Dance performance brings movement and color to the Seattle waterfront

Onlookers and passersby were treated to a bright visual and audio spectacle on the Seattle Waterfront this past Saturday and Sunday evenings. “In Our Wake,” a site-specific performance by Kinesis Project dance theatre, the Filthy FemCorps street band, Seattle artist Celeste Cooning and New York costume designer Asa Thornton, brought music and movement to Pier 58, just under the Seattle Great Wheel, for two performances each night. The performance was presented by the Friends of Waterfront Seattle. Choreographer Melissa Riker of Kinesis Project has done two previous public performances in the same spot, 2018’s “Traces of Us” and “WAKE,” in February of 2019, that hearken to this new performance. The bright orange costumes and dress train, at 110 feet long and 32 feet wide, may be a familiar sight to some. But a big difference is one bit of architecture missing from the background this time — the Alaskan Way Viaduct. “Now, there’s the angles of the buildings and the reflections of the sky, it feels more expansive,” Riker said about their post-Viaduct public stage. “This is the next step of continuing to bring color, and vibrancy and attention to what will be coming here.” Dancer Robert Moore of Seattle said the crowds of mostly tourists and a few intentional viewers had received them well. “We’re aware that we are basically ambushing people with dance, but in a good way,” he said. In a crescendo to Sunday’s 5 p.m. performance, a short rainstorm burst out right before the Filthy FemCorps final song. “Ooh baby, it’s raining, raining,” they sang to Rihanna’s hit song “Umbrella,” as folks rushed to get actual umbrellas over the woodwinds in their ensemble.