“Murmur” Winged Belonging immersive Outdoor Dance Performance (Lake Merritt)

Sarah Bush Dance Project

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Jack Pacific, Sarah Bush Dance Project

Email: jackpacific@sarahbushdance.com

Phone: 843-885-8432
Website: https://sarahbushdance.org/murmur/murmur/

Murmur: Winged Belonging – Dance Tour Inspired by Birds Takes Flight Across Northern California

March 2025 – This spring, audiences are invited to experience MURMUR: Winged Belonging, an immersive outdoor dance performance that merges movement, ecology, and the profound kinship between humans and birds. With support from the Arts in California Parks grant, this free outdoor performance series will take place in regional parks across Northern California, inviting audiences to witness dance in dialogue with the landscape—no stage, no barriers, just movement in the open air.

️ “If you love birds, you will love MURMUR. If you’ve ever paused in awe at the flicker of wings, felt the pull of a distant call deep in your chest, or sensed a presence beyond the seen—this performance is for you,” said Molly Tsongas, Co-Director of Murmur at Sarah Bush Dance Project. 

“MURMUR is more than a dance. It is a remembering—a celebration of our connection to birds, expressed through movement and sound,” commented KJ Dahlaw, Co-Director of Murmur. “Experience a wild, immersive journey where dance merges with flight – blurring the lines between bodies and birds, movement and wind, stage and sky.”

Tour Dates & Locations:

• March 30 – Lake Merritt, Oakland, CA
• April 13 – Wildcat Canyon, Richmond, CA
• April 20 – Coulterville Park, Coulterville, CA
• April 27 – Ragle Regional Park, Sebastopol, CA
• May 4 – Charlie Byrd Park, Weed, CA

All performances are free and take place in beautiful regional park settings on Sundays. RSVPs encouraged.The show starts at 2pm and is a 50-minute site-responsive dance performance.  Audiences are also invited to arrive early at 1pm for a free bird language practice guided by partner organization Weaving Earth. 

“The Murmur tour offers audiences a visceral experience of movement that echoes the behaviors and flight patterns of birds. Each dancer embodies a different avian archetype—from the Red-Shouldered Hawk’s keen watchfulness to the Cedar Waxwing’s social exuberance. Through the fusion of contemporary dance and mindful birding practices, the performance dissolves the boundaries between human and bird, earth and sky,” said Sarah Bush, Creative Director of Sarah Bush Dance Project. 

More Than a Performance—A Call to Kinship

“Our dancers don’t imitate birds. They become them—channeling the wild, the threatened, and the fierce,” said Richelle Donigan, Creative Director of Murmur.”We dance for the vanishing. We dance for the thriving. We dance for those still searching for their flock, where survival is a radical act of belonging.”

In this visceral exploration, intersectional themes of interspecies kinship, Blackness, gender, white supremacy, queerness, bird language, bodily autonomy, human rights, climate collapse, grief, resilience, and joy take flight—interwoven into a breathtaking flight path towards liberation.

In addition to the dance performance, each event will feature bird language and guided mindfulness practices in partnership with Weaving Earth. These experiences will invite audiences to tune into bird language, listen deeply to their surroundings, and consider the ways in which our choices impact bird populations and ecosystems.

Join the Flock. Come witness the murmuration. Feel the air move with the beat of wings. Let yourself be guided by the rhythms of the land and sky.

More information & RSVP: https://sarahbushdance.org/murmur/murmur/
Follow the journey: #Murmur #Birds #Dance #MindfulBirding

Disclaimer: Please double check event information with the event organizer as events can be canceled, details can change after they are added to our calendar, and errors do occur.