Dancer uses art to protest proposed Mt. A expansion

Visitors to Lithia Park Friday were treated to an unusual sight — a woman cartwheeling on the grass above the lower duck pond while singing in haunting, resonating tones. Vanessa Nowitzky, a local resident, has performed her one-woman "singdance" she calls "The Creek" daily at 5:30 p.m. since Aug. 13. Her final performance is Tuesday.

"The Creek" is Nowitzky's way of educating the public on her views about the power of water and the potential negative effects of the proposed Mt. Ashland expansion.

Nowizky explained her art while looping around the Lithia lawn, unloosing shrills and hollers on harmony as she moved in the context of her vision of water before a struck audience.

It was a brief, but passionately choreographed performance, which Nowitzky punctuated by speaking about the the values of water and the dangers of clear cutting. The song and dance routine is used to promote her views against the proposed Mt. Ashland expansion that she believes is at the expense of the Ashland watershed. After expounding on the travails of expanding the Mt. A ski area, she performed her art again, encouraging the audience to sing with her and invoke the spirit of movement.

Nowitzky invented her singdance as a way to "hear dance" when she was honing her music and acting skills. A resident of Ashland since 1984, Nowitzky decided to try her luck in New York, which lasted four months. She described the metropolis as 'crowded and polluted.'

"I was in the subway, caught between two trains with no exit," she said. "I was trapped with this horrible chemical smell and suddenly I felt enslaved by others' decisions. When I thought about the needs of the world, I felt a greater connection and found myself thinking often of the (Ashland) Creek."

Nowitzky says her main mission is to bring attention to nature through art.

"Ultimately I took these feelings and they helped me to start choreographing my Creek singdance and I extricated myself a month later." Nowitzky then returned to the familiar scenes of Ashland. "Through singdance, I knew I had a forum," she said. "I just start performing it and people show up."

Explaining singdancing, Nowitzky said, "In my studio, I craft melodies. Then I fine-tune physical movements and see how they affect my vocal apparatus."

Nowitzky explained how she developed a rhythm system to coordinate her breathing and singing with her physical movements. Now she says she applies the physical philosophy to all of her dance lessons.

Within this singdance, Nowitzky is examining and displaying her artistic notions of water. "I start with my interpretations of water. Whatever comes out that I like, I fine-tune it to match the emotional movements of song."

Nowitzky is not alone in defending Ashland's waters. She is aligned with "Grandmothers and Friends in Green." The group's leader, Angie Thusius, says, "I was very grateful when she said she wanted to help. Vanessa is a very beloved and outstanding dancer."

In addition to her innovative singdancing, Nowizky ushers and serves as an understudy at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. Next year she will perform ensemble work for the OSF. The charismatic actor has also performed with Ballet in the Park. She has also been funded by the Jefferson Nature Center in 2005, when she danced in the Ashland Creek by Victoria McOmie's sculptures. The video of this is on <www.youtube.com>; under "creekfire."

Nowitzky continues to perform tonight and Tuesday evening at 5:30 p.m. in the long meadow by the lower duck pond of Lithia Park. The performance lasts for fifteen minutes, are interactive and free to the public.