Summer 2023:

Amazing! the honey bee dance. Plants everywhere celebrate honey bees, because the bees are critical to their growth and health. Bringing food security while maintaining biodiversity for plants, humans and the bees themselves, one-third of food eaten in the US comes from crops pollinated by honey bees, including apples, melons, cranberries, pumpkins, squash, broccoli and almonds.

Karl von Frisch received the NOBEL PRIZE for his discovery of the bee dance, in 1973. He spent many years devoted to its study. The bee’s waggle dance is a phenomenon. The duration and angle of the savant bee’s moves tells the hive where to find food. Apparently for every 1 second, the food is 1 kilometer away, while the direction is discerned by the angle of the dance in relation to the sun. If a food source is nearby, a round dance configuration is performed.

The bee’s figure 8 dance, also called waggle dance, was wonderous to me researching my high school science project. Surprised movement could communicate such a vital source of food for a hive, a few years later, enjoying the magic of expression and improvisation, I received an MA in dance. Now, the bee dance comes full circle, I am a choreographer and dancer exploring the relation of movement and life energy of the human and natural worlds.

Imagine what other secrets are here to be discovered.

Please enjoy the #3 improv video, 1 min., combining footage from the Thain Family Forest, New York Botanical Garden with photography of a growing seedling. video: by Cynthia Berkshire; seedling video: Benedikt Schenker - Ch-5303 Würenlingen; music: Poppy Ackroyd, ‘Release’; camera: Jahmani Perry; soundscape: Cynthia