BTW US Cyberspace
BTW US Cyberspace 2020
Presented by UtahPresents
November 10-20, 2020
Dancing Earth creates an exciting new vision for what online performance can be. Now reimagined as an interactive mini-series of dynamic episodes, the story will culminate in a live interactive event with a Q+A with some of the multi-disciplinary collaborators.
Co-created and performed by the next generation of global Indigenous superheroes, Dancing Earth fuses tradition with technology, exploring themes of repetition and renewal, finding healing, and remembering ancestral knowledge.
Episodes will be released every other day, starting November 10, culminating in a live, virtual performance and after-party with the dancers on November 20. Episodes will remain available to view for all ticket buyers via this playlist through November 30, 2020.
Visual by Carolina Azteca Sirias for Dancing Earth.
DANCING EARTH | Company Bio
Dancing Earth (DE) is a contemporary dance theater initiative embodying the intention to renew and revitalize intercultural communities and cosmologies through performing arts : arts educational workshops, lectures, master classes, trainings, intensives and paid professional opportunities for performance making and touring. Founded by director in 2004 Rulan Tangen to serve a need not met in the USA, DE gives hope and opportunity to Native, mixed and global Indigenous talent who are often outside the dialogue of mainstream performance because of lack of access. DE is an organic constellation of inter-cultural dancers, composers, costumers, filmmakers, spoken word artists, and artistic support staff. Together, DE artists explore the rich diversity of inter-cultural exchanges , engaging collaboratively on innovative performances as rituals for renewal , relationship, reciprocity, and re-story-ing.. With past works including opening oratory by host First Nations, food sharing, seed exchanges, community mandala-making, art markets, water songs - DE expands notions of what comprises a professional artist, the role of audience, the boundaries of dance, and the purpose of performance by inviting the aesthetic and goals to be rooted in diversity of worldviews of the collaborators - onstage and off . DE's work intends to activate awareness of human connections and responsibilities to all forms of life, uplifting cultural and biological diversity, to build bridges understanding between peoples through contemporary creative cultural 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.”
PRESS | BTW US Cyberspace
Dance Magazine
November 4, 2020
Dance Magazine | Nov. 4, 2020
6 Editor-Approved Performances Happening Onstage and Online This Month
Photo Esmé Olivia,by Anne Pesata
Southwest Contemporary | Nov. 3, 2020
BTW US Cyberspace: Dancing Earth Creates a World Together
Written by Tamara Johnson
Visual by Carolina Azteca Sirias for Dancing Earth.
loveDancemore
October 11, 2020
loveDancemore | Oct.11, 2020
November Digest: Augury, Ancestors, and Apocalypse, UtahPresents brings Dancing Earth.
Written by Kathryn Machi & SBH, editor
ARTIST BIOS | BTW US Cyberspace
Jonathan Sims : Media Producer
NoResPro.com, Acoma Pueblo
Jonathan Sims is from Acoma Pueblo, one of a handful of sites that can claim to be the oldest continuously inhabited places in North America. He is a devoted father of 2 children and a media maker. A journalism graduate from New Mexico State University, he did one year of news and has been a freelance media maker for over 12 years. His work has taken him around the country and the world. Jonathan has been part of major motion picture sets and one-man-band international travelogues. Most recently he has finished his Masters’s degree in Creative Writing, with an emphasis on Screenwriting and looks to pen more features. He has been an appointed leader within his tribe, serving as Tribal Secretary for 2 terms. Acoma has a storied history in filmmaking and Jonathan oftentimes managed film location requests for the Pueblo, creating it's first permitting structure. Jonathan ultimately wants to continue to create community stories and eventually direct his feature films. That goal, alongside being the best dad he can be is what drives him.
Carolina Azteca Sirias : Creative Futurity Developer
Carolina Azteca Sirias is a multidisciplinary futurist artist from Houston,TX. As a recent graduate from the University of Texas at Austin, their focus is at the intersection of computer programming and choreography. For Dancing Earth, they are creating a virtual reality platform that showcases the post-apocalyptic futurity of indigenous people. Most recently they have been in residency with Charles O. Anderson for his world-wide film premiere of (Re)current Unrest with Fusebox Festival and Texas Performing Arts. Through their experience as a brown body, Azteca is able to understand and practice the embodiment of individuality and sustainability as a means of survival. Their work is encompassed of transcending time, space, and energy.
