August 2010 in the woods
Aug 5, 2010 2010
INDIAN MARKET IS HERE !
In Santa Fe, we will all be attending the amazing art openings, film screenings, music concerts and lectures by writers ( intention for next yr SWAIA’s 90th Indian Market: For DANCING EARTH to be presented in our full length production in a major Santa Fe theater, to bring Indigenous contemporary dance from southwest into this amazing cultural explosion!)
Meanwhile, this year, look for DANCING EARTH members and associates at the following:
Center for Contemporary Arts installation by Jaque Fragua , who debuted with us as a dancer earlier this month : “Rubbish” ( look out for an impromptu guerrrilla style performance at the opening on Thursday Aug 19 around 5 pm)
Thurs eve also at Poeh Center in Pojoaque for a musical performance by Lois Suluk Locke.
Blue Rain Gallery Fri Aug 20 at 5 pm, debut of Tony Aneyta’s jewelry
Fri evening also will be the Roots and Rhythms musical concert at Buffalo Thunder in Pojoaque, with Tamara Podemski and Brent Michael Davids. At Buffalo Thunder you can still see TIME - the amazing art installation pieces indoors and outdoors by artists including Chrissie Orr and Rose Simpson.
Sat Aug 20 Jaque Fraqua shows work at openings 5 pm at Fire God Gallery on E Palace, and 6 pm at Pop Gallery on W San Francisco. Great spaces to view emerging and alternative artists, the as-yet-undiscovered stars of Native art in the future…
Look out for another one of our new dancers Ehren Natay showing his jewelry at # 342 FR-N booth on san francisco facing the north. somewhere between the courtyard of the IAIA museum and the La fonda parking garage. That’s Sat and Sunday !!! (www.ehrenknatay.com)
Musical performances on the Plaza will include award-winning guitarist Gabriel Ayala Sunday afternoon.
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Professor Jacqueline Shea Murphy of UC Riverside has written a review for “OF BODIES OF ELEMENTS’, posted online with the Hemispheric Institute of Performance and Politics :
http://hemisphericinstitute.org/hemi/en/e-misferica-71/shea-murphy
ANNOUNCEMENT :
At dusk on Saturday evening August 7th, the earthwork drawing on the land behind Buffalo Thunder will come to life. CRUDE FRACTURE by artist Chrissie Orr will become the site of a “spontaneous combustion- improvisation” by Dancing Earth !
Lakota grandmothers have already asked DANCING EARTH to address “the cleansing of the waters, inside our bodies as well as of the planet”; meanwhile environmental advocate Van Jones describes oil and coal as death based energy – the blood and bones of our ancestors , literally and figuratively, which in this era should be overturned by the life-based energy of sun and wind. With these elemental images of fire and water , DANCING EARTH will create an improvisation, shaped by the shape, colors and concept of the earth drawing CRUDE FRACTURE, under a sunset sky.
In parallel by Ms Orr’s vision of art made by, for and of a community, DANCING EARTH returns to traditional purpose of dance as functional ritual, while exploring through experimental physicality, to unify people and to transform. They have been described as both ” ancient and futuristic, blood memory in motion” - making relevant temporal art inspired by Indigenous worldview on the issues of our times.
Here is the official press release:
NEW MEXICO ARTS PRESENTS T.I.M.E. EXHIBIT AT BUFFALO THUNDER RESORT AND CASINO IN POJOAQUE FROM AUGUST 7 THRU OCTOBER 30, 2010
Santa Fe – New Mexico Arts, a division of the Department of Cultural Affairs; Buffalo Thunder Resort and Casino; the Hilton, and the Pueblo of Pojoaque present T.I.M.E. – Temporary Installations Made for the Environment at Buffalo Thunder Resort and Casino from August 7 thru October 30, 2010. New Mexican artists were invited to create temporary environmental artworks based on green technology and innovation. Seven artworks will be exhibited in exterior locations at the Buffalo Thunder Resort and Casino. The artworks will be displayed for nearly two months, and at the end of the exhibit will be disassembled and removed, leaving no trace of ever having existed.
