or Mother Earth.
“I like to do interpretive dance.” – Meagan Woods
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She frequently serves as a choreographer and lecturer for the museum. She also choreographs, designs, and guest-lectures at Rutgers University. In 2010, Woods collaborated with Insurgo Stage Project and Art House to co-produce Your Move, Jersey City’s annual modern dance festival.
Woods and her company even carried on in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy in late 2012, a testimony to their determination.
Dance as emotional exploration
At the last Stagefest at Loew’s Theater, she and her group performed “As It Is Written,” which had previously been performed at the Your Move Dance Festival in Jersey City. Like many works created by Woods, this piece of interpretive art sought to explore emotional turmoil, in particular, the grief, hope and resolve related to loss.
While performing with an ear of corn may seem a large leap from such deep emotional explorations, the feeling derived from the dance seemed to draw on something deep beneath the hustle and bustle consciousness of the market around them, as the troupe sought to draw on the deeper meaning and rituals of the past.
In watching them, one could not help but feel a connection to other places and times when such markets were the center of village life, and often required the rituals and rites of dance to help bring rain and fertility.
Woods said she liked the open performance space near Grove Street and its access to the public. Many people stopped to watch the performances as the dancers, bearing their vegetables, moved through their interpretations.
Al Sullivan may be reached at asullivan@hudsonreporter.com.