“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
Giving Tuesday 2023
With Giving Tuesday just around the corner (November 28th!), we're thrilled to offer a glimpse into the transformative work unfolding within our programming. We humbly invite you to join us in generously supporting our global dance community, centered in the vibrant landscapes of the Bay Area and New Mexico!
WELCOME TO THEDIVINE FEMININE IN ALL BODIES!
Dancing Earth is honored to co-host 2 online workshops with “New Matriarchs of Narragansett First Nation”! These two workshops are part of Artistic Director's, Rulan Tangen, exploration of her emergent movement of MIXED-ICISM as the process for an itinerant body of work for eco-feminism and eco-liberation. A multidisciplinary, multi-sensory, multidimensional, mysterious and magical will centering the wisdom of the body that may include writing and drawing.
The Source, 4-Day Community Festival
The Source: A gathering of intercultural experiences and expressions, encompassing creativity, wellness, self-love, and compassion–conjured by and for our diverse communities. Co-Presented by Dance Mission Theater and California State University, East Bay, this exchange unfolds over four days, radiating cultural and spiritual warmth while embodying principles of Reciprocity, Relationship, Imagination, and Dreaming.
Facilitated by Creative Leaders of Dancing Earth, this journey aims to collectively restore, nourish, and celebrate community: Inviting all to “Come As You Are,” “Create As You Are,” “Experience As You Are,” and finally “Reflect As You Are,” with an immersive community experience of ritual, performance, workshops, cultural shares, and ancestral connectivity through multiple exchanges.
Save the Date for The Source
“The Source” is an immersive community experience of ritual, performance, workshops, cultural shares, and ancestral connectivity through multiple exchanges.
12th Annual Summer Institute PERFORMANCE RITUAL RSVP
Dancing Earth warmly invites our local Bay Area community to experience amazing guest artists from our 12th Annual Summer Institute and the first one to be held here in Ohlone homelands of Hayward! Over the last ten days we have been sharing and creating, all in culmination of this performance ritual. Together we have been collaborating with the local land, trees, and water, to experience eco diversity, and explore how that is reflected in the diversity within each being, and the exchanges between us.
2023 Fall Tour at Ringling Theater in Sarasota, FL
BETWEEN II
2023 Spring Tour
April 7-8, 2023
7:30pm ET
Historic Asolo Theater at the Ringling Museum of Art - Sarasota, FL
Restoring The Source: Mixed-icism In Motion with Rulan Tangen
Rulan invokes “mixed-icism in motion” to embody the ecosystemic relationships between darkness and earth in dynamic juxtaposition of heat and light of sun and moon, the flow of moisture above and below ground, and the dynamic aeration of soil by hooved animals - to encourage open the seeds of potential for our dreams - wild and free, rooted and connected!