The T.I.M.E. project was inspired by the emerging public art trend to engage artists interested in creating more spontaneous and immediate artworks with short life-spans. New Mexico Arts hopes this kind of project will engage communities and artists in the public art process.
Participating T.I.M.E artists include artist team Max Almy andTeri Yarbrow, with Billy Valenzuela and Cavan Gonzales, Ryan Henel, Amy Schmierbach, Chrissie Orr, Joel Hobbie, Beth Rekow, and Rose Simpson.
FEATURED ARTISTS:
Max Almy, Teri Yarbrow, Billy Valenzuela, and Cavan Gonzales – have created a multi-media creation that will include a projection inside a tipi with the use of a LED projector (green technology). Tipi builder Billy Valenzuela and San Ildefonso Pueblo, Cavan Gonzales potter will create a tipi designed for new media and projections. Almy and Yarbrow will create a video that will be displayed on scrim cloth painted with imagery inspired by the Pojoaque people. Cavan Gonzales is great-great-grandson of Maria Martinez. His designs are inspired by San Ildefonso’s noted symbol Avanyu, also the title for this collaborative project.
Ryan Henel will create a baked adobe-like earthen-structure with an architectural quality similar to adobe homes in the area and will use metal rods to create an abstract form. The artwork entitled Reflections may also reference wind and solar-powered elements.
Amy Schmierbach’s installation will contain hundreds of softball to beach ball size mounds cast from biodegradable compost bags, biodegradable and sulfate free soap, and dirt. The work entitled Melt uses materials that reference recycling and keeping our environment clean.
Chrissie Orr will create a regenerative site-specific “Earth Drawing” inspired by the environment and people. At dusk on Saturday evening August 7th, the earth drawing entitled Crude Fracture will be animated by the bodies in motion of DANCING EARTH, the nation’s foremost indigenous contemporary dance ensemble. Led by choreographer Rulan Tangen, several members of DANCING EARTH reside in New Mexico, and will gather to create a site-specific ritual dedicated to the healing of the waters of the Gulf, in reflection of artist Chrissie Orr’s land-based rumination of the same theme – the black rift of oil that blows open the imbalance of modern systems in paradox to the natural world.
Joel Hobbie recycles metal from the nearby Los Alamos Laboratory and transforms industrial objects into unique welded organic shapes. His artwork Theremin Project is a large interactive sculpture where a heat censored theremin light up colored LED’s with solar panels incorporated into the design.
Beth Rekow will install unique cast-glass towers that encase LED’s that have the option to be solar powered. The artwork entitled Consumption is based on recycled plastic sculptures.
Rose Simpson’s artwork entitled Watchers will reference abstract human profiles made of traditional adobe mud plastered atop the finish of the main building of the Buffalo Thunder Resort. The walls of the resort are plastered stucco on wood frame, mimicking traditional Pueblo adobe mud-brick architecture. The mud figures use the attention to detail of earlier Pueblo architecture, and seek to provide a contrast and acknowledge the dichotomy between traditional and modern relationships to architecture and how that aesthetic is portrayed to the larger public environment.
T.I.M.E. at Buffalo Thunder Resort and Casino Events
Exhibit runs August 7 – October 30, 2010
Opening Reception hosted by Buffalo Thunder Resort & Casino, the Hilton, and the Pueblo of Pojoaque
August 7, 2010 6 to 10 p.m.
Special Guest Speaker: 6:15 to 6:30 p.m.
Jennifer Hobson, Deputy Cabinet Secretary, New Mexico Tourism Department
Dance Performance by DANCING EARTH, the nation’s foremost indigenous contemporary dance ensemble. Led by choreographer Rulan Tangen, sometime before dusk
For more information about the T.I.M.E. project at Buffalo Thunder, contact Chuck Zimmer, Art in Public Places Manager at 505-827-6490, 800-879-4278 (statewide), or email chuck.zimmer@state.nm.us.
For directions to Buffalo Thunder Resort and Casino, visit the website at http://www.buffalothunderresort.com/directions-and-map.
