Lunchtime Work Escape

On Friday I needed to get out of the office.  I knew leaving for lunch would mean working later on a Friday night, but I had to do it. I had read about something called City Dances Parkway II.  It was an "interactive walking tour of public art sites led by Group Motion Dance Company."  I decided to break free from my cubicle and go watch this noon program.

It was a beautiful day on the Ben Franklin Parkway in Philadelphia.  The first performance was at Alexander Calder's Three Discs, One Lacking. 

The performers had belts around their waists from which iPods music was projected.  The dance was contemporary and there were about 2 dozen observers as well as gawking passers-by.  The performance got started about 12 minutes late.  This, combined with the fact that I had to leave the office 15 minutes before the performance to get there on time, meant I had already been out of the office about 35 minutes by the time the first performance was over.  I knew I couldn't hang out for the other 4 performances.  

I was too busy looking at my watch during the first performance.  I was restless and distracted and wasn't really enjoying the performance. I walked slowly back to work and more enjoyed just walking than watching the dancers.  All-in-all, I was gone a little over an hour. 

I decided to go online to look up the artwork I missed on the dancers' route.  I know much of the artwork around Center City Philadelphia by sight by not by name so I was curious to put names with them.  They were:

Henry Moore's Three Ways Piece Number 1: Points

Jacob Lipkin's The Prophet

Nathan Rapoport's Monument to Six Million Jewish Martyrs

Robert Indiana's Love
(There's also one of these in NYC in the East 50's.)