Join the MFA and Art2Action for At Water’s Edge/Al filo del agua, an open-air, interactive performance, with storytelling and live music, created by three women from different generations and different geographic locations—one in the United States, the other in Mexico, and the third at the edge of the two. Stories, legends, and acts of resistance intertwine as their lives intersect.

Two Performances at the MFA:
Thursday, June 23 at 7 pm
Sunday, June 26 at 3 pm

FREE with museum admission; Limited capacity

At Water’s Edge is a bilingual, international collaboration co-created by choreographers/co-directors Celeste Miller and Dora Arreola, with dancer Miroslava Wilson and members of Mujeres en Ritual Danza Teatro. The project has been developed through a multi-site process at the artists’ various locations: Florida and Iowa in the U.S.A., and Baja California in Mexico. Through improvisations, site-specific interventions, personal stories, queer and feminist re-tellings of legends and myths, At Water’s Edge / Al filo del agua connects with movements for women’s rights, as well as nature and water protection. Themes include climate crisis, migration, and solastalgia – the longing for a home that is disappearing, landscapes destroyed (or changed) by natural or human-made disasters.

Water’s Edge asks: What are the borders that divide you? What are the frontiers you approach? What are the edges you evade? Where are the places we find hope—in our bodies, words, songs, images… It is about the shifting of borders / edges / filos—the natural and political forces that shape them, and the women who resist.

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Al filo del agua dirigida por Celeste Miller y Dora Arreola es una propuesta escénica de danza, historias y cantos, que explora la relación entre tres mujeres de diferentes generaciones y de diferentes latitudes geográficas: una de Estados Unidos, la otra de México y la tercera en la frontera entre las dos. Inspirada por leyendas y pasajes del libro Luz en la Oscuridad de Gloria Anzaldua, Al filo del agua expone la historia de tres mujeres que fueron expulsadas del “paraíso” por tomar responsabilidad de sus propias vidas. Su pasión por percibir la realidad de una manera diferente se convirtió en el pecado original de la caída de la humanidad, por lo que las mujeres continúan siendo culpadas y castigadas. Sin embargo, esto las llevó a desarrollar una conciencia más profunda y una autonomía feroz. En sus exilios sus historias se entrelazan para intersectar sus ciclos de vida y sus resiliencias. Sus rituales privados contienen profundos lazos, en estos encuentran el mismo deseo por un hogar que ya no existe o que he sido destruido. Los temas de Al filo del agua son la crisis climática, las fronteras y los desechos de las mujeres. Es una obra interactiva y al aire libre donde las respuestas del público contribuyen al desarrollo de la obra. ¿Cuáles son las fronteras que te dividen? ¿Cuáles son los filos a los que acercas?

Celebrating the artists and themes in the MFA’s photography exhibition Women’s Work: A Survey of Female Photographers, At Water’s Edge/Al filo del agua serves as a performative touchstone to, among others, the following artists and works of art in the exhibition:

• Barbara Morgan’s depiction of the dancer Martha Graham
• Fay Godwin, environmental activist
• Graciela Iturbide, whose works create visual portraits of communities in transition along the Mexican/American border
• Mariana Yampolsky, who explored the cultural occupation experienced by Indigenous communities

FREE with museum admission; Limited capacity

Watch Trailer At Water’s Edge / Al filo del agua

At Water’s Edge / Al filo del agua is a National Performance Network (NPN) Creation & Development Fund Project co-commissioned by Art2Action, Grinnell College, and NPN. For more information, visit www.npnweb.org. Additional support is provided by the NPN Artist Engagement Fund; and the Ford Foundation, Arts and Culture, Creativity and Free Expression program.