July 2010
Jul 10, 2010 2010
JUNE 28- JULY 2, Rulan joins the Native Wellness Institute’s Native Athletic Leadership Youth gathering in Oregon. Intensive hours of dance , basketball and football training was offered to youth from Alaska, California, Montana, Idaho, Oregon and Washington at the Reed College campus, and culminated in a visit to the Nike Headquarters.
JULY 16 – 20 DANCING EARTH is invited by Native Wellness Institute to work with 1400 Native youth at the UNITY conference, to create the first -ever Native ‘Flash Mob’ dance !
Meanwhile, ‘ Flash Mobs’ will also be created in Coeur D’Alene Idaho ’s “Rockin The Rez” program by Dancing Earth’s dance instructors Deollo Johnson, Nichole Salazar and Eric Lopez, working with hundreds of Native youth in July and August !
JULY 24-25 : The National Hispanic Cultural Center and El Museo Cultural de Santa Fe are partnering to present a multi-disciplinary arts festival aimed at promoting mentoring of youth in the arts. The festival will be presented during the annual Spanish Market Weekend and is titled:
Somos Uno – We Are One
“The Art of Multi-Cultural Mentoring”
The Youth Arts festival ~ two days of fun, education and top performers celebrating unity through diversity in northern New Mexico ~ will be held on Saturday & Sunday, July 24 & 25,from 10:00am – 4:00pm at the Santa Fe Community Convention Center outdoor courtyard. All events are FREE to the public.
Governor Bill Richardson and Santa Fe Mayor David Coss have issued proclamations designating the week of July 18-24th to be recognized as “Celebrating the Creativity of the youth of New Mexico and the vitality of mentoring in the Arts and Culture.” New Mexico is celebrated for its cultural and artistic traditions. This event focuses on the art of mentoring as the vehicle to nourish the next generation of leaders in the arts and culture.
The Festival showcases 30 of New Mexico’s dedicated arts mentors and organizations and their students, with free hands-on workshops in elements of the arts, and with performances of multi-cultural dance and music, from 10:00 AM to 5:00 PM each day.
Arts exhibition and workshops for youth will be conducted and feature work and guidance by six well-known multi-cultural New Mexico artists: Andy Garcia, Armando Adrian Lopez, Faye Viarrial, Roger Montoya, Rulan Tangen and Stephanie Huerta. Their work ranges from dance and storytelling to painting and sculpture.
*****Please join DANCING EARTH at the courtyard main stage from 10-1130 am on Saturday, for an improvisational performance ritual, dedicated to the Healing of the Gulf Waters, with DANCING EARTH performers and local Native youth, artists and community members !
Cross-cultural, multi-disciplinary performances and workshops will be presented. Participating groups include: The SF Youth Symphony, African Drumming with Elise Gent ,N.M. Hispano Music Association award winners, Dancing Earth-Contemporary Indigenous Dance, National Dance Institute, Warehouse 21 , Circo Latino Youth Ensemble, The Taos Youth Ballet , The Institute for Spanish Arts Flamenco’s Next Generation with Maria Benitez, Carlos Contreras Poetry Slam, Moving People Dance Española and Santa Fe, Wise Fool New Mexico, Fine Arts for Children and Teens , Tewa Women United , Los Niños de Santa Fe Mexican Folklorico, Mariachi Del Sol de Española, Mosaic Dance Company, Teatro Paraguas, The Mel Patch Art Space de Española, Holy Faith Break-dancers, and Hands Across Cultures poets! The Santa Fe Symphony will present a special screening of We Are the Music, this film celebrates cultural diversity in the arts and showcases New Mexico Children.
http://vimeo.com/12998674
www.somosuno.usSomos email bw flyer ol
June 2010
May 30, 2010 2010
Please come join us at Stanford University…
for “ELEMENTS OF LIFE ; FACES OF RACES IN MULTIPLE SPACES” !!!
