CURRENT COMPANY DANCERS

“OF BODIES OF ELEMENTS “ FIRST CAST:
RULAN TANGEN
KALANI QUEYPO
NICHOLE SALAZAR
SERENA RASCON
CINA LITTLEBIRD
ERIKA ARCHER
EDGAR GARCIA
DEOLLO JOHNSON
ERIC LOPEZ
AMY BECENTI

RULAN TANGEN’s (Dancer) lifelong passion for dance began with professional debut at age 17, and has taken her to United States, Canada, Europe, and South America in the work of 40 choreographers. Ballet and modern dance companies include: Michael Mao Dance ( including performances in New York, Paris and Norway)  and Peridance Ensemble of NYC, Karen Jamieson Dance Company of Vancouver, Moving People Dance Theater, One Soul, Berkshire Ballet, Catskill Ballet Theater, Redwood Empire Ballet and Marin Ballet. She has made guest appearances with One Railroad Circus and Wise Fool Soulstice Circus, with opera productions in New York an with Memorylines Community Opera. As a traditional Northern Plains powwow dancer she has won championships in the Northeast. She has created lead roles in Native dance projects including TRIBE, at the Ordway Theater MN,  Minigoowezewin at Banff Centre in Canada, No Home But The Heart, Kaha:Wi and  Here On Earth at the National Museum of the American Indian and in Canada, and the PBS televised 'Music From a Painted Cave', with subsequent 80 city tour including the New Orleans Jazz Festival. As a dance soloist she has been commissioned to perform for H.R.H. Princes William and Henry in an Anti-Racism concert, the Heard Museum, the DanceNow/NYC festival, and venues in California and Brasil. Her dancing was featured in the films, "The New World”, and she also shares her love of dance through extensive teaching and choreography ."To live is to dance, to dance is to live."

NICHOLE SALAZAR (Dancer) is from Santa Fe, New Mexico where she trained and performed with Moving People Dance Theater. At age 17 she was a all category  finalist in a national dance competition which earned her an apprenticeship with the Cleo Parker Robinson Dance Ensemble of Denver. She soon became the company's youngest principal dancer and toured internationally performing a vast repertory including Milton Meyers, Rosangela Silvestre and others. She also  performed in New Work with the Michael Mao Dance. She has performed in Rulan Tangen's choreography as a soloist since high school, and joined DANCING EARTH for performances at Idyllwild Arts, CA, Santa Fe Dance Festival,  Arizona, and Alaska, in recognition of her Shoshone/Chinese/Latina heritage. ( Photo by CMS Photography)

 

SERENA RASCON (Dancer, Vocalist) of Yaqui and Sonoran blood, took her first breath in Las Cruces, New Mexico, beginning dance at age 3 with at schools including Moving People Dance and subsequent performances with the company. She also relays the gift of dance to middle and high school children through teaching with after school programs, and fitness for new mothers. In San Francisco, she completed the 1st year, pre-professional training program, integrated with Alonzo King's LINES Ballet, and is a founding member of a dance company known as Inochi Dance and is also working with a company known as Natasha Carlitz Dance Ensemble.  She has performed at the Lensic Theater as a soloist in opera choreographed by Rima Miller, in «An Evening with Bobby McFerrin», and as a featured vocalist in MemoryLines Community Opera by Little Globe Productions. She has been featured in choreography of Rulan Tangen since age 14, and has worked with DANCING EARTH in Iowa, Alaska, Phoenix, Sedona and Alaska.

 

SARRACINA LITTLEBIRD (Dancer) was born and raised in Santa Fe NM, beginning her dance training with the Santa Fe Dance Foundation and later studying with Moving People Dance Theatre’s school, performing with their student company and apprenticing with the main company. She embraces her cultural heritage through dance, having family at Laguna, Santo Domingo and Tesuque Pueblos participating in summers in the traditional Pueblo Corn Dance. She has spent a summer in Chile on cultural exchange and is now a graduate of Columbia University as a double major in Environmental Biology and Dance. Since age 12 she has danced in Rulan’s choreography at the Museum of Crafts in NYC, Native Roots and Rhythms, and now with DANCING EARTH originating a role in a women’s trio created for the Santa Fe Dance Festival.

