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As the piece progressed, a security guard at the park became increasingly annoyed with the performance and attempted to get it out of the space. Arguing with the dancer and the audience, he insisted that everyone must leave. My first reaction was that he was wrong, this performance had a right to be performed here. In the last quarter at Seattle University I had taken a class on Law & The Arts. First Amendment rights and protections were a large portion of this class. I began to consider whether this was a public forum, whether the government had a compelling interest to limit expression in the park. I was reminded of a recent case, Oberwetter v. Hilliard, in which a woman was arrested for dancing at the Jefferson Memorial.
Once the piece concluded (on the sidewalk outside the park), I returned to a computer to look up some Seattle Municipal Code. In doing so I found little that would support the expulsion of the dance. There is a section of the code that requires registration and permitting of Special Events, but one of the definitions of a special event is that it can reasonably be expected to draw a crowd of 50 or more. Including the dancer and the security guard, this event amassed a crowd of seven. There is another section of the code which restricts sitting or lying on a sidewalk. This only happened when the security guard forced the performance onto the sidewalk.
There is another factor at play here. This performance was not interrupted by a police officer - no government agent was involved. This was a private security guard. What authority does the guard have? And in what capacity could he be considered a government agent? There is a great wealth of issues surrounding private security vs. public police when it comes to Constitutional rights. In my opinion this guard was acting as a private citizen. He had as much of a right to interrupt the performance as did I to stand and spectate.
Which brings me back to the topic of public art. I am sure it was not the intent of Lingo Dance Theater to provoke the guard. This project is about creating a personal connection between audience and performer. But by creating the work in a public space, the piece invites a variety of contexts - allowing the work to viewed from a multitude of perspectives. For me it was a contemplation of freedom of expression, for the security guard it was the obstacles encroaching on a quiet day of work, and for the recipient of the dance...we'll just have to wait for her to weigh in on her blog post.
