Landing at San Diego’s airport: Percussive dance performance inspired by the passengers

It was, literally, a circus (in a good way) in the terminals back in 2016 when San Diego International Airport’s (SAN) arts program launched its performing arts residency program by inviting Fern Street Circus to spend four to six months inside the airport developing and performing site-specific new work.

Since then, seven other community groups have completed residencies as part of the airport’s program bringing aerial dance, theater, poetry, digital art and many interdisciplinary projects to the airport terminals.

Landing a residency at SAN is competitive and applicants are ranked by a panel with consideration given to a variety of factors, including quality, creativity, consistency, cultural relevance of past work and the ability to offer airport patrons a high-quality, interactive experience, said Daniel Dennert, curator of the arts program at San Diego International Airport.

The ninth and newest performing arts group to make the cut is the creative percussion group, DrumatiX, and the group is on-site now.

“It’s the first [residency] back in full force and filling our terminals since the pandemic,” said Dennert, “and we are thrilled to see and hear live percussive dance delighting visitors.”

DrumatiX is working on five new dances in a project that will “mirror how travelers experience and hear the airport journey — getting through security, recomposure, dining, heading to the gate and waiting to board a flight,” said Dennert.

From the airport’s side, DrumatiX was a good fit for this season’s performing arts residency not only because of their record presenting quality and engaging work, but also because their project takes direct inspiration from the airport and the people passing through it.

“DrumatiX turns sounds they discover through observation or interviews into rhythms and movement for their pieces. They can capture audience verbal responses or participation using percussive instruments to create a base for their dances,” said Dennert.

From the DrumatiX side, the airport is a good fit, because it gives the team “a chance to immerse themselves in the San Diego dance scene and gain experience in site-specific projects,” said Noa Barankin, DrumatiX artistic director and choreographer. “It also challenges me in my directorial role and pushes the dancers by taking them out of their comfort zone of traditional stages and audiences.”

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So far, Barankin says the group’s experience at the airport has been “remarkable.” As they go about their work creating dance pieces inspired by the airport environment they’ve attracted the attention of passersby, who are invited to engage actively with the dancers during the creative process.

“Yesterday, a girl and her mom stopped while we were rehearsing the tap dance with musical pipes piece, and I invited the child to join us,” said Barankin. “She really did not want to, but then the mom jumped on the opportunity and ended up playing with us for a bit. It was a great experience because we were able to show the younger audiences that even as adults, we can play and have fun with found items and making music at the airport.”

In another instance, while creating and rehearsing what Barankin calls the dining hall piece, “we had a father and son approach us and ask if they could watch our performance. We mentioned that we were simply rehearsing but invited his son, who is autistic, to play with us. He sat down and grabbed a few plastic cups and on his own and just started playing a very good beat,” said Barankin. “We started improvising on top of his beat with all the found items that we had on the table — paper bags, Tupperware, water bottles — and played along with him before they had to leave.”

Barankin says the group doesn’t usually incorporate audience members into finished choreographed dances but interactions like these are encouraging her to adapt the choreography “to allow for such interactions during our actual performances at the airport in late April and early May.”