 

EDGAR GARCIA (Dancer, Hair Stylist) is a dancer and professional hair stylist, who lives in Arizona.  A champion breakdancer/streetdancer who helped develop the experimental Sour Patch crew, he has studied contemporary dance with an interest in choreography. He has performed with Desert Dance Theater and danced on stage with Mikhail Baryshnikov’s White Oak Project, as well as co-creating new choreography for a Native Film Festival in Montana. With Dancing Earth, he has performed at the National Dance Institute of NM, the Santa Fe Opera House stage, Native Wellness Institute conferences,  National Performance Network Showcase, Santa Fe Dance Festival, Las Sedona’s Festival of Native Arts and Culture,  in Alaska for the Yu’Pik Nation and in Las Vegas and Arizona.

 

DEOLLO JOHNSON (Dancer, Instructor for DANCING EARTH Cultural Creative Movement classes)  has been practicing martial arts and dance for nearly 25 years and during that time has studied West African, capoeira, Urban Contemporary Dance, Haitian, modern, jazz, and other dance styles. Deollo has taught capoeira as an adjunct faculty member at Meredith College in Raleigh, NC, as well as at the American Dance Festival, University of North Carolina at Greensboro, Payap University in Chiang Mai, Thailand,  in Hayti at the Baptist Haiti Mission..  Proficient in the instrumentation of capoeira and West African drumming, Deollo has performed in countless venues including performing with Laura Dean Dancers & Musicians, Djembe Fire, the African American Dance Ensemble, Cyro Baptista/Beat The Donkey, and now with DANCING EARTH.  Also, Deollo has been offering capoiera for 2 yrs as part of  DANCING EARTH’s Cultural Creative Movement classes for 2 yrs at La Mariposa’s Montessori School in Santa Fe.

 

ERIC GARCIA LOPEZ (Dancer) was born and raised in Arizona, of the Tarasco First Nation. A inspired student of the arts with special interest of photography, film production, painting, creative movement , music and the many different native cultures/traditions. He has been dancing for many years under the style known as b-boying (break dancing) and street dancing . He has taught and perform for non-profit, intergenerational, Arts and Educational Outreach under Michelle Ceballos Michot, and also trained under the guidance of Hodge Jo and Dance Worldbeat with street performances all over Phoenix. With the love of dancing, he continues to explore the many realms of the performing arts.

 

ALYXIS TRUJILLO (Dancer) comes from the border of Arizona and Mexico, and has is majoring in dance at college in Arizona. She has performed with flamenco and hiphop companies, as well as being featured in solos in choreography of Sam Watson, Ronn Stewart, John Lehrer, Fletcher Nickerson and Rulan Tangen in the Moving People Summer Dance intensive concert in 2007. Following that, she was selected to tour with DANCING EARTH to Idyllwild Arts, and learned the lead Eagle role created by Maori co-director Terri Ripeka Crawford. Subsequently, she has danced with the company at Sedona’s Festival of Native Arts and Culture, in Alaska for the Yu’Pik Nation’s Calista Corp, and Phoenix at ASU and NCECA conference.

 

EAGLE YOUNG (Dancer) has trained and studied at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, Los Angeles and South Coast Repertory in Orange County. He's performed professionally in New York at the world famous La Mama Theatre and in North Carolina in the oldest outdoor drama The Lost Colony.He has recently enjoyed his collaboration with Native Voices at the Autry and Performing with South Coast Rep this past spring. His favorite roles include Jean in Miss Julie and the Stage Manager in Our Town.  He'd like to thank his family and friends for their endless support. Watch for his upcoming first feature film Montana Amazon, starring Haley Joel Osment and Olympia Dukakis. He joined DANCING EARTH for the premiere «OF BODIES OF CLAY» in Arizona.

