ABOUT DANCING EARTH
Photo by Paulo T. Photography
L to R : Ehren Natay with Jesus "Jacoh" Cortes, director of Cuicacalli Esuela de Danza, photographer Elizabeth Opalenik
DANCING EARTH CREATIONS is a non profit organization with the mission to support Indigenous dance and related arts, to encourage and revitalize awareness of diversity through artistic expression for the education and wellness of all peoples. This mission is active through the national work of DANCING EARTH Indigenous Intertribal dance Ensemble ( director Rulan Tangen) , and the year round Cuicacalli youth cultural dance training program (director Jesus “Jacoh” Cortes) in San Francisco.
To learn more, please view : www.cuicacalliescueladedanza.org
DANCING EARTH CREATIONS is committed to mentorship of emerging artists, providing opportunities for Indigenous employment across all areas of dance production , education, and administration, to develop the next generation of Indigenous dance
In support of our mission we are available for:
- Community Engagement Workshops
- Dance Training Intensives
- Lectures and Motivational Speaking
- Creative Residencies
- Touring of full length theater production ( through 2011: “Of Bodies Of Elements”
- Site specific performance rituals
- Commissions and collaborations
- Repertory excerpts for festivals and special events
- Cultural consultation
- Film collaborations
DANCING EARTH has been named by Dance Magazine as “One of the Top 25 to Watch”, and are recipients of the National Museum of American Indian’s 2010 Expressive Arts Award. In every aspect of artistic collaboration – including dance, choreography, music, costume, lighting, video, stage managing - DANCING EARTH gathers Indigenous collaborators, including Nations of Blackfoot, Metis, Coushatta, Cambiva, Yaqui, Purepecha, Shoshone, Navajo, Cherokee, Hopi, Tewa, Tiwa, Towa, and Keresan of North Central and South America. They balance a commitment to share dances with regional, national and international communities at venues as varied as festivals , Universities , elementary-high schools, Native wellness gatherings, youth leadership symposiums, art museums , desert canyons , dried river beds, and symposiums for social-environmental justice. DANCING EARTH inspires creativity and cultural consciousness through community art practice, energetic dance training workshops, site specific rituals and full length eco-productions.
“We gather as individual artists to create experimental yet elemental dances that reflect our rich cultural heritage and to explore identity as contemporary Native peoples. We strive to embody the unique essences of Indigenous multi-tribal perspectives by creation and renewal of artistic and cultural movement rituals. Ancient and futuristic, our dances are an elemental language of bone and blood memory in motion."
Photo by Paulo T. Photography