December
2005
Kalani,
Rulan, and the infamous ´core warriors´ Alejandro, Quetzal,
Thosh, Brian, Quese, Jeremy, Lawrence and Whe:Whum joined the principal
actors as well as Cheif Green and son Joseph, and Cheif Atkins and son
Steve, of Virginia , at the world premiere of THE NEW WORLD in Hollywood!
Red carpet photos taken by the international press can be viewed at
www.gettyimages.com or www.wireimage.com.
Kalani and Rulan are seen proudly wearing silver jewellery designed
for them as congrulatory gifts by the gifted hands of Denipah of Flagstaff
Arizona.
For the rest of the month, Rulan is travelling throughout the mountains
and rainforests of southern Mexico, researching material for the next
dance creations, exploring cultural links between Native tribes, "sin
fronteras"! She sends Solstice greetings from Chiapas!
November
2005
DANCING
EARTH performed at the end of the month in San Diego for Native Youth
at a health and wellness conference organised by the brilliant Jillene
Joseph. We look forward to participation in her spring event in Reno
Nevada.
Jessica Allen is continuing in her lead role in the show BLAST, currently
touring throughout the United States.
Meanwhile, on location in the jungles of Veracruz Mexico, Raoul Trujillo
is acting in a lead role in a new epic film directed by Mel Gibson,
set in the ancient Mayan era. Other film leads are dancers as well with
backgrounds from powwow to contemporary to Mexican folkloric and Aztec.
Rulan joins the cast as the choreographer and physical movement trainer.
October
2005
While
in Mexico City, Raoul and Rulan attended a performance of Earth In Motion´s
AGUAS, choreographed by Alejandro Ronceria andperformed in an outdoor
fountain in UNAM. It was a stunning evening, with 5 live musicians and
an all female cast, including Penny Couchie, Santee Smith, April Doxtator,
and Carla Soto.
August
2005
This
month, Serena Rascon was selected by the acclaimed LINES BALLET school
in San Francisco, to attend their year round program as part of their
professional training group, congratulations! She recently was apprenticing
for the exciting MOVING PEOPLE DANCE THEATER, a primal force in the
Santa Fe dance scene. MOVING PEOPLE is moving into large new dance studios
off of Cerillos road at the end of the month.
At
the opening of the Poeh Museum of the Pojaque Pueblo, Quetzal Guerrero
composed an original score to which a collaborative dance piece was
created by himself, Anthony, Alex, Edgar Soto Garcia and We:whum Wulwilder.
Kalani, Raoul and New Line Cinema producer Sarah Greene attended to
support the event, as well as Rulan who was there to sign newly published
copies of NATIVE PEOPLES magazine wearing the exotic desgns of designer
Tracey Collins.
Please check out the Sept/Oct issue of NATIVE PEOPLES, featuring 6 interviews
with the most exciting Indigenous choreographeric pioneers the
US and Canada, and featuring Rulan on the cover.
August 17 Rulan and Kalani do a morning radio interview promoting THE
NEW WORLD, and that evening they are joined by whole crew in cluding
Raoul, Sarah Greene, Wes Studi and many core warriors for the first
NEW WORLD public preview with panel discussion, at the center for Contemporary
Arts in Santa Fe.
July
2005
Check
out this months issue of THE NEW MEXICO MAGAZINE, inside you will see
stunning photos of Anthony Collins modelling Native fashions in the
middle of New Mexico highways!
Richard
Bluecloud Castaneda photographed Rulan Tangen early morning on a San
Francisco hilltop for the cover of an upcoming issue of NATIVE PEOPLES
magazine, see www.nativepeoples.com. She wore stunning contemporary
Maori fashions by Marama designs,(Kingi Davis and Tracey Lloydd, a favorite
dance collaborator met in Banff), along with feather earrings given
to her in Brasil by 14 year old Werimea of the Pataxo Nation, with whom
she exchanged songs and açai fruit, during a rainstorm!
June
2005
Rulan performed spoken word poetry in a dance piece by Kevin Iega (choreographer
of Deeply Rooted Dance Ensemble) for the Moving People concert at the
Lensic Theater in Santa Fe.
Alex
Meraz made his first short film, "Burning Water", for submission
to the ImagineNative (www.imaginenative.org)
film festival in Toronto , congratulations!
Rulan
Tangen was invited to appear solo at Odyssey Dream, an international
literary and arts festival in Amman, Jordan in August/September. She
was able to recommend 6 more DANCING EARTH performers, as well as several
of the New World core warriors, additional powwow dancers, graffiti
artists, filmmakers, photographers and poets, to be on the list for
a possible delegation of more than 30 Native artists for participation
as representative of the United States!
On
Sunday June 19, Rulan performed at the first Annual "Sounds of
Change" fundraiser held outside the Bikanda Capoeira Space. The
benefit was on behalf of the Berimbau Foundation's "Project Life",
a multi-aspected project that includes bringing capoiera, permaculture,
dance and other forms to disenfranchised youth, within a filmed documentary.