 

JOSE MERAZ (Dancer), a descendant of the First Nation Purepecha Tribe (in Spanish, Tarasco) of Indigenous Mexico. Born in the state of Washington, he was raised in Mesa,Az since he was 5 where as a troubled youth he overcame obstacles through b-boying (aka break dancing) and martial arts. A teacher, trainer and senior performer in Grupo Axe' Capoeira Arizona since 2000, he has performed on national and local TV news media channels also including doing shows and teaching workshops at colleges, community centers and theatres throughout the greater Phoenix metropolitan area. He recently performed for the promotional signing for the movie sequel The Twilight New Moon August 2009. Since the passing of his mother in 2003 he began attending native ceremonies and learning Danza Azteca as means to better understand himself, his people and the strong connection to TonaTzin (Mother Earth).

 

ERIKA ARCHER (Dancer) is 22 years old from Fort Washington, Maryland, representing the Meherrin Nation of North Carolina. She has been dancing since the age of three doing a variety of styles such as modern, tap, jazz, ballet, contemporary, and hip-hop. Most recently she has taken part in styles such as Latin, African, and powwow style Women’s Fancy Shawl. Erika is very passionate about the arts of all forms, she is a pop recording artist under Bully Music Group, a model, and aspiring actress. She is a recent college graduate with a Bachelor’s degree in Cultural Anthropology from the University of Maryland College Park.

 

AMY BECENTI (Dancer) Amy’s passion for dance began with ballet classes at age 4, followed by self training in the wilds of south-eastern Utah. Having no formal dance classes available to her, Amy staged recitals atop sand dunes and bedrock as crows and sheep dogs looked onAmy, and her dance became steeped in myth of her ancestors as well as the ancient Greek and mainstream culture. She has explored Azteca, African, Balinese, Odissi, Salsa and Swing, as well as club dancing and drum circles. In 2003 Amy discovered American Tribal Style belly dance, a form which transcends age and body type, and she continues to develop her voice as an artist of dance

 

SPECIAL GUEST PERFORMERS

 

RAOUL TRUJILLO (Special Guest Performer, Consulting director and Lighting Designer) danced internationally with the Nikolais Dance Theater from 1980 to 1986, where he also learned master lighting design. He was the original choreographer and co-director of the American Indian Dance Theater for its first two years,  continuing to explore native mythology and creating dance technique along with Alejandro Ronceria in Toronto with Native Earth for the Performing Arts. His work The Shaman's Journey was turned into a dance film for PBS, along with Alive From Off Center. He hosted and narrated the series Dancing, also for PBS. He has performed at the Kennedy Center for the Arts, taught at the Banff Centre for Aboriginal Arts, and has been a mentor to DANCING EARTH since the beginning. He has worked extensively as an actor in film and television, and continues to dance and choreograph. He recently worked as a choreographer and principal actor, in “The New World”, as historic Chief Red Cloud in Spielberg’s series “Into The West” , and featured roles in “True Blood”, “Tin Man”, “Love Ranch”, “Ancestor Eyes”, and in Mel Gibson’s “Apocalypto for which he won a North American Indigenous Image Award for Best Actor.

 

KALANI QUEYPO (Special Guest Performer) was born and raised in Hawaii, and trained in NYC and at the Banff Centre for Aboriginal Arts. Kalani has created roles in the world premiere productions of Miinigooweziwin...The Gift, Bones: An Aboriginal Dance Opera, Tribe, The Last American, Red Sky, Transformations , Earth Dance Theater‘s Naming Ceremony, U.C. Riverside’s Red Rhythms Conference, and is a founding member of DANCING EARTH. As a noted actor, he trained in NYC and has appeared in theater productions through the country , and in numerous television series and films, including the infamous Strangers With Candy on Comedy Central, The Royal Tenenbaums, Powwow Dreams, End of the Spear and The juror. Kalani also was featured in Spielberg’s mini-series “Into The West”, and co-starred as Parahunt in "The New World", a major motion picture by Terrence Malick, starring Colin Farrell and Christian Bale. He is an active collaborator and Advisory Board member of the Native Voices Theater in LA. His first venture into scriptwriting and directing of his short film ANCESTOR EYES has garnered him many international festival awards, including Creative Spirit’s Script to Screen, Best Short Film, and Directorial Discovery. He is producing a film OUR VOICES< OUR STORIES, about the Young Native Voices: theater Education Project