COLLABORATING ARTISTS FOR 2020 POST-COVID FOOTAGE | BTW US Cyberspace
And more info about our Stars HERE.
Kayla Banks
Kayla Banks dance technique training started in 2011 at Colorado State University where she studies the Vaganova technique with Carol Roderick and former Colorado Ballet Soloist Sayaka Ruggles. She studies various modern techniques such as Horton, with Chung-Fu Chang and master classes from Alvin Ailey II and Graham technique from former principal Graham dancer Jennifer Depalo-Peterson. She has studied other various modern styles with Chung-Fu Chang, Judy Bejarano, Hsin-Yu Kao and Shih Kun-Chen. She studied Character dance with Richard Wacko and Labanotation with Professor Yunyu Wang. Other performance training comes from summer courses taken at Perry-Mansfield Dance Intensive. She resides in Portland, Oregon now as an independent artist and dance teacher.
Raven Bright
Raven Ilm Bright, of Navajo and Anglo heritage from Gallup, New Mexico, traces his roots not only from the blood of his families, but also from the heart and soul of the HipHop and Indigenous contemporary dance communities of which he is a part. From Gallup’s Foundations of Freedom crew, he then achieved a Bachelor’s Degree in English from Fort Lewis College. Subsequently he was selected for a full scholarship for Dancing Earth’s Summer Institute, and has been a collaborating artist on the creation of Between Underground & SkyWorld. He toured with the company to Arizona and San Francisco, as well as the company’s 2019 invitation to the Kennedy Center with the production of SEEDS REGENERATION. In 2020 he was the dance champion of the acclaimed Breaking Hearts event. When the pandemic canceled Dancing Earth’s 2020 performances, Raven has been contributing to the well-being of his community as an essential worker - for which we thank him- and we all appreciate that he can offer this dance class to Poeh to inspire others, and return him once a week to his purpose as a multi-disciplinary teaching artist. Besides his passion for dancing and visual art, Raven is also a dedicated teacher of dance, giving back to his community with workshops for Santa Fe Indian School, Navajo Prep, and six years teaching experience at Gallup’s Foundations of Freedom Dance Studio. This year, Raven is featured in the Albuquerque installment of the public television series “If Cities Could Dance”, and Covid response of dancers in unity Film HERE. And, please enjoy this 2017 interview with Raven HERE.
Lumhe Micco Sampson
Lumhe (Micco) Sampson, as one of the Sampson Bros, Lumhe is a multi-disciplinary artist hailing from Mvskoke/Seneca tribes and is world renowned for his innovative and unique collaborative style in hoop dance exhibition. Symbolizing the connection and emphasizing importance in unity of all things in this world, his unique storytelling invigorates the mind and brings harmony to one’s soul. Together, the Sampson Bros. have been teaching and sharing the art of Hoop Dance for over 25 years throughout Turtle Island and beyond. Lumhe has performed with Dancing Earth on tour with two major productions in New York City’s Downtown Dance Festival in collaboration with Smithsonian Museum of American Indian, New Zealand’s Kowhiti Festival, Ordway Theater’s Oyate Okadakiciyapi Festival in Minnesota, Dancing Earth’s invitation to Kennedy Center in DC, and in New Mexico. He has also been featured onstage with Frank Waln ( Lakota rapper profiled in MYV’s “Rebel Music”), and featured in TedX Talks HERE, as well as a KQED profile for IF CITIES COULD DANCE, for the city of Minneapolis : which went viral with 19000 views and counting!
