“The Last Plant” Premiere

Inspired by the spring 2021 exhibition Cross Pollination and Reynolda’s historic gardens, Reynolda partnered with Wake Forest University’s Department of Theatre and Dance Teacher-Scholar Postgraduate Fellow Janice Lancaster to imagine an interdisciplinary dance performance.

The performance makes connections between the plants in the circa 1913 Lord & Burnham Greenhouse and our responsibility to protect their native habitats.

A human-plant collaborative endeavor, dancers open their senses to patterns of plant intelligence, variegations, and communication. The film illustrates a creative collaboration that partners hope will foster future site-based learning opportunities and performances at Reynolda.

Direction and design: Janice Lancaster
Dancers: Jordan Booker-Medley, Laura Gutierrez, Janice Lancaster
Cinematography & Editing: Adam Larsen
Costumes: Janice Lancaster, Clare Parker, Royal Peasantry
Boutique Music: “Plan and Elevation” by Caroline Shaw

About Cross Pollination

Cross Pollination: Heade, Cole, Church, and Our Contemporary Moment takes flight from the influential series of paintings The Gems of Brazil (1863–64) by Martin Johnson Heade but expands outward to explore pollination in nature and ecology, cultural and artistic influence and exchange, and the interconnection between art and science.

The exhibit was created by The Olana Partnership at Olana State Historic Site, Thomas Cole National Historic Site, and Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, Arkansas. Its tour is organized by Crystal Bridges. Support for this exhibition and its national tours is provided by Art Bridges.

Cross Pollination is currently on view at Thomas Cole National Historic Site and Olana State Historic Site.