motion | Garden of Fire

By Carly Nichols, Chelsea Ambrose, and April Hortman

Motion plays in integral part in our daily lives. For many cultures around the world and throughout history, this has taken the form of dance, and has been the foundation of building friendships and community. This type of connection often sparks another form of motion: E-motion. Emotions, too, are entangled in our lives; the things we do, the places we go, the people we meet. During the final programming week of the Garden of Fire, youth had the opportunity to experience motion, with an E.

All Photos Courtesy of Dan Gallagher Photography

CareFirst partnered with 171 Cedar Arts, their artist, Vicki Rosettie, and The ARTS Council of the Southern Finger Lakes with their artists, Pat and Kathleen Kane, for week five of the Garden of Fire. Through the dance sessions, the kids heard and participated in traditional Irish dance, and better understood the origins of dance from many other countries.

All Photos Courtesy of Dan Gallagher Photography

Dance is a form of motion that is used to not only remain active and build connections with others, but can help us relate to the e-motions we feel. What do we feel when we watch someone dance? Is that different from how we feel when we dance ourselves? How does it feel if we don’t express our emotions? How can motion help us express how we feel and improve coping? These questions and more were explored together and helped the youth better understand the power of physical expression.

CareFirst Grief Services Team

Carly Nichols, Chelsea Ambrose, April Hortman

By Ian McLaughlin

Animals can move by slithering, crawling, walking, jumping, flying, hopping, swimming, and more, so the possibilities for what the children could expect for their adventure were endless. At Tanglewood Nature Center we paired an animal with their most common movement and at the end of the 45-minute show the kids had the chance to try and move like them. It was quite entertaining watching them popcorn like a guinea pig, crawl like a cockroach, twist like a gecko, stick to the wall like a tree frog, and fly like an owl. My favorite animal movement has to be the tree frog because, lacking the ability to climb, we simply imitated our Gray Tree Frog “Gluey” by sticking our hands to the wall and holding them there. The kids expected more movement with that initial gesture so we all got a good laugh when I immediately moved on to the next animal movement.

Images Courtesy of Dan Gallgher Photography

It is the Garden of Fire Summer of Motion this year and I spent the past week traveling all over beautiful Steuben County to bring animals to the different youth centers. I visited the Salvation Army of Corning, Corning Youth Center, Addison Youth Center, and I met up with Paul Shepard for the Canisteo/Hornell program in a beautiful indoor facility in Canisteo this year. I drove back through a torrential rainstorm and lived to tell the tale.