 

JACOH HERNANDEZ CORTES (dancer, founding director of DANCING EARTH’s Bay Area Training program of CUICACALLI ) was born in Veracruz Mexico. He began his training with danza folklorica when he was 6 years old under the direction of his uncle Juan Natoli. In 2000, at age 21 , he joined the Ballet Folklorico de Mexico de Amalia Hernandez at the Bellas Artes in Mexico City. He became principal dancer in the role of the deer in “La Danza del Venado”, touring Mexico, Europe and the USA. He has been  company choreographer and lead teacher for Los Ninos de Santa Fe y Compania, teaching hundreds of school children annually with the Santa Fe Opera outreach program. He performs with Moving People Dance Theatre, Danza Folklorica , and Dancing Earth. He is the founding director of CUICICALLI,  Dancing Earth’s bay area branch of training programs , including in several public schools.

 

ORIGINAL COMPANY MEMBERS

 

QUETZAL GUERRERO (Composer, Musician, Dancer), of heritage including Juaneno, Cambiva and Yaqui, carries the name "precious feather" in the Aztec-Nahuatl language. As a Suzuki trained violinist, he has studied and performed internationally since the age of 5, playing with legends such as Tito Puente, Lalo Guerrero and Jorge Santana. He is an accomplished visual artist and actor who trains with Axe Capoiera. As a champion street dancer with Sourpatch, he has appeared with H.T.Chen and Company of New York and was invited to perform with Mikhail Baryshnikov. He was also a founding dancer of DANCING EARTH, performing at sites across the USA and in Brasil. He recently toured Europe with world renowned Osunlade and was working in Puerto Rico as a new artist of Yoruba Records. Acting credits include “New World” where his dancing and acting abilities were featured as a core warrior.

 

ANTHONY CH-WL-TAS COLLINS (Photographer, Dancer) is a member of the Salt River Pima/Maricopa, Seneca, and Osage tribes and has been dancing since age 10. He is a frontrunner in cutting edge, experimental and creative urban street dance. His unique sense of aesthetics extends to his visual artistry, as awarded the T.C. Cannon Scholarship to the San Francisco Art Institute for photography. As 2004 program coordinator for the Native American Cultural Center of San Francisco and founder of the Earth Dance Street Unit, he hosted native poetry events and creating incredible street dance performances at unconventional spaces throughout San Francisco. He has performed with “Kaha:wi”, “Here on Earth”, Earth Dance Theater, Canadian Aboriginal Music Awards, and the televised Aboriginal Achievement Awards and is a founding member of DANCING EARTH . Onscreen, he can be seen in the film “The New World”, “Tecumseh” and and independent films by artist Kent Monkman. He is a sought after photographer in the USA and Canada.

 

ALEJANDRO (ALEX) MERAZ (Actor, Filmmaker, Artist, Dancer) of the Purepecha First Nation of Michoacan, Mexico was born and raised in Mesa, Arizona. He attended the New School for the Arts, and apprenticed with master mask carver, Zarco Guerrero. Under the name Nomak, he earned an international reputation for break dance and creative street dance break dance. For 12 years Alex studied mixed martial arts, winning numerous tournaments in karate and capoeira, which led him to train with Andy Cheng as a stuntman on the set of THE NEW WORLD. As noted by the film crew, "he moves like a panther." Highly sought after in the indigenous dance world, Alex has worked as a lead dancer throughout the USA and Canada with renowned choreographers including Raoul Trujillo, Rulan Tangen, and Santee Smith (where he earned a Dora Mavor nomination). His interest in film was fueled by roles in THE NEW WORLD, and TWO SPIRITS, ONE JOURNEY and he began making his own independent short films which have been well received on the festival circuit. He His thoughts and perspectives on dance and film-making are influenced by his exquisite drawings and paintings. He is now passionately developing his werewolf character of Paul for the very popular Twilight film series.

