LIVE ARTS
Our live arts productions span a range of genres and styles—from music and dance to theater and performance art.
Live music at Noo Arts can be anything from classical to experimental, world music, and everything in between – typically presented on a rooftop stage against the backdrop of the iconic New York skyline.
Dance is an essential part of our programming. Often choreographed specifically for our unique outdoor arenas, these works are sometimes rooted in distinct ethnic traditions, sometimes ultra contemporary, and often immersive and itinerant.
Our theater programming is co-produced with local troupes: during the warm months, we stage innovative plays in our unique outdoor settings, which also include the nearby Newtown Creek Nature Walk.
Performance art, which blurs the lines between art and life, can take many forms: anything from boundary-pushing solo acts to interactive experiences and immersive inner journeys.
WE ARE NATURE: The Microscopic Dance (2025)
According to quantum theory, stillness doesn’t exist. A particle can never be at complete rest. And vacuum is by no means empty space but contains fleeting particles that continuously pop in and out of existence. Our 2025 outdoor season programming will offer a reflection on the fast, indiscernible dynamics that underpin the microscopic world that makes up every component of nature. This year’s WE ARE NATURE theme is part of the global celebrations of the UN’s International Year of Science and Technology marking the centenary of quantum physics. Through art, music, dance and other performances, our featured talent will interpret some of the scientific, philosophical, and human aspects related to the quantum nature of the world. Uncertainty, entanglement, and delocalization are keywords of quantum jargon but also qualities of our lives. The season will explore creative intersections of quantum and human nature in a unique blend of art and science, allowing the public to reflect on the beauty and mystery of our universe, and harnessing the contemplation of microscopic frenzy to deliver inner peace.
WE ARE NATURE: A Vibrant Tapestry (2024)
Noo Arts’ guiding philosophy is the holistic view that sees the world not as a collection of separate objects, but rather as a web of relations between the various parts of a unified whole. Modern physics proves what mystical traditions have always known: all parts of the cosmos are interconnected and everything is in a state of dynamic flow.
The constant flux of nature gives rise to novel and diverse forms. A healthy organism integrates emerging variations without losing balance. In these times of opposing factions at seemingly every turn, it is helpful to remember that a multitude of colors and shapes are needed to make up the rich, resplendent, and resilient tapestry that is life. We are all part of a web in which no part is more fundamental than any other.
WE ARE NATURE Highlights 2020-23
Set in a surreally beautiful nature sanctuary sprouting on top of an ExxonMobil industrial plant on the bank of Superfund site Newtown Creek, the recurring WE ARE NATURE Rooftop Series offers a combination of multiple art forms – dance, music, performance, visual art, poetry, prose and film – addressing humanity’s place on Earth in aims of engaging a diverse audience in environmental efforts through art.
WE ARE NATURE: Rising and Falling (2023)
Each season of our outdoor summer series is structured around a theme referencing systems thinking. This is a comprehensive approach to environmental sustainability spearheaded by leading thinker Fritjof Capra, a longtime Noo Arts collaborator. Systems thinking shows that all the major problems of our time—including energy, economics, climate change, and inequality—are interconnected and interdependent. In 2023, we explored the theme of Nature’s Cycles.
WE ARE NATURE: Patterns of Connection (2022)
For the 3rd iteration of WE ARE NATURE, we selected from Dr. Fritjof Capra’s book Patterns of Connection four essential characteristics of life, around which our artists created new, site-specific works.
WE ARE NATURE 2022 is sponsored, in part, by The National Endowment for the Arts, and also the Greater New York Arts Development Fund of the NYC Department of Cultural Affairs, administered by Brooklyn Arts Council (BAC). Noo Arts’ programs are made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature
WE ARE NATURE: From Parts to Whole (2021)
“We often forget that we are nature. Nature is not something separate from us. So, when we say that we have lost our connection to nature, we’ve lost our connection to ourselves.”
— Andy Goldsworthy
Spirals of Ecstasy: A Sufi Incantation
Magi Sufi Dance Master Farima Berenji, founder of the Simorgh Dance Collective, accompanied by Sireen Abdelaziz, Fanny Pérez, and Jeffrey Paul.
Music by Hadi & Mohamad Eldebek of The Brooklyn Nomads.
Spinning spirals in various forms by Geb Berry, Michael Saab, and Sol Kjøk.
Video by Bernardo Gasparini.
A Monarch’s Journey
Presented by Noo Arts and Newton Creek Alliance in collaboration with CreateART as part of citywide Insectageddon events sponsored by The High Line, NYC; also featured in CEC ArtsLink’s Art Prospect Festival 2021: Forms of Unity
An immersive dance & music performance among the wildflowers of industrial Greenpoint inspired by the migration of monarchs from their overwintering home in Mexico up to Canada and back again each year. In reflection of the butterflies’ itinerary, we commissioned site-specific works created and performed by choreographers/dancers from these two endpoints.
These pieces bring attention to the ancient evolution and epic migration of the imperiled monarch butterfly while highlighting the opportunities in urban areas to support these creatures through the restoration of critical habitat - even in highly industrial environments.
Choreographed and performed by Erick Montes (Mexico) | Rebecca Margolick (Canada) + Dasol Kim
Specially composed music: Katy Gunn
Narration by Lisa Bloodgood read by Georgia Usborne
Jesture Eggs
Dancers Molly Gorin and Liz Hepp debuting their site-specific work Jesture Eggs on Noo Arts’ Stage Roof for the Kingsland Wildflowers Festival on June 31, 2021.
Choreography and voncept by Molly Gorin @mollygorin in collaboration with Liz Hepp @lizhasinstagram.
Costumes by Molly Gorin
Performance curated and produced by CreateArt Performance @create.art.performance and Noo Arts @nooarts_org
Video by @daniela_holban, cover photo by Effy Grey @effygrey_photography
In Concert: Matapena
Season Opener 2021 |10th Anniversary Celebration (delayed)
Video by @daniela_holban
In Concert: Katy Gunn
Singer-songwriter/Multi-Instrumentalist/Composer Katy Gunn performing live @LastFrontierNYC.
La Banda Chuska
@LaBandaChuska bringing down the house Creekside behind @LastFrontierNYC: passing sea boat captains joining the fun and tooting their horns to the awesome jams of our very favorite Brooklyn-based purveyors of surf and cumbia. Video by @bencawiezell
WE ARE NATURE: Air + Water (2020)
The WE ARE NATURE Rooftop Series takes place in and around the Kingsland Wildflowers native-flora gardens above Last Frontier NYC.
Inspired by this unique location on the bank of Superfund site Newton Creek and the urgency of climate change, Noo Arts organizes this annual summer series combining multiple forms of creative expression addressing humankind’s place in the greater All in aims of engaging a diverse audience in environmental efforts through art
Lesley Kernochan
LA-based multi-talent Lesley Kernochan (lesleykernochan.com) performs her tune 'Country in the City' on our Upper Meadow for Kingsland Wildflowers Festival, September 2019
‘Two Lungs’ by Hivewild
Site-specific dance piece created by Katherine Maxwell of Hivewild, presented by Noo Arts for Kingsland Wildflowers Festival 2019.
Dancers: Gabriella Sibeko and Robyn Ayers.