Brigid Baker is Comet LoveJoy – Knight Foundation
Arts

Brigid Baker is Comet LoveJoy

Last Friday, I met Brigid Baker at her 6th Street Dance Studio WholeProject in Little Havana. Baker is a quantum force of nature and a Northern girl who comes from a politically active family heavily involved in the fight for civil rights. She isn’t shy about speaking politics and the destabilizing forces plaguing our culture — like the faltering educational system, lack of social discourse, economic inequality and our fear of taking creative risks.

Spend an hour with Baker, even if you only planned half an hour, and you’ll never want to leave. Baker, who lives with presence and intention, lives art and takes risks (with her words and actions) that opens the doors of thought that provoke new thoughts that lead to new ideas. She brings the art world to the local community in subtle ways that quietly settle in the DNA of this city.

Whether it comes to developing new techniques, such as her “Lightbody” gyrokenisis movement class or running her 6th Street Dance on a ecologically sound debt-free philosophy, Baker focuses on the art of creation as way to make connections between the community and the transformative (and educational) power of the arts.

“You have to be with each other in order to figure anything out and get good at it.” And Baker is good at finding a symbiotic balance within her Little Havana neighborhood, where the mechanic, the bakers, landlords and artists come together to make the community work. Next weekend is no exception. That’s when Baker and 6th Street Dance Studio WholeProject present “Comet Lovejoy Survives” and “Wall Rapture 2.”

The event, which starts at sunset and spans two days, Friday, April 20 through Saturday, April 21, begins with the painting of the back outdoor wall by artist George Hustus. Plus, there will be live musicians Steven Mathieu Kid Blast, Bertilla Baker, gospel singers, Chillski and the Zulu Nation. There will also be Urban hip-hop and contemporary dancers, B-Boys/B-Girls and more.

Baker is a something-something year-old choreographer, dance instructor who uses the forces of nature — light particles, quantum physics and human intention — not only to bring art into the world. She also uses them to open up channels to the community. All the community needs to do is come in.

Bake and 6th Street Dance Studio WholeProject presents “Comet Lovejoy Survives” and “Wall Rapture 2” Friday, April 20 through Saturday, April 21Suggested donation $10 or whatever you can, or bring something from the list below: Aluminum pie plates, bubbles, flags, balloons, cheap shiny jewelry from the thrift or dollar store, especially bracelets and rings, Hawaiian leis, flashlights, flowers: fake or real, sparklers, noise makers. 6th Street Dance Studio 1155 S.W. Sixth St., Miami, Fla 33130; 305-560-1150.