Picture this: You’re walking around town with your headphones on, listening to your favorite jam. You look up, and all of a sudden, amid the clouds, you see construction cranes–only these aren’t regular construction cranes. These cranes have grown tired of lifting things. They said, “Forget this high-rise, man.” And so these cranes began to dance, spinning and sashaying frenetically to the music in your head.
That’s (sort of) what happened to Brandon Vickerd, a Canadian artist and professor at York University, who teaches art theory and installations. “There was this weird moment where the music in my headphones seemed to sync with some construction cranes,” he says. “I decided to run with it.”
The result was a 2009 performance called “Dance of the Cranes” in Toronto, where two high-rise cranes got their groove on for one night. “I focus on making works of art that are in the public realm that aren’t permanent, but that really get people to think about the urban center around them,” he says.
Now Vickerd is bringing his dancing cranes to DC for the infinitely creative Capital Fringe Festival on July 15. At 8:15 PM, you can plop yourself on the grass at Milian Park (499 Massachusetts Ave., NW) and watch two cranes get down for a 45-minute dance. And because no dance party is complete without a soundtrack, the performance includes ambient music, which will be blasted throughout the streets.
The event, of course, is free.
The Capital Fringe Festival runs from July 9 to August 2.