 

JESSICA MARISOL ALLEN(Producer, Photographer, Dancer) began her dance career at the age of 4 with Danza Azteca. At the age of 10 she began her formal ballet and jazz training, including performances with San Francisco Bay Areas Dance Brigade and with mother and artist Gina Pacaldo. Jessica competed and toured throughout the United States, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, France, Canada and Japan for 11 years with national and world champion color guard performing units, incorporating ballet, modern and jazz dance with complex stage design and pageantry. In 2003, she performed professionally in the Tony Award winning “Blast” show at the Queens Theater in London. She currently works as a television personality on PBS and dance clinician in Los Angeles and England. She is now pursuing photography,  filmmaking and motherhood!

 

HAPPY FREJO (Actress, Writer, Singer, Dancer) is a native performing artist who is a member of the Pawnee and Seminole Nations of Oklahoma. She is an accomplished poet, dancer, singer/songwriter, and actress. Happy travels across the United States to youth conferences, conventions, camps and reservations conducting hip-hop workshops, sharing her message of hope and acquiring love from within. Using her gifts and talents, she desires to reach as many young people as she can, encouraging them to go after their dreams with all the belief in themselves and to strive to lead a positive and healthy lifestyle. Her accomplishments include touring the USA with Peter Buffett’s SPIRIT as a performer and dance captain, producing her own short film , “My Darkest Hour”, singing with her band, touring to Thailand as a powwow dancer and currently developing the Happy Soul Project.

 

DANCING EARTH STAFF

KATHRYN MARK (Administrative Director, Stage Manager) brings integrated creative and business background to DANCING EARTH.  Her diverse dance studies includes ballet and African dance, Afro-Brasilian training with Roseangela Silvestre in Brasil, circus arts with Wise Fool New Mexico, and in 2002 performed in Rulan’s choreography of “Missa Para El Mor” for Moving People Dance. She has certification in elementary school education, as well as circus yoga.  Her bi-lingual creative movement and dance arts programs bring her into most of the public schools districts in Northern New Mexico, under the auspices of Santa Fe Opera as an Artist in Residence (for whom she has produced student-created operas for several years), National Dance Institute, and Artworks. She has been an administrator and budget manager for the Santa Fe Performing Arts, and in 2005 she successfully fundraised and organized a DANCING EARTH tour to Brasil.

ALEJANDRO QUINTANA THOMPSON (Production Assistant ) was born in Valle del Cauca, an Andean Region of Colombia, he was raised in Arizona where early on he developed a love for photography, art and culture. He is an accomplished photographer, actor and poet, after working in many successful indie films, he soon found he was drawn to follow Dancing Earth where he assists in all aspects of production and lends his talents as a skilled photographer.

LAWRENCE SANTIAGO (Set Designer) Santiago is a Native American artist, singer/songwriter, architect, and actor currently based in Los Angeles. He is a member of the Coushatta Tribe of Louisiana and a Native Hachamaori from the island of Guam. Santiago lived in Italy where he studied Classical Architecture & Art through the University of Notre Dame. He received a Bachelors Degree in Architecture & Environmental Design from the University of Colorado, and is currently attending the University of Southern California for a Master of Architecture & Urbanism. For Santiago, art & life are truly a mutual process that know no restrictions of medium or time. He believes that even though art's tangible form is limited, those who experience it give it no bounds. 

CONNIE WIND ( Costume Designer) is an accomplished circus performer who has worked with the dynamic Wise Fool New Mexico. She has studied fashion design in Georgia and  created costumes out of remnants from eco-sustainable bamboo jersey for DANCING EARTH’s 2009 OF BODIES OF CLAY. She is continuing with  this innovativeness with costumes for this premiere of organic silk reclaimed bicycle tubing, and other recycled material.

