Still We Tend

To help celebrate the Houston Botanic Garden’s one-year anniversary in September 2021, Open Dance Project and Musiqa will co-present “Still We Tend” in the Garden. These promenade dance and music performances mark the joyful return of both Open Dance Project and Musiqa to live collaborative public programming. For this promenade performance, audience members will be standing and walking throughout various portions of the Garden for the full 40-minute performance.

Born out of the loneliness and longing of pandemic isolation, “Still We Tend” leaned into the collective desire to keep making new artistic work, or tending to one’s creative garden, during the shutdown.

The piece was originally commissioned by Musiqa and conceived as a site-specific dance performance, filmed at the Garden in January 2021 and released for viewing online in February 2021. The live performances will replicate the film’s journey through five different locations throughout the Garden and include the original score by Malian musician Hawa Kassé Mady Diabaté.