Johanne Jakhelln has worked with unorthodox spaces before. As the
artistic director for Ballet Quad Cities, Jakhelln, for example, has
had to deal with the choir step on the stage at Augustana College's
Centennial Hall. "You have to be creative to integrate that into what
you're doing," she said.
So the Mississippi River is no big thing. For this Saturday's one-hour performance One River Mississippi, Jakhelln merely needs to choreograph and coordinate more than 60 volunteer performers at seven sites along the river from the Centennial Bridge to the roller dam at Locks & Dam 15. She will just work with dancers, water skiers, boaters, and a Native American medicine woman. And it only needs to be coordinated with six other river sites - Itasca, Minnesota; Minneapolis; St. Louis; Memphis; New Orleans; and Plaquemines Parish, Louisiana - and set to music.
No big deal. Just like at Centennial Hall.