JOSE LUIS MONCADA ( Costume Designer), a native of El Paso, TX has been dancing since the age of 16. He started his career performing with the El Paso Association for the Performing Arts. He has danced and performed with NM Ballet Co., Ballet Theatre of NM, Moving People Dance, Baila! Baila!, and Ballet Folklorico Rio Grande. Joe has trained and competed in the professional American Rhythm division in Ballroom Dancing for over 10 years, receiving awards in his professional division including top teacher for numerous Pro-Am competitions with Fred Astaire Dance World. He now shares his time between teaching his students to reach a higher level of competitive ballroom dancing and exhibition dancing. When not wearing his dance shoes, Joe is dedicated to the design and construction of his beautiful and very creative dance costumes from professional dancers and dance companies in New Mexico and beyond.

MARAMA (Costume Designer) is a creative force as a dancer, teacher , artist and fashion designer, of the tribes Ngati Kahu and Te Rarawa.  She lives in the beautiful bush of the Waitakere Ranges, producing her fashion  from her studio in Titirangi, and retailing at the Moa Unlimited shop in Aukland.  Marama garments are hand printed with contemporary indigenous designs  by Ojasvi Kingi Davis and express the beautiful mana and beauty not only of her land and people, but of Indigenous culture. Collaborations with fashion, film, and dance began between Marama and Rulan in 2002 at the Banff Centre and developed into a collaborative invitation for a contingent of Maoris under Korou Productions to work with DANCING EARTH at Idyllwild Arts in summer 2007. Marama’s fashions were featured on Rulan for the cover of NATIVE PEOPLES magazine in fall 2004.

 

AFFILIATE ARTISTS

LELAND CHAPIN ( Collaborating Artist, Arts Educator, Body Painter ) is a multi-cultural artist and teacher who has collaborated in learning with a wide range of people around art and social justice issues. He has lived & worked in Panama, Washington DC, New Mexico's Navajo Nation, Philadelphia, and El Salvador. Inspired by the work of The Center for the Support of Native Lands (nativelands.org), of which his father is the founding director, Leland has been working on a series called Body, Land, Maps; a multi-media, live painting, and dance installation, exploring stolen lands, displaced peoples, and environmental conservation strategies.  Since 2007, Body Land Maps has been presented in Santa Fe, NM and in Buenos Aires, Argentina with choreographer Rulan Tangen. Leland’s body painting has been featured on DANCING EARTH performers at presentations in California, New Mexico, and Arizona, and he led DANCING EARTH art workshops for youth at the Idyllwild Native Summer Residency.

 

JOHN PAUL RANGEL (Graphic Design) is actively involved in promoting and working with Native arts, contemporary Native artists and Native arts institutions. His work includes website development, branding, marketing consultation, developing print collateral, media for radio/television, signage and motion graphics. In addition to graphic design, marketing and public relations, Rangel also is an instructor at the Institute of American Indian Arts College. Currently, Rangel is finishing a graduate degree at the University of New Mexico where his focus is Native education and contemporary Native arts. Rangel believes that Dancing Earth is a vital expression of Native arts and culture that draws from our collective past and reaches toward our future.

 

GUEST MUSICIANS

RAS K’DEE  (Pomo Native hiphop artist with 3 independent albums, one mentioned on top ten list of Village Voice in 2003)

BARRETT MARTIN  (international percussion composer, Masters in anthropology, linguistics and ethnomusicology, founder of Fast Horse Recordings world music and jazz label

JENNIFER BEN (ASU student and classical cellist, composing integrating her Dene heritage)

ARIANE ESTRADA (Orff certified music educator in Bay Area public schools, percussion accompaniment for Danza Folklorico)

GUEST DANCERS

KOROU Productions, of Aotearoa, led by TERRI RIPEKA- CRAWFORD
RIA THUNDERCLOUD
ANDREA NICOLA
ROGER MONTOYA
RUBEN RASCON
ANDREA FOX
REGINA AGUILERA
REBECCA CHORNENKY
NISHKE MARS