Jonah Bokaer: Taking the “L.E.E.D” in Sustainable Living
The performing arts are vital to the success and general well-being of a healthy society. However, healthy art can sometimes be hazardous. In recent years, many artists have begun acknowledging the significant carbon footprint their work leaves behind. As a result, numerous “green,” eco-friendly theaters and performance spaces have popped up throughout the country. But it is dance innovator and choreographer Jonah Bokaer, in partnership with John Jasperse, who created the first Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (L.E.E.D.) gold certified, green performance and rehearsal space of its kind in Brooklyn—Center for Performance Research (CPR).
“CPR is strongly committed to operating in an environmentally responsible manner,” says Bokaer, who created this unique space with business partner John Jasperse of Thin Man Dance, Inc. But Bokaer explains that the goal of CPR goes beyond simply reducing energy costs and carbon emissions; the space will ultimately serve as a “laboratory” for artists and designers to experiment with new, eco-friendly technology that he hopes to see integrated into other facilities as well.
“Together, these commitments will make the facility a leading model in simultaneously addressing sustainability for the arts and the environment,” Bokaer contends.
Both dance and technology have always played central roles in Bokaer’s life. The son of a theater director mother and a filmmaker father, curiosity for performance art and media was inevitable. After years of classical training with companies such as Ithaca Ballet and Washington Ballet, Bokear attended Cornell University and was introduced to the principles of Cunningham technique. In 2000, after graduating from North Carolina School of the Arts, he made history as the youngest dancer to join Merce Cunningham Dance Company. While dancing with the company, he studied visual and media studies at The New School, finally merging his two passions.
“Over the past several years, I have developed a body of work addressing the creative potential of digital technologies in movement production,” explains Bokaer, who often creates choreography with software that generates movement material. His process, he says, “involves designing a body onscreen, embodying its movements in real time and performing the choreography live.”
While developing this new artistic practice, Bokaer often finds himself using performance spaces in unconventional ways. “I frequently question (and subvert) the spaces in which my work is performed, creating site-specific installations that playfully critique the venue presenting a dance,” he reveals.
Despite his penchant for site-specific work, Bokaer discovered that he needed a permanent facility in addition to his existing interdisciplinary art and performance loft space, Chez Bushwick. In 2007, John Jasperse, whom he had known for almost a decade, approached him about a unique partnership opportunity—a 4,000 sq. ft. non-profit community arts facility on the ground floor of Greenbelt, an eco-friendly residential condo located at 361 Manhattan Avenue in East Williamsburg.
“I have known John for almost a decade. We met as double-neighbors,” reveals Bokaer. “I lived in Bushwick and worked with Merce [Cunningham] in the Westbeth building; John lived in the Westbeth building and worked in Bushwick.”
Nearly 10 years after meeting, Bokaer and Jasperse are carrying out the vision of Greenbelt developers Derek Denckla/Propeller Group and Gregory Merryweather/Architect to “harness the vibrancy of the real estate market to support the local arts community.”
“During a real estate climate that threatens to displace the arts from maintaining permanent and affordable space in New York City, CPR offers a pioneering approach to both civic development and fortification for dance and performance at the community level,” explains Bokaer.
The programs at CPR are multifarious, ranging from pedagogical education to community outreach. For Bokaer, community activism has always been a central part of his life since his involvement with local causes growing up in Ithaca.
“I have always been an activist,” proclaims Bokaer. “In MCDC [Merce Cunningham Dance Company] I did volunteer work with the East Harlem Tutorial Program, as well as in the library of the Gay and Lesbian Center on West 13th Street in New York City and with the AIDS Walk New York.”
Community oriented opportunities at CPR include first time employment of local youth, internships with Brooklyn and New York City colleges and universities, work exchange for low-cost rehearsal space and classes, "Free Ticket Night" for limited access to local community members, arts outreach to the nearby senior community, video block parties and much more.
According to Bokaer, these kinds of people-focused arts programs are key to creating healthy, sustainable communities. “Sustainable communities require long-term, integrated investment in the arts,” explains Bokaer.
Contributing to a sustainable community does not require an undertaking as immense as CPR, which, according to Bokaer, took “vision, drive, a touch of insanity, a lot of work and perhaps a few years of insomnia.” All it takes is a commitment to the arts combined with an ardent sense of urgency, focus and follow-through.
“When arts programming is hosted in conjunction with education, health, economic development, safety, community cohesion and more, a community can and must improve over time, in a reinforcing cycle,” he asserts.
Bokaer uses Brooklyn, which has recently experienced a surge in artistic investment, to illustrate this social phenomenon. “In the past decade, the artist population of Brooklyn has grown nearly 30 percent, incomes have risen twice as fast as the nation as a whole and homeownership has climbed, while poverty and urban crime have declined,” he reveals.
According to Bokaer, this kind of community improvement is facilitated by applying a “comprehensive lens for arts programming” and by enhancing existing programs to foster social integration and continuous growth. Organizations like CPR are just one of many possible tools to help accomplish this goal.
The easiest place to begin contributing to a sustainable community is right inside your home, school, dance studio or theater. By making small, eco-friendly adjustments, such as investing in L.E.D. (light emitting diode) lighting fixtures, an organization can save a significant amount in energy costs while also reducing energy consumption. CPR, in an agreement with Selador, has outfitted its theater with L.E.D. lights, lowering its consumption by one-fourth to one-eighth the amount of a comparable theater that uses standard fixtures. In addition, CPR utilizes only ENERGY-STAR compliant appliances and HVAC systems.
Other simple strategies for reducing your carbon footprint are carpooling, turning off the air conditioning between classes, holding performances outside, finding innovative ways to reuse props and set pieces, sending old costumes and dance shoes to the Salvation Army or Habitat for Humanity, and of course, recycling empty water bottles. Also, do not hesitate to ask theaters and other venues what kind of green measures they can take to accommodate your needs.
Additionally, studio owners, teachers and choreographers can contribute to the artistic growth of their communities by experimenting with multi-media works. “I would recommend working with basic entry-level platforms like DanceForms 1.0 for animation, Improvisation Technologies for improvisation, and a basic Mac computer for video work,” advises Bokaer, whose work in digital media was self-taught while on tour with Cunningham.
“At that time, Merce Cunningham began developing a series of solos for me using choreography software DanceForms 1.0, which is available through Credo Interactive. This was a big introduction to his process of keyframing, which is a very simple, three-frame production manner of placing movement on a timeline and animating it.”
One of the best ways to begin tapping into this new genre of modern dance is by researching the work of others for inspiration. “There is also repertory of Merce’s that relies heavily on the film/video arts and also motion capture.” he informs. “I would recommend that teachers remain curious, and jump in.” As Jonah Bokaer has witnessed firsthand in Brooklyn, jumping in to new artistic endeavors can strengthen, unite, inspire and improve communities on a multitude of levels.
Throughout the last decade, Bokaer’s commitment to sustainable living through artistic innovation, social activism and environmental protection has garnered him a reputation as a “presidential figure” in the world of modern dance. “I definitely do not agree with this kind of grandiose reference,” he says humbly, “although I do constantly seek to advocate on behalf of bettering the field of dance.”
For more information on CPR, visit cprnyc.org.
To learn more about green buildings and energy saving tips, check out www.epa.gov/greenbuilding