Last weekend, students and community members gathered in Wish Theater for a performance of “Liturgy|Order|Bridge” by regional creative arts group Scapegoat Garden. Inspired by Black church traditions, the dance performance drew on faith, nature, fashion and experimentation to bring the audience into an interactive experience.

The black-box theater was dark except for a path of light surrounding the stage and audience meant to encourage movement throughout the space. Birdsong played in the background, and larger-than-life white flowers onstage added to the ethereal atmosphere. Dancers wearing flowing robes with floral prints moved along the path and onto the middle of the stage with deliberate, concentrated steps.

Inspired by the unique sense of community the group emphasizes, Associate Professor in the Creative Arts Aretha Aoki invited Scapegoat Garden to Bowdoin. This sense of community came not only from the performance itself but also through the integration of Bowdoin students and staff as performers, including Saniya Ridley ’25, Fernanda Rodas ’27 and Assistant Professor of Dance Adanna Kai Jones.

“[‘Liturgy|Order|Bridge’] felt like it could be a powerful offering to our community,” Aoki said. “I knew that the work wasn’t just about landing into a space and doing the thing that you do, but really about getting to know each community that it’s being performed in and integrating members of that community into the process—not just to learn predetermined material, but to improvise, to contribute to the words that are being spoken through the litany.”

During the performance, audience members were often invited to interact with the performance, singing along to the hymn “The Day is New” line by line, clapping or standing up. This active involvement, reflecting a lineage in Black spiritual traditions, departed from many forms of entertainment audience members may have been used to.

“We’re so accustomed in our entertainment industries to be passive and to be entertained, ‘entertain’ meaning to be distracted and to not really be aware of oneself in one’s wholeness,” Aoki said. “[‘Liturgy|Order|Bridge’] awakens us a little bit, nudging, or even crumbling the barrier, and it helps with our necessary awakening that we need to really inhabit our reality more fully … to choose something that really is aligned with what we actually care about.”

Audience members were also invited to share their emotions during the event, inspired by distributed prompts such as “Breathe on it,” “Play on it” or “Move on it,” variations on the repeating theme “Stay on it,” an invitation evoking resilience. Several students and members of the community talked about their feelings and experiences revolving around feelings of identity, belonging and community.

Kelsey Halliday Johnson from Portland’s SPACE Gallery was involved in the organization of the show and commented on its participatory invitations.

“I think that Deb Goffe, the choreographer, gives permission for people to bring their whole selves into what they’re watching and not just passively consume it. I think that permission theme came up a bunch in the audience’s responses within the piece itself, just feeling a part of [being] a bigger whole,” Johnson said.

When asked what she appreciated most about “Liturgy|Order|Bridge,” Johnson discussed the well-roundedness of the performance.

“I love its interdisciplinarity because I don’t want to choose any one thing. I love the music. I think the chance to sing together in the group is so sorely lacking in our society and does create a sense of community,” Johnson said. “The movement is so beautiful and sophisticated, how it loops and repeats on itself and the solos are stunning. I love the flowers, and the video is different here than it’s ever been before.”

Aoki shared her hopes for what the audience took away from “Liturgy|Order|Bridge.”

“I hope that it allows us to find connections where we maybe didn’t think that would be possible. I hope that it affirms or reaffirms or inspires our commitment to something that’s bigger than any one of us. I hope that it gives us that battery pack we need,” Aoki said, referencing the line in the performance describing the strength that our ancestors could give us. “It’s a hard world right now, and I hope it gives us that boost to be able to do whatever work we need to do to help our pretty fractured world.”