“Be Water”
Artistic Director’s notes for summer 2026
“BE WATER..”
I lead with w Bruce Lee , who has inspired and influenced so many creators of colors, to step up and make spaces that didn’t exist, by taking on the unfathomable work of producing, defying industry limitation and stereotype by making empowering cross cultural art for the masses. By the way my friend Jeff Change recently published a biography of this cultural icon, and I was blessed to attend the San Francisco Chinatown One Family celebration where the book was featured… To learn more about Bruce Lee through this writing please check out Water Mirror Echo ( https://jeffchang.net/water-mirror-echo/#book )
Now, about DANCING EARTH Summer 2026 …
… the Movement of WorldMaking: Creation in Confluence ….
Vision + Intention :
Confluence of creative intercultural collaborations - for Movement of WorldMaking … Movement as a source of knowing… Movement ss medicine…. Movement is living : a vital force that brings organic migrations ( a remedio for the current anti immigration energy and xenophobia ) …
As Artistic Director, I also want to surface the inspiration of
an embodied collective response to Venice Biennale’s “ ‘In Minor Keys’ …
an invitation to “tune into the subtler emotional frequencies made possible by the arts”
to provide “a radical reconnection with art’s natural habitat and role in society,”
that of “the sensory, the effective, the subjective”
to platform artistic practices that are “generative and generous, that invite collaboration, alchemize, and radiate back to the ways that we are human together:
within “broader geopolitical context in claiming that the exhibition will provide “intimate and convivial universes that refresh and sustain even in terrible times.”
- quotes from ArtNet article on Venice Biennale
Our Confluence resonates in parallel , generating :
EBB sanctuary with ethos of converging for Rest ( for contemplation , attunement , listening , enchantment of the subtle magic of the everyday )
FLOW Shrines and Processions: collaborative creation of contemporary rituals that make embodied offerings to ground directly below each artist , or alternately the infinite space of migration, calling in ancestral and futuristic to the multi sensory present
WATERMARK imprint : spanning ephemeral to lasting with embrace of creative archives of all that body intuition can awaken
There are times to stand strong and fierce, and to also carry the ability to move like water. As a middle aged woman of color, there is an invisibility that I can feel in US society, that I now wield as a superpower , to be seen and unseen when I choose, to light blazing torches or soothe with calming waters. Maybe combine both for enchanting natural hotsprings visit during recreation time !
That’s what is igniting and flowing my dreamscape and landscape , and I invited you to join me for this collective dreaming, doing and being !
"Be Water, My Friend. Empty your mind. Be formless, shapeless, like water. You put water into a cup, it becomes the cup. You put water into a bottle, it becomes the bottle. You put it into a teapot, it becomes the teapot. Now water can flow or it can crash. Be water, my friend." - Bruce Lee
Reflecting into 2021, Dancing Earth News
Reflecting into 2021
In 2020, Dancing Earth was able to overcome immense challenges to launch unanticipated and innovative online offerings with creative resilience and joyous positivity. This is something we had only dreamed about in the past, but due to the constraints we had from the pandemic, we got down with our imaginations and drew this dream into reality.
Last of Fall Harvest 2020, Dancing Earth News
Last of Fall Harvest 2020, Dancing Earth News
Fall 2020 Events including: PPAK: Journeys in Native Food Sovereignty & BTW US Cyberspace, "Life Giving, Living +LIVE Closing Party!" November 20th. Tickets includes access to the live/synchronous stream on Nov 20th as well as five episodes released earlier this month. All content will be available for ticket buyers through Nov 30th.
BTW US Cyberspace: Dancing Earth Creates a World Together, Dancing Earth News
BTW US Cyberspace: Dancing Earth Creates a World Together, Dancing Earth News
Article by Tamara Johnson for Southwest Contemporary. "In a year of social distancing and division, global Indigenous dance company Dancing Earth uses digital space for creative gathering and (re)generation. The art they make convening “here” feels like contemporary ritual. Dancing Earth’s current work, BTW US Cyberspace, constructs and inhabits a liminal realm between tradition and technology."
Upcoming Events: PPAK & BTW US Cyberspace at UtahPresents, Dancing Earth News
Upcoming Events: PPAK & BTW US Cyberspace at UtahPresents, Dancing Earth News
“The next step, of the future, is the dance to be made by us all collectively, the energy of continual renewal… So the open portal of possibility is brought into the audience, for us all to dream and co-create together…“