A free public presentation of our creative process, created by project participants of THE DANCE OF RACE AND ENVIRONMENT
with special guest artists:
- muralist Joaquin Newman ( www.forrealism.com)
- famed Deer Dancer Jacoh Cortes, former principal dancer of Ballet Folklorico De Mexico
WHERE : Meet us at the Chumway Fountain ( aka Halo aka Red Fountain)
WHEN : Around 7 pm on WEDNESDAY June 2 ;
THEN WHAT ? … We will roam from site to site on campus ( Law School Lawn, Meyer Library Steps, The Claw, White Plaza, the Grove, Papua New Guinea Sculpture Garden)
WITH >>>
Sound, Movement, Dialogue, Interactive Games ( twisted Twister based on Race and Environment Labels – left leg on Blue if you are , ” black”, “white”, “green” !!) , Poetry, Participatory Chalk Art Masterpieces, Recycled and Stolen costumes, Snacks, Random beatings by Border Patrol, and…. surprises! We will conclude with a celebratory feast at Harmony House..
Later in July, Rulan goes to Los Angeles celebrates the achievements in the film industry of DANCING EARTH associate artists . She joined Choreographer/Director Raoul Trujillo at the premiere of “Love Ranch”, in which he is a featured actor, alongside Oscar Winners Helen Mirren and Joe Pesci. The next evening, “Twilight” premieres with former DANCING EARTH lead performer Alex Meraz co-starring as werewolf Paul. Congratulations to both actors for their success !
Rulan wears the jewelry of Cody Sanderson and Pat Pruitt !
May 2010
May 19, 2010 2010
In Albuquerque, Taos and Santa fe, please enjoy Moving People Dance! Yes, that is Serena Rascon of DANCING EARTH ! Any of you who enjoyed her performances with OF BODIES OF ELEMENTS will be fascinated to see her in work by several other choreographies, at the company affiliated with the school where she received much of her dance training ! This remarkable school has trained 2 more of our lead females: Cina Littlebird and Nichole Salazar. we congratulate Moving People on their seventh season and look forward to supporting their concert !
April 2010
Mar 11, 2010 2010
Great news – DANCING EARTH is selected for the 2010 National Museum of American Indian Expressive Arts Award !
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HERE IS WHAT DANCING EARTH IS WORKING ON NOW !
What: Concert & Dance Performance with Robert Mirabal and Dancing Earth (dance troupe)
When: Friday, April 23, 7:30pm
Where: Macey Center, One Olive Lane, Socorro, NM
Price: $16/Adult; $14/Senior; $12/Youth, all general admission seating
Tickets Available at: Brownbilt Shoes and Western Wear, Burrito Tyme, Cashier at Fidel Center Student Union Bldg; at the door; OR, call 575-835-5688.
Web: www.nmtpas.org; www.starroadrecords.com; www.dancingearth.org
Taos Pueblo Grammy Winner, Robert Mirabal, with Acclaimed Indigenous Dance Troupe, Dancing Earth
Performs in Socorro on Earth Day Weekend
SOCORRO – Get close to the Earth for Earth Day. On April 23, Robert Mirabal, acclaimed musician from Taos Pueblo, and the native dance troupe Dancing Earth, perform at Macey Center as part of New Mexico Tech’s Performing Arts Series. The show is at 7:30pm.
Robert Mirabal is a two-time Grammy-Award winner who weaves ancient and contemporary music in a thoroughly original way. Described as a Native American “Renaissance man,” he is a master flute maker composer, painter, craftsman, poet, actor, screenwriter, horseman and farmer. Robert travels extensively and plays his music all over the world.
Music from Robert’s latest album, “In the Blood,” will be featured: songs that blend scenes from the American experience-past, present and future-with themes from contemporary Native life, some sung in English and others in Mirabal’s native tongue, Tiwa. Love songs merge with ghost songs that further roll into Americana ballads and full-on tribal rockers. Woven together with Robert’s music will be original choreography by Dancing Earth.
The grant from the National Endowment is to support the Socorro presentation of Dancing Earth with Robert Mirabal and his band, the artistic collaboration between the two companies, outreach activities for the Socorro and Alamo-Navajo Schools, and a performance at the Alamo-Navajo Wellness Center. Dancing Earth dancers will be developing and rehearsing original choreography, in collaboration with Robert Mirabal and his band, produced here in Socorro at Macey Center, for this performance only.
