The Confluence
Show Program
June 10th, 2026
A Performance Ritual
Wednesday, June 10, 2026 · Santa Fe Art Institute
Following the confluence, that brings many ancestral waters to bring life to dreams in the high desert. Follow the journey to encounter various dream-visions that emerge from the group that gathers for collective world-making. In every direction — before, behind, beside, above, below — each witness will catch a perspective of the dream that only they will experience. From the tiniest rock, the tallest tree, the ball of thread, we come together to share this ritual performance.
Opening
Interactive Community Offerings Jennifer Turner · Vannia Ibarguen ·
Collective InvocationCreated by Rulan Tangen in collaboration with all artists
Opening conch: Cynthia Paniagua Opening chant: "e ho mai" by the late and revered Edith Kanaka'ole, echoed by Humlåo Evans Opening music: Song of River by Amanda Dannae Romero
Works in Order of Appearance
Mujer Algarrobo Vannia Ibarguen with Jennifer Turner
Choreography: Vannia Ibarguen, with Jennifer Turner
I feel my skin and seeds are becoming drier and harder. My round squishy juiciness is fading away. Who am I becoming? What is my purpose now? Deep-rooted, drought-resilient, and life-giving, the algarrobo tree reminds us that everything is connected. In the algarrobo, we glimpse a blueprint for our shared future — a world where we live in good relationship with the Earth.
Music: Created by Kino Benally including samples of live sound from the Santa Fe Art Institute surroundings, with live flute by Laura Yohualtlahuiz Projection: Humlåo Evans Garments & props: Dancing Earth and Vannia Ibarguen Installation: Xeric Tlaloc Meraz
Medicine Wheel of Time Xeric Tlaloc Meraz
Choreography and performance by Xeric Meraz
Live music: Laura Yohualtlahuiz
Cura Curandera Mujer Tondero Cynthia Paniagua
Choreography: Cynthia Paniagua
This piece follows the sensual healing journey of a Curandera as she reconnects to the ancestral principles of Tondero, a courtship dance from the deserts of Piura, Peru. Through migration and navigation of self, she rebirths the matriarchal legacy of the Healer, La Curandera. Her love journey to la Pachamama and the intimate self is danced through the cosmic womb, hips, heart, sensual joy, and Tondero woman spirit.
Music: Por Esas Trenzas by Françoise · Así es Mi Tondero by Puro Ritmo Live music and appearance as Ancestor: Laura Yohualtlahuiz
Interflow Humlåo Evans, Rulan Tangen, Gabriela SharpFish & Jennifer Turner
Choreography: Coexisting Happenings
Interflow refers to water moving laterally through soil beneath the surface rather than flowing openly in a stream. The water is present, moving, connecting systems, but largely unseen — neither fully groundwater nor surface runoff. It is a hidden flow, traveling between layers, eventually feeding streams, springs, and rivers. As water travels between realms, there is presence of migrations, diasporic connection and disconnection, seen and unseen, human and beyond-human beings, visceral sensory and intuitive transcorporeal realms — water morphing to weave the past, present, and future.
Music: Samples from Barrett Martin · Uakti with Philip Glass · Annie Lehualani Lanzilotti · Esme Olivia and the Confluence Collective of NM community members impacted by environmental degradation · Emma Dewey and matriarchs of The Listening Project · Justin Mercavich · Speech edit of Dr. Haunani Trask · Humlåo Evans
Bycatch Humlåo Evans in collaboration with Jennifer Turner with Gabriela SharpFish leading community interactive art
Choreography: Humlåo Evans in collaboration with Jennifer Turner
Bycatch is what remains trapped in a net despite never being its intended target. This movement offering examines the cultural, historical, and human entanglements left in the wake of colonialism, militarization, and global transformation. It interweaves the histories, memories, and identities collaterally damaged under and within larger forces of conquest, migration, and survival.
Music: Justin Mercavich Projection: Humlåo Evans
We The People Gabriela Wachi SharpFish
Choreography: Gabriela Wachi SharpFish
We the People was born from a desire to create space for conversation, reflection, and the practice of healthy democracy. At its core, the work asks a simple but powerful question: What is your relationship with America — past, present, and future? Through written responses gathered from artists, students, and community members, the piece brings together a collection of lived experiences, memories, frustrations, hopes, and dreams. Rather than offering answers, the work invites dialogue — asking us to listen to one another, to reflect on where we have been, and to consider where we might go together.
