CANAL or Time is a Conveyor Belt and the Only Winners are These Basking Turtles is a 30 minute movement and filmic response to the history, ecology, and physicality of the Delaware & Raritan Canal, which cuts from eastern Pennsylvania across the state of New Jersey. Four dancers explore the slow relentless travel of river water past a wide concrete dock. Playing with our reflected images, with community, with competition, with rhythm, with risk, and rest, CANAL asks: how do we situate ourselves within the scars of industrialization?  How does human manipulation coexist with wild growth and adaptation in this former industrial landscape?

Choreography and Direction by Moriah Ella-Gabriel Mason in collaboration with the performers
Performed by Jamison Edgar, Wesleigh Gates, Merli V. Guerra, and Moriah Ella-Gabriel Mason
Videography and Music by Miles Wilder
Editing by Moriah Ella-Gabriel Mason
Photos by Michael Benko

Presented at Temple University's Conwell Dance Theater, through a virtual presentation in December 2020