Cycropia Aerial dance to perform “Kodama” in the Orton oak trees
Cycropia Aerial Dance performs at Orton Park in 2011. This year they can be seen on the evenings of August 23 and 24. Courtesy: Crycropia Aerial Dance
In Japan they call it “Kodama”, the mythical tree spirit that protects old trees. Cycropia Aerial Dance hopes to evoke that spirit in Orton Park, a former graveyard, as severe drought has plagued southern Wisconsin this year. The trees are also the center of a neighborhood debate over the effect of thousands of feet and infrastructure the Orton Park Festival (August 23-26) has each year on the park’s Burr oaks.
For the past 10 years Cycropia Aerial Dance, a local collective named for a silkworm moth that is native to Wisconsin, has electrified the first two evenings of the festival with aerial displays to entertain what last year was an estimated 4,000 people crammed into the park.