Other guest participants came from Brasil, Africa, many Native people
were present, as well as circus performers, fire swallowers, percussionists,
DJs and incredible cuisine cooked on site including west indian, jamaican,
and soul food !
Rulan
and Kalani were featured in a live interview June 1st on KPFA radio
station, 1pm pacific standard time.
Raoul and Rulan are now on a new 'podcast' on the website www.thenewworldmovie.com,
under Blogs, under Native Movement, describing the process and research
involved in creating the movement quality of Native peoples in the historic
period of early contact.
Rulan was invited to perform a solo for the dance nOw/nyc festival (www.dancenownyc.org)
in september, performing at the cathedral of St John the Divine. Mark
your calendars for September 13 at 7:30 pm, the opening of the 'sacred'
dance element of the experimental modern dance festival. She is considering
dancing to Robert Mirabal's "Witch Song", a powerful wordless
song made in dedication to the sacred womens incantations that were
suppressed by colonizing forces.
May
2005
Quetzal, Thosh and Alejo will be going to Toronto to work with experimental
filmmaker Kent Monkman on a new project.
The
May 2005 issue of Dance Magazine features a photograph of Rulan, and
mention of DANCING EARTH in an article by Janet Eigner about dance in
Santa Fe. For more info please access www.dancemagazine.com
DANCING
EARTH affiliate artists and friends will be touring the northeast with
the show SPIRIT. Including Brandon Oakes and Tamara Podemski as leads,
Happy Frejo as dance captain, and fancy dancer Jody Johns joining the
cast. For more information, please visit www.spiritseventhfire.com.
Congratulations
to Cina Littlebird! She has been accepted to Columbia University with
scholarships from Bill Gates and National Merit Society, and looks
forward to being in the dance mecca of New York City in the fall. Also
with spring flowers comes her 18th birthday, which marks her entry as
a full company member of DANCING EARTH, after 6 years of work in Rulan's
choreography!
April 2005
DANCING EARTH members will be attending Gathering of Nations Powwow in
Albuquerque as well as Mike 360's hiphop event.
Alejandro
Meraz was chosen by acclaimedchoreographer
Alejandro Ronceria to return to Banff Centre in Canada to work on a
special role in a new production titled "The Hidden Place".
Rulan
Tangen attended the memorial service performance of her colleague Homer
Avila, an internationally acclaimed dance artist of Central American
heritage, who danced with her in Paris and Norway with the Michael Mao
dance company. The event was held at St Marks Church in New York City
and offered Homer's choreography as well as the sublime video footage
from a documentary named PHOENIX DANCE with the choreography of Alonso
King. 3 initiatives have been established in Homers memory; donations
may be made to complete the documentary footage, or scholarships for
study with Alonso King or zvi Gotheiner, or a health plan being created
for NYC dancers.
March 2005
DANCING EARTH collaborators: artists Virgil Ortiz and Zarco Guerrero
were both featured in this months Heard Museum Indian market.
The Spielberg mini series "INTO THE WEST", being filmed just
outside Santa Fe, features Raoul Trujillo as the historic Chief Red
Cloud, Kalani Queypo as White Bird, and Brandon Oakes as Kicking Bear.
Alejo and Thosh returned to Canada to dance alongside April Doxtator
in Santee Smith's choroegraphy for the Aboriginal Achievement Awards
in Saskaktchewan, where they danced on a stage designed by Cirque Du
Soleil set designer! They reconnected with Tasha Hubbard, an emerging
documentarian whose first feature was screened at the Encuentro in Brasil.
Also in March, Dancing Earth took our performances to Brazil! Our performance
at the Teatro Nunes in Belo Horizonte was one of the highlights for
many participants of the 5th annual ENCUENTRO. see www.hemi.nyu.edu
and article in www.forrealism.com. The amazonian nations of maxacali,
kaiapo, and pataxo were present to offer welcoming ceremonies and dances,
and we were awed by the performances and presentations of incredible
indigenous artists, activists and educators from north, central and
south america, as well as new zealand and hawaii! We thank the Salt
River Pima/Maricopa Indian Community for generously supporting Thosh
Collins to attend this historic event.
January – February 2005
Rulan, Thosh and Alex joined mohawk choreographer Santee Smith at the
Banff Centre for the Arts to collaborate on her new work HERE ON EARTH,
performed partially on modernistic totem structures of metal scaffolding.
They also were featured in solo roles along with an international cast
in her acclaimed KAHA:WI (see www.santeesmithdance.com). They performed
in Banff, Calgary, the original mohawk territory of Oneonta NT, and
on Six Nations at Brantford, where they also offered a dance workshop
to 40 Iroquois youth. KAHA:WI gave the inaugural performance at the
theater of the new National museum of the American Indian in Washington
DC, where Raoul Trujillo joined our cast in a reprisal of his role as
the Ancient One.
