The Seldoms, which presents multidisciplinary performances exploring complex issues, collaborates with the Chicago Botanic Garden to present the Chicago North Shore premiere of Superbloom, an evening-length work combining dance, live music, animation, and costume and lighting design.
The Seldoms Founding Artistic Director and choreographer Carrie Hanson describes Superbloom, a work for five dancers, as “a multimedia performance about radical beauty, wildness and wildflowers, and the resilience and fragility of the natural world. The work aims for splendor as a mirror of the sublime beauty of the natural world and an antidote to grief felt in the Anthropocene epoch (our current geological age, in which human activity has been the dominant influence on the environment). A richly kinetic, sonic, and visual experience, Superbloom conveys the fantastic beauty and color of a rare wildflower event and invokes the human experience of awe as a way to reconnect to the natural world.”
Collaborators on the creation of Superbloom, which premiered in 2023 at the Harris Theater for Music and Dance in Chicago, include two visual artists: painter Jackie Kazarian and video artist Liviu Pasare, who built video animation from Kazarian’s abstract landscapes. The set involves long textile trains, designed by Kazarian, which are activated by the dancers. Finom, the musical duo of Sima Cunningham and Macie Stewart, composed an original score they will perform live, and Julie E. Ballard, technical director, resident lighting designer, and stage manager for The Seldoms, created the lighting design.
For these performances, The Seldoms are transforming the Garden’s Nichols Hall into a theater space, including a dance floor, cyclorama, lighting, and proscenium-style seating. This will be the first time visitors to the Garden will have an opportunity to experience a multimedia dance performance.
“We are thrilled to partner with The Seldoms to bring Superbloom to the Garden,” said Rachel Lockett, coordinator, Visitor Events and Programs, Chicago Botanic Garden. “The focus of this project is squarely aligned with the Garden’s purpose, and we’re excited for our visitors to see this captivating performance.”
Superbloom continues The Seldoms’ interest in the environment, with a body of performance work that conceives a relationship to Earth and to all life on Earth based in stewardship and sustainability, pluralism and justice. Said Hanson, “Superbloom is intended to operate as cultural resistance but, more emphatically, as cultural vision. ‘Biophilia’ (theorized as an innate human affinity for the natural world) is an engine for this artwork. I can think of no better place to offer Superbloom than the Chicago Botanic Garden, a place that enthralls us with natural beauty and reminds us of our essential connection to nature.”
In advance of the full performances, The Seldoms will present Superbloom POP, bloom-inspired pop-up performances on the Esplanade at the Chicago Botanic Garden on Sunday, July 13 at noon and 1:30 p.m. Like a wildflower “super bloom,” the large movement chorus—25 Chicago dance artists joining the five-member ensemble—will bring vibrant color and movement to the lawn area. The 20-minute performance is free with Garden admission.
ART on THE MART has commissioned The Seldoms to translate Superbloom into a work for projection onto Chicago’s Merchandise Mart, where it appears July 10–September 7, 2025, on the Riverwalk in downtown Chicago.
The Seldoms and the Chicago Botanic Garden present the Chicago North Shore premiere of Superbloom on Friday and Saturday, July 25 and 26 at 7 p.m. and Sunday, July 27 at 2 p.m. at Nichols Hall, Chicago Botanic Garden, 1000 Lake Cook Road, Glencoe, Ill. Tickets for adults start at $10 for members and $27 for non-members (includes Garden general admission), and are on sale now. Visit chicagobotanic.org/superbloom to purchase tickets.
For information, visit theseldoms.org or chicagobotanic.org.
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