Dancing Earth’s Bay Area Dance Company presents

THE LISTENING PROJECT

IN THE HOUSE OF MATRIARCHS

photo cred: Tasnim Clarke

To Listen…

A seemingly simple yet profound message in times where the wisdom of the earth and the voices of our elders–including our matriarchs and our more-than-human kin–have been drowned in the noise of harmful and loudly extractive & oppressive dominant culture we exist within.

Created in the spirit of Eco-Artivism, The Listening Project is emerging as a multi-sensory, multidisciplinary, site-responsive performance responding to, honor, and celebrate the wisdom of matriarchs and our elder mentors. 

As part of a long arc work-in-progress centered in Dancing Earth’s Land Dance practices, we invite audiences to participate in embodied listening to ecologies of land, water, & place, as we honor matriarchs, mentors, and muses of diverse lineages.

Rising from Dancing Earth’s Legacy - Reflections from Rulan Tangen

photo cred: Tasnim Clarke

“Dancing Earth emerged out of me listening to mentors, matriarchs, aunties, grandmothers from beyond my own blood lineage - encouraging me to bring my dream to the people…

Starting in 2006 with grandmothers of Anishnnabeg and Lakota Nations at a Native wellness conference asking us to make dances to honor the sacred waters of the planet and of our bodies. The waters’ stories began flowing onto the stage and to this day there is a glimpse of water in almost every performance.

It seems that we are in times of collapse and crumble of many systems , and this is a time to listen deeply to what experienced women who we love and respect have to say. And then, to embody that knowledge and determine how to apply it into action in the world…

I am moved by the synergy of birthings of daughters and grandsons during this process, bringing into real time the philosophy of what is it that we want to collectively pass along to the future generations - what can we remember , what do we want them to remember ? 

Though the times are urgent, we move into this with the sweetness of a warm breeze at sunset, the scent of herbal tree and its music as it pours into vintage pottery. This one is like a warm embrace, bring a blanket and join us in the circle!“

-Founding Artistic Director Rulan Tangen

Save the Date

Save the Date

Bay Area Company with artist Pura Fé in Yelamu, from Eco Elegies performance at Hummingbird Farm for SNAG Magazine 20th

The Listening Project Bay Area 2025

The Listening Project Community Workshop : Saturday, Oct. 4th. 12:30pm at Dance Mission Theater

The Listening Project On-Site Performance Ritual : Sunday Oct. 5th. 3:30pm at outdoor East Bay Location to be announced soon!

Stay Tuned for Community Salons featuring each of our Matriarch Elder Mentors & our Bay Area Eco Artivist cohort!

Our First Community Salon

We start with listening to Mother Earth…

EARTHBODY WORKSHOP

with Artistic Director Rulan Tangen

hosted by WEAD (Women’s Eco Artist Dialogue)

August 9th at Shawl Anderson Dance Center
Ohlone Lands, Berkeley ,CA

Meet the Artists

Culminating a 20-year legacy of dance-making, centering in core Dancing Earth practices of Land Dance, Biomimicry, Performance Ritual, Eco Artivism, and sourcing embodied knowledge as a form of contemporary ancestral reclamation and guidance–Dancing Earth’s Bay Area dance cohort visions…

The Listening Project : In the House of Matriarchs

This project is supported by a grant from the MAP Fund.

The Listening Project

Credits

  • Coming Soon

  • Coming Soon

  • Coming Soon

  • Artistic Director, Choreographer: Rulan Tangen

    Company Dancers: Tara Bucknor, Emma Quan Dewey, Taraneh Sarrafzadeh, Ronice Stratton

    Producer: Taraneh Sarrafzadeh

Support Eco Elegies

With Your Support

Dancing Earth’s The Listening Project is not possible without the support of our community. Help us develop this new work, support the artists we work with, and continue to activate our communities in the spirit of our mission, to create contemporary dance and related arts through global-Indigenous and intercultural relationships centered in ecological and cultural diversity for creativity, health, and wellness.

About Dancing Earth

Dancing Earth Creations dynamically activates our mission, to create contemporary dance and related arts through global indigenous and intercultural relationships centered in ecological and cultural diversity for creativity, health, and wellness.

Founded by Artistic Director Rulan Tangen, to serve a need rarely met in the USA, DEC gives hope and opportunity to Native, mixed, global Indigenous and BIPOC talent who have been largely outside the dialogue of mainstream performance because of lack of access. DEC is an organic constellation of largely self-taught dancers, composers, costumers, filmmakers, and spoken word artists.

Together, DEC artists work with community members, culture carriers, and inter-cultural elders to explore the rich diversity of ancestral heritage, contemporary identity, and relationship building, by collaborating on innovative ecologically themed performances. DEC's work promotes environmental awareness, cultural diversity, and understanding between peoples through contemporary arts expressions.

“We gather as individual artists to create experimental yet elemental dances that reflect our rich cultural heritage as contemporary global peoples. We strive to embody the unique essences of cultural perspectives by creation and renewal of artistic and cultural movement rituals. Ancient and futuristic, our dances are an elemental language of bone and blood memory in motion.” - Founding Director, Rulan Tangen