Natalie Benally
Natalie Benally, is a Dine, Zuni, Ute and Mexican woman who holds a Bachelor’s degree in Theater- Performing and Directing from Fort Lewis College. She has been performing dance and theater for the last 10. She studied at the Dancing Earth Summer Institute and joined the company for touring the US and Norway. Some of her most notable work includes lending her voice to the lead role of Dory in the Navajo dubbed version of Disney/Pixar’s Finding Nemo and directing/choreographing a devised production entitled "I'm Native And..." for Fort Lewis College inaugural Indigenous Arts Festival. Natalie works as the Indigenous Programs Coordinator for the non-profit organization, Girls Incorporated of Santa Fe.
Ciera Budge
Ciera Budge is a movement and sound artist born and raised in the Central Valley of California. She is Latinx, a mix of European ethnicities, and Northfork Mono (California First Nations). Ciera’s life IS movement. She has been dancing since she came out of her mother’s womb and has been researching movement and important ideas that she advocates and expresses through her movement.
Dakota Alcantara - Camacho (Ancestral Lineages: Matao/CHamoru) is a multi-disciplinary artist / researcher working in spaces of indigenous lifeways, performance, musical composition, community engagement, and education. Camacho holds a Masters of Arts in Performance Studies from Tisch School of the Arts at New York University, and graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison with a Bachelor of Arts in Gender & Women's Studies as a First Wave Urban Arts and Hip Hop Scholar. Camacho is a chanter, adjunct instructor, and core researcher for I Fanlalai'an Oral History Project based at the University of Guåhan. Camacho co-founded I Moving Lab, an inter-national, inter-cultural, inter-tribal, and inter-disciplinary arts collective that creates community and self-funded arts initiatives to engage and bring together rural & urban communities, Universities, Museums, & performing arts institutions. Camacho has worked at festivals, universities, and community organizations as a public speaker, facilitator, composer and performer across Turtle Island (USA), Aotearoa (New Zealand), Australia, Sweden, and South Africa.
Rulan Tangen
Rulan Tangen Dancing Earth Founder and Artistic Director / Choreographer (Kampampangan and Pangasinan of Luzon Island in Pacific aka Philippines, and Norwegian): Rulan Tangen's work explores movement as an evolving language of global Indigenous and inter-cultural relation building, rooted in inclusion of diverse cosmologies from her own experience and those of the artists with whom she co-creates. Her contemporary dance practice strives to serve as functional ritual for transformation and healing, integrating concurrent universes of ancient futurities in the moment of now, expressing energetic connection with all relations – human and beyond. As Founding Artistic Director/Choreographer of DANCING EARTH, she has passionately cultivated successive generations of global Indigenous contemporary performing artists as cultural ambassadors and conduits for social change She is recipient of 2018-19 Kennedy Center Citizen Artist award for Service, Justice, Freedom, Courage, and Gratitude and is grateful for all that roots her, for the dreaming and doing of Dancing Earth: moving the world into renewal.
Episodes | BTW US Cyberspace
Episode 1 Ritual of Constellations, Stars fall into an Apocalypse
Episode 2 From Resilience Blues to Journeys
Episode 3 The Re-Story-Ing
Episode 4 Luminarias in Darkness Dreaming in the Future
Episode 5 Rituals of Rooting, Connection, Integration
Episode 6 Life Giving, Living
Episode 1
Ritual of Constellations, Stars Fall into Apocalypse
Artistic Director : Rulan Tangen with collaborators
Media Producer : Jonathan Sims of NoResPro.com, Acoma Pueblo
Creative Futurity Developer : Carolina Azteca Sirias
Performers/Filmmakers : Lumhe Sampson, Natalie Benally, Dakota Alcantara-Camacho, Ciera Budge, Raven Bright, Kayla Banks
