| | | | DANCING EARTH CREATIONS dynamically activates our mission, to create contemporary dance and related arts through indigenous and intra-cultural relationships centered in ecological and cultural diversity for creativity, health, and wellness. | | |
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| | | | | Thank you for your patience as Dancing Earth Creations sits at harbor, waiting for the right tide to begin our outward facing journey again. Winter brought time for reflection and renewal and we have used this period of rest to recalibrate, reimagine, and recenter.
Dancing Earth recognizes that we, like many performing arts companies, are working within an emergent field of operation and determined that we need a strategic planning process aimed at pinpointing the heart of our mission.
What we have identified so far is that we want to work in a way that centers health and well being, for both the staff, the artists and communities we work with/in. In order to continue this work, F R E E D O M L A N D: Liberatory Coaching, Consulting, & Rites of Passage have been hired to assist in preparing us (staff, artists, cultural advisors and community members) for a future Strategic Planning Process intended to decolonize our operational systems and reimagine more sustainable, equitable, and just ways of working.
Right now, this looks like participating in a series of retreats facilitated by F R E E D O M L A N D, centering Rest as Decolonized Praxis (learn more below). We've had one retreat thus far on rest as liberatory practice, and are planning for one-two more this Spring-Summer including topics such as practicing interdependence, accountability, and relational organizing from Indigenous cultural paradigms.
We are committed to a more liberatory and equilibrated practice of operation, and have recognized the need for support to make this happen. We have invited longtime elder advisors into a new council, and new and longtime artists, community members, and cultural advisors to join us in these retreats.
We will share more about how these retreats are shifting our company in future newsletters. For now we wanted you to know we have started and will be continuing to do the work needed to be in alignment with our mission, to create art that centers intersectional, intergenerational, environmental practices, indigenous artists and communities, and health and well being. | | |
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| | | | Graphic from Cultural Advisory Feedback March 2021, facilitated by Laura Rios-Ramirez from De Corazón Consulting | | |
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| | | This time of reflection has also been a time for remembering our alumna collaborators from so many wonderful experiences in the past 18 years of Dancing Earth that brought creative convergences, wondrous travels, hearts breaking open, tender listenings, and collective inspirations. Some of these have been described in a recent article written by Jade Whaanga in InDance magazine: Grassroots to Cyberspace: Evolution of Dancing Earth.
We have been blessed to be supported by wonderful partners, alumna, organizations, funding sources, and community members like you, during this time. Thank you so very much for your support!
In Dancing Spirit,
Dancing Earth Creations | | |
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| | | Writer Jade Whaanga is an Aotearoa (NZ) based Indigenous Dance Artist who hails from Ngati Kahungunu. Master of Dance Studies from the University of Auckland. Jade's work focuses on empowerment, re-claiming the Indigenous feminine body and healing historical trauma through dance as ritual. She is also the founder of Performance Art organisation Nū Collective.Photo by Moira Amaru, Pictured: Raven Knight from Walking At The Edge of Water. |
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| | | | Dancing Earth is proud to introduce our newest team members, creative artists and leaders, who are offering their skills, beyond the stage, to assist us in our emergent growth. Thank You, and Welcome! | | |
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| | | | | | Anne Pesata originally comes from Dulce, NM, on the Jicarilla Apache Reservation and is currently based out of Albuquerque, NM. Anne is joining the team in an Administrative Management role, helping to organize the digital landscape of Dancing Earth’s workspace. She has worked with DE as a cultural ambassador and performing artist since 2012 and enjoys beading in her freetime. |
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Talofa Lava. Kia Ora. My name is Elaine Talamaivao (she/her) I currently live, dance and provide community outreach on Cahuilla and Tongva land. Through my love of dance, I provide community opportunities for youth to share in the ancient art of storytelling through dances and languages of my ancestors stretching from Aotearoa, Samoa and Hawaii. I am working as Community Organizer for the new and incredible California project to nourish our intracultural communities in this challenging year; Dancing Earth’s Califa: RE-SToring the Source Retreat.
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My name is Sarah Hogland-Gurulé (shey/they), and I currently live in and with my birthplace and ancestral home of Albuquerque, NM, the unceded territory of the Tiwa people. I am so thrilled to be joining the Dancing Earth team as a grant writer! I am also a dance artist, educator, choreographer and writer who is guided by the belief that dance and movement are forms of embodied healing, remembrance and visioning; all essential tools for our collective liberation.
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| | | | | Rest as Decolonized Praxis
Dancing Earth's 1st Retreat: March 28, 2021
"This retreat explored the concept of rest as decolonizing work, offering Intersectional Justice framing, rituals, somatic practices, and political education to deepen understanding of Dancing Earth’s need for collective pause. We demystified why immersing in a season of internal reflection, evaluation, and fortification is an act of resistance and a movement towards equity. This retreat explored embodied praxis in dismantling white supremacy, capitalism, and ableism, using rest as the foundation for this disruption. We interrupted the toxic normalization of Black and Indigenous bodies being overworked, overlabored, and undervalued-unpacking our own acculturation into these oppressive systems. When we honor the needs and capacities of our bodies, we move in a way that is more sustainable and present to the interconnectedness of all of Life. This helps to avoid burnout within our movements and introduces a framework for divesting from a culture of ableism because all bodies have access needs and all QTGNC2-S Black and Indigenous Lives matter." - ChE
To learn more about the facilitator, ChE visit http://che-art.life/
To learn more about F R E E D O M L A N D : Liberatory Coaching, Consulting, & Rites of Passages visit http://che-art.life/freedom-land
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