WaterLines: RiverBank

2015

WaterLines: RiverBank was a performance and installation in a vacant bank and along the edge of the Chester River that invited local audiences to consider points of connection, interdependency, and reciprocity between the river, the town, and community members themselves. 

About the Project

In WaterLines: RiverBank, Cassie Meador, now Executive Artistic Director of Dance Exchange, was invited to collaborate with architect/installation artist Ronit Eisenbach, who brought together artists and community members to engage multidisciplinary creative placemaking strategies along the Chester River in Chestertown, Maryland. In a community grappling with the impacts of climate change, economic inequality, and social division, the project created a sense of possibility, sparked imagination, and catalyzed public dialogue. 

Stage lights cast teal and black striped shadows as 2 dancers lunge forward, reaching an arm straight down with vigor towards their bent front leg.

Throughout a yearlong residency with SANDBOX at Washington College, the project team led Moving Field Guides that invited Chestertown community members to voice challenges and celebrate their deep connections to the river and to each other. These stories, along with contributions from local knowledge keepers and collaborators, shaped a week-long installation and closing night performance that transformed the vacant Chestertown Bank and ultimately led audiences to the banks of the Chester River itself. Video interviews were projected in old bank vaults, water-inspired images and sounds saturated the banking hall, and a dance performance ended in a public procession led by community members sharing their stories of the river. 

“For those of us who have lived in this area for many years, WaterLines was saturated with memory and love….Such feelings are warm and joyful but also fraught with anxiety as the ecological challenges to our beloved home become more obvious.”

— Mary McCoy, Contributing Arts Editor at The Chestertown Spy.

Connect

Bring a Dance Exchange performance residency to your organization or community.

Join Cassie’s Climate Circle to support Dance Exchange’s work at the intersection of artmaking and climate.

Nearly empty stage lined with teal lights casting towards a geometric central mosaic of multi-colored tiles.

Project Collaborators

Artistic Direction
Ronit Eisenbach, Architect/Installation Artist

Creative Collaborators
Cassie Meador, Choreographer and Executive Artistic Director of Dance Exchange
Aleksandra Vrebalov, Composer
Jeni Wightman, Visual Artist and Biologist

Development and Performing Ensemble
Matthew Cumbie, Dancer
Dante Brown, Dancer
Irene Moore, Gospel Singer from Chestertown

Design and Production Team
Debra Gilmore, Lighting
Shane Meador, Projection Designer
Austin Raimond, Design Assistant
Ian McClain, Video and Lighting Systems Engineer
Margaret Campbell, Stage Manager

Learn More

  • Read more about the project as it was shared at the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture’s 2017 Annual Meeting.

  • Read reflections about WaterLines: RiverBank from Chestertown residents as well as leaders from Washington College and the Kent County Arts Council.

  • Read a chapter by Ronit Eisenbach in this book that explores the ways architecture can embody generosity.

Closeup of a grid of dozens of rectangular metal lockers with numbers and key locks on the outside.
Dozens of people stand in a circle on an urban street at night with street lamps in the distant background, all with their attention directed towards the middle.
View of The Chestertown Bank of Maryland building from below, showing a square structure with four columns and reliefs.
View of an empty brick walkway running along a river or lake with a forest of trees in the distant background.
Overhead shot of about 5 people holding a wide metal bowl of water along the outside rim with yellow light casting shadows.
Dancer leans to one side as if sliding along a stage with tiled floor surrounded by an audience of people watching in the darkened background.
Two dancers perform in the center of a wide circular formation of people as teal light casts a ripping effect on the stage.

This project was supported by…

WaterLines: RiverBank was made possible in collaboration with SANDBOX at Washington College and the Kent County Arts Council.