Tickets for the Socorro performance are $16 for adults, $14 for senior citizens, and $12 for youth17 and under. Tickets are available at the door or in advance at NM Tech Cashier’s Office (second floor of Fidel Center), Brownbilt Western Wear, Sofia’s Kitchen, and Video Shack.
Admission is free to full-time New Mexico Tech students – those taking at least 6 hours and showing a valid ID. Students should pick up their tickets in advance at the Tech Bookstore.
-NMT-
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Congratulations to our illustrious Canadian colleague Santee Smith, and her company of Kaha:wi Dance, being welcomed to New Mexico for the first time in an appearance at VSA North Fourth Art Center in Albququerque, to a full and appreciative audience ! Just back from Japan, en route to Mexico and Australia, Kaha:wi is bringing contemporary Indigenous dance around the globe!
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April brings Rulan Tangen to Stanford University for the semester as visiting artist with the Institute for Diversity in the Arts , to lead their “Race and Environment’ initiative
She is on the lookout for collaborators at Stanford and throughout Bay Area, who would like to express this theme in multi-disciplinary forms
To kick off this project, the IDA has invited DANCING EARTH to present a studio showing of OF BODIES OF ELEMENTS. Click the link below to download their poster, with amazing photo of Nichole Salazar as costumed by MARAMA of Aotearoa, photographer Alex Quintana
This is free and open to public, please attend and join us for Q+A afterwards!
March 2010
Mar 11, 2010 2010
Spring Equinox is almost here! DANCING EARTH’s local female contingent will honor the balance of light and dark around sunset on Saturday March 20, location TBA. This will be a free offering to the public, being filmed for a tv pilot program about creativity and inspiration, in collaboration with the amazing fashion designer Randolph Duke who will be creating original garments inspired by sun and moon !
February 2010
Feb 4, 2010 2010
FEBRUARY 2010
Our opening night at NDI was a full house, almost 500 audience members! We can thank Janet Eigner for a thoughtful and detailed article in the PASATIEMPO magazine the Friday before, which expanded public awareness and boosted ticket sales considerably! Thank you Janet for your words which have helped lift DANCING EARTH into visibility, and for your generous cultivation of dance on a local and national level!
This article can be seen in hard copy in the NEW MEXICAN’s Friday Jan 29 issue, or on Janet’s weblink:www.eignerdancereviews.com , which is an amazing resource for dance information!
After the opening night, we offered a matinee to 400 Northern New Mexico schoolchildren, thanks to sponsorship from National Hispanic Cultural Center, Santa Fe Opera and Jaime Smith
The following days we are scheduled for showing for 500 more school children at the elementary schools of Chimayo, Abiquiu, Hernandez in Espanola and San Juan Pueblo
This weekend Feb 6-7 is the last chance to catch the show , tickets at www.vsartsnm.org where we are part of the Global Dance Festival AND the Two Worlds Festival!
Some of the audience commentary:
“A note to say how much I was moved and delighted and excited by last night’s performance.You’ve created a truly original dance/performance form with so many layers of meaning I’m still digesting what I saw and experienced–consciously and below the radar. Bravo for your beautiful work and great success with the upcoming tour.”
Lorraine Schechter, founder of ARTWORKS
“My name is Jim Hamilton and I attended the performance last night in Santa Fe and wanted you to know that in my many years of seeing dance performances all over the country I have never, never been so moved as I was last night at the Dance Barns. A stunning performance that brought me to tears during several sequences, especially the shadows of the dancers superimposed on the bomb … WOW. Your dancers are beautiful and so energetic throughout.
My own identity and place on this planet was reflected in every movement …. I willingly embraced that place that is often full of terror and violence …. and love, somewhere in it all.
Thank you for your wonderful work and I will be telling my friends all over the country about your tour.”
Jim Hamilton
Cochiti Lake, New Mexico
“Bravo!!!!!! What an extraordinary piece…..loved the story, choreography was brilliant as are all your dancers…..your presence was very strong throughout the performance which set it apart from anything I have seen.”
