New Work
Photo by Joe McNally
She was first encouraged by Lakota grandmothers at the Native Wellness gathering in Minnesota to consider applying creativity to “ the need to purify the waters, of our bodies, and of the lands”. Later, Maori dance colleague Terri Ripeka Crawford concurred that this would be a theme worthy of global consideration, from her perspective of people of the Pacific. At the Buder school of social work, Stephanie Kettler compared the state of water to the state of women around the world. In Indiana, audience member Kellie Gillenwater asked if DANCING EARTH could create a dance that highlighted the work of Anishnaabe women, walking the perimeter of the Great Lakes, to call attention to the sacredness of water.
In summer 2010, Rulan collaborated with intergenerational community members to make a response to the Gulf oil spill, first for the Somos Uno Festival directed by Roger Montoya, and later in collaboration with artist Chrissie Orr , DANCING EARTH performers and musician Barrett Martin for the T.I.M.E. outdoor exhibition at Buffalo Thunder.
In February of 2011, Rulan was invited to workshop her idea further at Trent University in Canada, where she was able to meet Josephine Mandawin, the originator of the Water Walks, as a co-panel speaker at the Indigenous Womens Symposium. (see press release below)
With cultural support from water ceremony carrier Edna Manitowabi, Rulan explored the theme through creative exercises with a group of seven students and community members.
In spring and summer 2011 she intends to workshop the choreography further, including through community engagement ritual at the Santa Fe River Festival, and also in a proposed work at the Denver Botanical Gardens, in tribute to installation artist Will Wilson, who has “ been creating a series of artworks entitled Auto Immune Response, which takes as its subject the quixotic relationship between a post-apocalyptic Diné (Navajo) man and the devastatingly beautiful, but toxic environment he inhabits. “
Partial Press Release:
Indigenous Performance Initiatives in association with the Department of Indigenous Studies, Trent University, are pleased to present
Anishinaabe Maanjiidwin IX
Thursday March 17 and Friday March 18 at 7:30pm
An evening of Indigenous dance, music, and storytelling
featuring
“Walking the Edge of Water” (work in progress)
Choreographed by Rulan Tangen, International Guest Artist
&
Excerpts from “No Home But The Heart: An Assembly of Memories”
Written and choreographed by Daystar/ Rosalie Jones
at NOZHEM: First Peoples Performance Space
Enweying: First Peoples House of Learning and Gzowski College
2510 Pioneer Road, East Bank, Trent University
Admission: Pay What You Can
Please reserve seats by calling (705) 748-1011 x7923
Artistic Producer: Marrie Mumford
Associate Artistic Producer: Karyn Recollet
PRESS RELEASE: March 7, 2011 TRENT UNIVERSITY – The ninth annual production of Anishinaabe Maanjiidwin will feature two Indigenous choreographers from the Americas working from independent yet related approaches to the work.
Under the sponsorship of Indigenous Performance Initiatives, Rulan Tangen, in a three-week residency intensive, has created a new work in collaboration with participating dance artists who bring to the process their different backgrounds, languages, dance forms, and perspectives. This new work is the manifestation of a long held dream that began several years ago when Indigenous grandmothers gave Rulan a message of request for artists to address the need for purification of the waters. Her invitation to Trent provided the opportunity to meet with Anishinaabe women who have been walking the edges of the Great Lakes in order to bring awareness " to spur people to give thanks for their water and to realize that water is alive and needs protection” in the words of Debora Fourstar and Josephine Mandamin, who said "look after the water for the next generation of the unborn”.
Inspired by this mandate, Rulan encouraged each dancer to reach inside themselves for their own experiences with water, and they have brought stories of childbirth, of growing up on islands, of creation - with glimpses of words in Cree, Spanish, Zulu, English, Anishinaabemowin, French and Blackfoot. Spinning, stomping and spiraling these into dance mosaics in tribute to the Women Who Water Walk. This is the first showing of this new work, intended as a sketch for a future full length performance by Ms. Tangen's own company in Santa Fe, New Mexico - DANCING EARTH, which she founded in 2004. Thus, Indigenous contemporary dance emerges as an expression that can build communities through functional movement rituals that enhance our understanding of our relationships with the world around us. The imprint of the artists working with her at Trent will have continued life in future performance incarnations of DANCING EARTH, bringing the vision seeded by Anishinaabe Maanjiidwin IX to flower in expanded circles.