September 2013

OUR DANCING SUMMER !““ A beacon of consciousness , revealed through dance with real content” – Tom LawDANCING EARTH’s amazing summer culminated with standing ovations at the Downtown Dance Festival in Battery Park, New York City. We landed from an overnight flight and went directly to the Two Wampum Gathering, where we experienced Iroquois cultural and wisdom, and made offerings to the chiefs Jake Swamp and Oren Lyons to receive permission to bring our dances to the land, which thankfully were accepted ! “they bring so much spirit to their work, and  make this stage a sacred space “ – Jonathan Hollander , festival director Onstage at Battery Park, alongside companies from France, Greece, New York including the famed Limon company, we were acclaimed by audiences, presenters and our dance colleagues for bringing something that they had never before experienced !Congratulations to amazing company of Rulan Tangen, Sina Soul, Nichole Salazar, Ria Thundercloud, Deollo Johnson, Daniel Arizmendi, Shane Montoya, Javier Stell-Fresquez, Jesus “Jacoh” Cortes and  Lumhe “Micco” Sampson for ‘bringin it’ to NYC ! REFLECTIONS:We are happy to share this review by NYC playwright Peter Handy :: http://www.exploredance.com/article.htm?id=3539 And a blog by one of our new friends Thomas Victor :http://thvictorphoto.wordpress.com/2013/08/14/dancing-earth/and a review  GRATITUDE  …We honor the amazing Shawn Termin of the Smithsonian Institute for her vision and perserverence for building this opportunity in NYC over a nine year period, and for the remarkable partnership offered by  the Downtown Dance Festival.Ch Megwech to George Stonefish who opened our Round dance with audience with his live singing and hand drum !Many thanks to old friends and new friends who helped us document with photos and video : Ravene Noir, Solar Banner, Diana Brownstone, Rodney Bowe, Neil Emond and Tom Victor !Special thanks to those who attended our open rehearsal in Santa Fe and donated $400, which covered two meals for the company while on tour in NYC.Quotes from Audience :Beautiful performance from you and your entire ensemble, was breathtaking, powerful, emotional, sensitive and just incredible. You are so inspiring, thanks for bringing such an amazing work and beautiful dancers to NYC! – Deborah Damast " You brought your world experience home to N.Y.C. with "Dancing Earth" to the enjoyment, amazement, and comprehension of those who witnessed a new direction in dance. The conscious combination of deep and passionate meaning to the most important issue of our age, the sacredness of water, was revealed in your brilliant choreography and your dancers abilities to bring it. Congratulations from one of the many you brought to tears. Continue the struggle of your art; you have proven its value. “ - Tom Law “ I had no idea there was so much diversity of tribes, that was amazing ! ” – Food vendor “ You were my favorite company in the festival , so relevant “ - Jennifer “ I have seen a lot of companies in my years of volunteering at this festival but I have never seen anything like this and I had to come up and tell you that “ – Erny  “ breaking out of native stereotypes”  - George Stonefish “ I loved the lyricism. Very good work, should be seen by everybody “ – Barry, tech director “ great work “  – Carla Maxwell, Jose Limon company  EDUCATIONOur NYC rehearsals overlapped with the end of our amazing second summer program, with a final day of land –dancing at Abiquiu Lake  .. DANCING EARTH, GOES INTERNATIONAL !!This fall takes us father than we have ever been, with an invitation from Aotearoa ( New Zealand !). DANCING EARTH is invited to bring Native contemporary dance for the first time to the international Kowhiti Festival  ! With support from the US Embassy, USArtists International, and longtime Maori colleagues Teri Ripeka Crawford, Tracey Marama LLoydd and Jack Gray, DANCING EARTH will be in Aoteroa for two weeks with cultural exchange,  lectures, workshops, and performances on November 7-8 at the Wellington Opera House ! After 12 yrs of dreaming, its finally happening and we invite all of our New Zealand friends to come meet us !The exchange rate and costs of visas, baggage, flights, accomodations are higher than anticipated so we are only able to bring 7 of our 12 company members. However we have a 5000 fundraising goal this month,  so we can bring 8 dancers, and we ask you to support by donating what you can http://www.dancingearth.org/involvement.htmlDonors of 500 or more will be listed in the Opera House program, website and newsletter. Santa Fe and San Francisco businesses, this is a great chance to show your support for your dance company and give your organization international recognition ! On Oct 19, stay tuned for rare solo appearance by Rulan at a benefit in San Francisco !   CONGRATULATIONS !Welcome, Javier Stell Fresquez, who  joins us as Administrative Intern, as he finished his degree at Stanford University . Having danced with us for summer trainings, and joined the company onstage in California, New Mexico and New York, he now dedicates his skills towards development and sustainability of DANCING EARTH's infrastructure !Ria Thundercloud is living her dream of being a full time professional dancer ; this summer and fall she will be dancing in South Dakota , Toronto, New York, Russia, Minnesota, Moldova and New Zealand with 5 different dance initiatives – congratulations Ria !