The Crossings: A skirt, a movement

PHOTO BY ALLANA POPHAM
Damaris Ferrer, adjunct professor in NSU’s Department of Communication, Media, and the Arts, and “movers” perform a “crossing” at the opening exhibition of “The Crossings.”

For almost three years, across the globe, people donned a giant 20-foot red velvet skirt for improvised performances with no set choreography and no set rhythm. Created by Damaris Ferrer, associate lecturer in NSU’s Department of Communication, Media, and the Arts, this project is known as “The Crossings.”

“The Crossings: A Global Movement Experience” is a multimedia exhibition that features photos and videos of “The Crossings” performances. It is on display from Sept. 12 to Nov. 3 at the Frank C. Ortis Art Gallery and Exhibit Hall in Pembroke Pines.

“The Crossings” is an art movement that reframes dancers as “movers” and the audience as “witnesses.” In the improvised performance, “movers” are connected in a 20-foot red velvet skirt made up of eight waistbands.

“I had to eliminate everything that would keep somebody from entering the work. Instead of dancers, I offered it to movers. So if you breathe, you can do it. I got rid of the audience,” Ferrer said. “What if people just witness something? There was no more theater. There were no costumes. There was no choreography, it is just improv and it’s timid.”

Ferrer said the improvised performances teaches movers to be in the moment and not plan anything.

“It really is in the moment. You either surrender to that, or you don’t and you’re going to fall,” Ferrer said.

The movement started in Davie in November 2020, amid COVID, when artists struggled to express themselves due to isolation and lack of an audience during the pandemic.

As the project continued, the concept grew, and this red skirt made its way around the world in a duffle bag that is on display at the exhibition.

“’The Crossings’ is an invitation to embrace the intentional journey forward, trusting in the transformative power of collective artistic action, and celebrating the boundless potential of movement to unite, narrate and inspire,” said Sophie Bonet, exhibition curator. “The skirt became a vessel of shared experiences, its significance varying with each group, representing ritual, connection, femininity or even political symbolism, depending on the concept [and movers].”

The movement was inspired by a theatrical staged piece that used the concept of the skirt with a reminder: “you are always attached to someone that will ground you and that one never knows where life will take them,” Ferrer said.

Ferrer created the concept of this collaboration between artists from watching a theatrical piece of people crossing a bridge. She thought this would be a poetic, creative way to bring people together.

“As a choreographer, [this movement taught] me not to hold something so precious and to not allow the unfolding of the unknown. I guess that’s the most beautiful part of it,” Ferrer said.

This exhibition allows viewers/ witnesses to experience art in a non-traditional way and change their perspective on movement. It displays the journey of the skirt throughout time and different places of the world, including Davie, Bogota, Colombia, Athens, Greece, Hong Kong and Los Angeles.

“This breaks boundaries in every sense, not only geographical boundaries, but emotional boundaries and cultural boundaries. It’s a project that is free, that is just very fluid,” Bonet said. “This 20-foot skirt with eight waistbands has traveled the world. There’s something powerful and special in collaboration.”