Pasha Hogan, art therapist
“Beautiful premier. Relevant and full of life. I hope it went as well for you as it did for the packed house.”
Craig Hansen
INCREDIBLE, INSPIRING, INNOVATIVE… I am still wowed by last night’s performance. Great, great work and congratulations. I am so very grateful to you for your brilliant creativity and vision and performance in this community and in the world at large
- Jamie Figueroa
Thank you Rulan for inviting the Pueblo youth and elders. I’ve received nothing but positive, excited feedback about the performance.
- Kyle Gray, Santa Fe Opera – Pueblo Opera Program
“Unfucking believable”
- J R Ristorcelli
WOW we made it into the NY TIMES, Sunday paper Feb 7 2010:
TRAVEL | February 07, 2010
The Art of Being Santa Fe
By HENRY SHUKMAN
The city is celebrating its 400th anniversary, but its heart and soul are the result of constant renewal.
Thank you Henry Shukman for the mention!
January 2010
Jan 4, 2010 2010
New Year and Blue Moon Eclipse Blessings!
Get your tickets now for shows in Santa Fe Jan 31 and Albq Feb 6-7 !
SAVE THE DATE !!!
World premiere of:
DANCING EARTH in “OF BODIES
OF ELEMENTS”
Directed and Choreographed by Rulan Tangen
“Riveting Indigenous contemporary dance !”
www.dancingearth.org
Prices $15, or $10 for children, students with ID, and seniors,
Santa Fe – SPECIAL PREVIEW on Sunday January 31 , 7 pm,
at the National Dance Institute , 1140 Alto St in Santa Fe NM
( buy tickets at door , or in advance at KICKS on 801 Cerrillos Rd , 505 982 9277)
Albuquerque — PREMIERE: on Saturday Feb 6 @ 8 pm and Sunday Feb 7 @ 2 pm,
at the VSA North Fourth Art Center, 4904 4th NW in Albuquerque
(tickets call Box Office at 505-344-4542 or visit www.vsartsnm.org)
A “GREEN” PERFORMANCE INITIATIVE:
OF BODIES OF ELEMENTS is envisioned as an hourlong performance ritual that interprets Indigenous ecology and sustainability from mythic, historical, metaphoric, futuristic perspectives to revitalize our understanding of current challenges. Worldview is expressed through Indigenous collaborators as dancers, composers, set designer, costume designer, who adapt eco-sustainable practices by incorporating recycled and reclaimed materials, organic materials, bio diesel and solar power into their construction of a new performance ritual, rooted in ancient philosophies. Even our publicity is being done largely through the internet, with some printing with vegetable inks on certified forest sustainable paper products
Please join us in this unique artistic/cultural offering!
Credits :
“OF BODIES OF ELEMENTS “ is made possible by the Doris Duke Fund for Dance of the National Dance Project, a program administered by the New England Foundation for the Arts with funding from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, the Ford Foundation, The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and the Community Connections Fund of the MetLife Foundation.
It is presented by DANCING EARTH CREATIONS and Santa Fe Art Institute, with additional support from College of Santa Fe, National Dance Institute of NM, VSA North Fourth Art Center, Global Center for Cultural Entrepreneurship, National Hispanic Cultural Center, Southwestern Association for Indian Art, Santa Fe Opera’s Pueblo Opera Program, Espanola Public Schools Arts in Schools Program, Moving People/Santa Fe Dance Festival, Go Native Arts!, Institute of American Indian Art’s College and Museum of Native Contemporary Art
Rulan highlighted on KSFR Radio: Gotta Dance on Sunday Night Jan 3 at 7 pm. Host Randy says , “ I really do love your choreography and dancing. You’re one of the best choreographers and dancers in New Mexico !”
On Rulan’s birthday Tuesday Jan 5th, catch DANCING EARTH on Native America Callings current events profile, 11- noon mountain time on 89.9 !
We will also be on Mary Charlotte’s program on KSFR this month, and on KIVA radio at 1550 AM on Sunday morning Jan 17 at 9 am !