A Small Circus of Friends Gathers at Mr. Wilson’s

A woman dressed as a frog danced around a tree, laughing. A drum troupe thwacked and thumped on a platform in the woods. A man seated in a chair in a gravel courtyard repeated the word “warming” in a monotone, then spouted the cautionary phrase “Save our planet before our time runs out.” All as the waiters passed hors d’oeuvres wearing teacups on their heads.

Just another Saturday night on the East End?

Not quite. It was the once-a-summer ritual known as the Watermill Center benefit, the part-circus, part-contemporary art world orgy on the grounds of the arts center established by renowned stage director and creative force Robert Wilson.

Some of the artists-in-residence responsible for the spectacle were the burlesque queen Dita Von Teese, sound and word performer Christopher Knowles, whose association with Mr. Wilson goes back to 1973, and the U Theatre of Taipei.

Some of the 400 guests were works of performance art in and of themselves. By far the most popular works were the video portraits of animals created by Mr. Wilson and mounted on screens throughout the property.

Contemporary art collector Beth Rudin DeWoody, who has curated a show at Caren Golden Fine Art that is up until August 17, liked the subtle movements of the black jaguar, which had found a home in the tent displaying items for auction. She looked at the jaguar with her grown son, Carleton DeWoody, who was feeling self-conscious about wearing his father’s — artist Jim DeWoody’s — pink pants.

“It’s the pleats I’m not sure about,” the younger Mr. DeWoody, who is also an artist, said.

Pink was a favored color at the event. Alexandra Posen wore the color in a dress designed by her brother. Lisa Perry wore a hot pink number of her own design. The pinkest of all: a shaggy dog’s tongue, which appeared in one of Mr. Wilson’s video portraits.

agordon@nysun.com