The Seldoms in “Superbloom”/Photo: William Frederking

“I haven’t done a lot of work about joy,” muses Carrie Hanson. The founder and artistic director of The Seldoms has built a body of deeply researched performances about weighty topics: climate change, consumerism, political power. “The work I’ve done in relation to environment has been social critique. This one sits differently.”

This one is “Superbloom,” Hanson’s evening-length performance inspired by the phenomenon wherein desert landscapes erupt with massive swaths of wildflowers, creating fields of color so dense they can be seen from space. The Seldoms premiered the show in 2023 at the Harris Theater. The production will be remounted July 25 and 26, fittingly, at the Chicago Botanic Garden, when the garden will be in full summer splendor.

When Hanson conceived “Superbloom,” she had been reading the essay collection “The Practice of the Wild” by poet, environmentalist and Zen Buddhist Gary Snyder. “I’d been studying it for several years,” she says. “His definition of wildness is that we find it in our bodies, and we’re not separate from wilderness. Then COVID happened and I was thinking about what to make after shutdown, and the set of difficulties faced by performing arts. I thought audiences were craving joyful experiences.”

What better way to deliver a desperately needed dose of joy to a populace emerging from lockdown than with a celebration of nature’s glory? Hanson says she was also influenced by naturalist Edmund O. Wilson’s concept of biophilia—the innate human tendency to seek connection with nature and other forms of life. Hanson says biophilic experiences “can ultimately connect us not only to the ‘natural world’ and enhance pro-environmental attitudes, but also to one another and inspire positive social feelings.”

Hanson has never seen a superbloom in person—the rare occurrence takes place exclusively in desert environments—but was drawn to the specific conditions required (the perfect mix of rainfall, cloud coverage, wind) for it to take place. To create a superbloom of color on stage, Hanson sought the ideal mix of collaborators: company member Damon D. Green on ruffled costumes in saturated hues, painter and frequent collaborator Jackie Kazarian on vibrant sets, video artist Liviu Pasare on projections, and live music from Sima Cunningham and Macie Stewart, aka Finom.

“I kept using the term radical beauty with the dancers,” Hanson says. “The way we typically work in the studio is that I’m not always interested in seeing virtuosity for virtuosity’s sake. I gave us permission to luxuriate in the movement and the beauty of what we were doing.”

Snyder’s conception of “turbulence”—the manifestation of each living thing within a greater, universal flow of energy—became a cue for movement. “I asked what do we each know about Damon, about Sara, about Dee? Then they made micro-phrases about these things we saw about them. I invited them to do these phrases at the same time. These little choreographic seeds—forgive the pun—would get at something that represented their totality.” Only two of the original five cast members are dancing with The Seldoms, so the company is going through the turbulence process again, crafting new solos for the new dancers.

This type of production is a first for the Botanic Garden. Jodi Zombolo, associate vice president of visitor events says “Superbloom” is a pilot for future performances. Nichols Hall, an event space with a maximum capacity of 350, will be rigged to accommodate the show at full scale, with full-sized projections and the same footprint as the Harris Theater stage. Finom will again perform live.

The weekend before the show, The Seldoms will present a free pop-up performance on the Botanic Garden Esplanade. The five ensemble members will be joined by twenty-five other Chicago dancers for a twenty-minute dance superbloom on the lawn. Hanson says she can’t go into much detail about the pop-up yet. “It’s in formation in my head. This is not my wheelhouse—I don’t work with a large group a lot. Sometimes to properly tell a story you have to have a large group. And because ‘Superbloom’ is about scale, I felt like it would be fun to create something more spectacle-like outdoors,” she says. “I’ve been feeling lately like Chicago dancers need more opportunities. In partnering with the Garden I saw an opportunity to spread that a little.”

It will be possible to experience an even larger-scale iteration of the show in the city, when “Superbloom” splashes across the face of the Merchandise Mart as part of this year’s Art on the Mart series—billed as the world’s largest digital art canvas. Seeing the brilliant colors of The Seldoms’ show wash over two-and-a-half acres of concrete façade may be the closest a Midwesterner can get to real live superbloom, right in the heart of the city.

The Seldoms’ “Superbloom” at Nichols Hall at the Chicago Botanic Garden, 1000 Lake Cook Road, Glencoe. Friday and Saturday, July 25 & 26 at 7pm. Tickets starting at $10 for members, $27 for non-members. Tickets and info at chicagobotanic.org.
“Superbloom POP” at Chicago Botanic Garden, Sunday, July 13 at noon and 1:30pm. Free.
“Superbloom” Art on the Mart, July 10-September 7, on the Riverwalk in downtown Chicago.