Music: Recorded vocal responses from artists and community members interwoven with original music by Kino Benally Projection: Solo performance footage (2025), interwoven with written community reflections Props: Community response canvas · drum and featherwork by Irwin "Ivan" SharpFish Sr. · red scarf
Mother Tongue: Army of Winged Souls Weaving Futures Laura Yohualtlahuiz with Vannia Ibarguen and Cynthia Paniagua
Choreography: Laura Yohualtlahuiz, workshopped with Rulan Tangen
Mother Tongue explores themes of Indigenous erasure, language loss and revival, ancestral connection, and relation to the Sacred as tools for alchemizing grief and rage in response to colonization and genocide across Cemanahuak/Turtle Island. This work is a reminder to allow our ancestors and guides to move and heal through our bodies — to create art as a liberatory act of resistance that gives us back our voice. So even when we have lost our Mother Tongue, and we must search for the native languages of the land, our body will always remember the language of Tierra y Libertad. This is an excerpt of a work in progress.
Music: Mixed by Kino Benally with sampled tracks from Cuauhtonal Benavides and Jorge Reyes · additional flute samples and vocals by Laura Yohualtlahuiz Garments & props: Concept and design by Laura Yohualtlahuiz Installations: Tlatohlli: Our Word (entrance) · Atlachinolli: Weaver of the Fire and Water (performance space) Cameo appearance by Xeric Tlaloc Meraz as Tlaloc
Yma Vannia Ibarguen
Choreography: Vannia Ibarguen
Yma is semi-autobiographical with a political and social message. Yma Sumac was a Peruvian singer living in Hollywood who was labeled exotic and only partially accepted because people could not put her in a box. As an immigrant, she remade herself in order to be accepted and commercialized. The piece juxtaposes the life of Yma Sumac, the exotic Peruvian-born soprano, with my own life as a Peruvian artist living in Los Angeles: being immigrant, being accepted, being not enough. Who I was, who I want to be, the opportunity to change, and being somebody new in a new place.
Music: Chuncho by Yma Sumac, with text by Vannia Ibarguen
Fighting W**nds Humlåo Evans, joined by artists
Choreography: Humlåo Evans
The work explores the body as a living contronym — a word that contains its own opposite meaning. The body emerges maintaining connection to what persists beneath assimilation, erasure, and change. It navigates belonging and displacement, grief and beauty, inheritance and transformation at the same time. Rather than choosing between these truths, the work inhabits their tension and reveals identity as an ongoing practice of remembrance, resistance, and becoming.
Music: Speech edit of the revered and late Angel L.G. Santos Projection: Humlåo Evans
Closing
The Beginning Full company
Choreography: Rulan Tangen in collaboration with all artists, including Global Water Dance phrase contributed by Vannia Ibarguen
Global Water Dances (GWD) is a project that connects people from more than 180 locations around the world to elevate consciousness about water through dance. To learn more visit globalwaterdances.org
Closing live sound: Mixed by Kino Benally with sampled tracks Additional credits: Archival bowls by Leland Chapin · Rulan's wearable art garment by Israel Haros Lopez
Production Credits
Direction & Choreography: Rulan Tangen Production: Jade Whaanga
Sound Design & Live Mixing: Kino Benally (DJ Béeso)
SFAI Tech: Keith Riggs
Additional Lighting: Jonathan Meade
Additional Projection Footage: Humlåo Evans
Film Documentation: Terrance Clifford · Xeric Tlaloc Meraz
Photography: Ryan Johnston · Audrey Derrell
With Gratitude
Elisa Kier and Tom Moran · Ryan Johnston · Elena and Tash · Romeo Elcantro · Gustavo Reyes · David Lamb · Jennifer Stennis · Toccara Thomas · Laura Martinez · Marita Hinds · ThanPovi Martinez · Gabriela Garrion Gonzales · Angel Guana · Eve Sizer · Randle Charles and Jtsitso · Camilla Trujillo · Ibrahim Loeks · New Mexico Dance Coalition · Audrey Derrell · Michael Meade · Elise & Eric Gent of Railyard Performance Center · Katie, Hannah & Alishiya of Wise Fool New Mexico · Michelle
Venues: Santa Fe Art Institute · Wise Fool New Mexico · Railyard Performance Center
Artist bios and photos