Concept : Rulan Tangen with Dancing Earth artists, Carolina Azteca Sirias, and Jonathan Sims, incorporating collaboration and visioning sessions with diasporic community members through lived cultural research and relationship building
Choreography by : Dancing Earth artists with Rulan Tangen
Film Assistance courtesy of : Anne Pesata with Raven Bright , Nokose Sampson with Drone Pilot and Camera Op with Lumhe Sampson, Isaac Banks with Kayla Banks, Austin Alcantara-Camacho with Dakota Alcantara-Camacho, Luycia Longhair with Natalie Benally
Additional Film Footage : Marion Wasserman
Music and Sound :
Azteca Sirias : High Tech Futurity Sounds
Azteca Sirias : Oscillating space beams
John Rangel : Entry of Darkness and Light
Lelieh Åjáldahttieh (Don't Forget) feat. Niilas and Saami singers Ethel Marja Mortensson, Elina Mikalsen, Katarina Barrruk
DJ’d Remix of natures sounds and strings, including Robert Mirabal and Ethel‘s Rana Run from The River
Koyaanisqatsi Instrumental Composition: Teao Sense of Audiopharmacy(.com); English lyrics: Dakota Camacho; Fino’ Håya lyrics: Dakota Camacho & Jeremy N.C. Cepeda; Vocal performances: Trey Picket, Natalie Benally, Esme Olivia
“The Battle I” from ‘Moment’ (aka Koyaanisqatsi)
Produced by Teao Sense of Audiopharmacy(.com)
Added Lyrics Layered by Dakota Alcantara-Camacho
Featuring Vocalists: Eugene Trey Pickett, Natalie Benally, and Esme Olivia“The Battle II” (unreleased) from ‘The Middle Path’ (aka Koyaanisqatsi)
Produced by Azeem Ward of Audiopharmacy(.com)
Added Lyrics Layered by Dakota Alcantara-Camacho
Featuring Vocalists: Eugene Trey Pickett, Natalie Benally, and Esme Olivia
“Apocalypse” 2020
Instrumental Composition: Alejandro Aguerre
Lyrics: Dakota Alcantara-Camacho & Jeremy N.C. Cepeda
Vocals: Dakota Alcantara-Camacho, Natalie Benally, and Ciera Budge, Recorded on smartphones in different territories
Mixed by: Dakota Alcantara-Camacho
Episode 2
From Resilience Blues to Journeys
Artistic Director : Rulan Tangen with collaborators
Media Producer : Jonathan Sims of NoResPro.com, Acoma Pueblo
Creative Futurity Developer : Carolina Azteca Sirias
Performers/Filmmakers : Lumhe Sampson, Natalie Benally, Dakota Alcantara-Camacho, Ciera Budge, Raven Bright, Kayla Banks
Concept : Rulan Tangen with Dancing Earth artists, Carolina Azteca Sirias, and Jonathan Sims, incorporating collaboration and visioning sessions with diasporic community members through lived cultural research and relationship building
Choreography by : Dancing Earth artists with Rulan Tangen
Film Assistance : Luycia Longhair with Natalie Benally; Isaac Banks with Kayla Banks , Anne Pesata with Raven Bright
Music and Sound :
Opening sounds : Azteca Sirias : oscillating space beams
Resilience Blues : “Wailing Blues” by Keith Secola and Wild Band of Indians, mixed with layered vocals by Esmé Olivia
Interim sounds : Azteca: High Tech Futurity Sounds
For Dakota’s Journey : Fangguålo’ by Dakota Alcantara-Camacho (DAC)
For Kayla’s Journey : Music by Olivia Camfield
For Micco’s Journey : “Nånan Nanå-hu” by Dakota Camacho feat. Ireni Akfåyi & I Fanlalai’an Oral History Project (DAC) overlaid with Apocalypse 2020 : Instrumental composition including instrumentals by Alejandro Aguerre; lyrics: Dakota Camacho & Jeremy N.C. Cepeda, Vocals: Dakota Camacho, Natalie Benally, and Ciera Budge, Recorded on smartphones in different territories, as mixed by: Dakota Camacho
For Ciera’s Journey : cello composition by Ciera Budge, with additional sonic layers by Ras K’dee
For Raven’s Journey : sounds by Azteca, and piano courtesy of Jon Sims
For Natalie’s Journey : vocal composition by Natalie Benally, harmonies and production by Esmé Olivia, and piano courtesy of Jon Sims
Episode 3
The Re-Story-Ing
Artistic Director : Rulan Tangen with collaborators
Media Producer : Jonathan Sims of NoResPro.com, Acoma Pueblo
Creative Futurity Developer : Carolina Azteca Sirias
Performers/Filmmakers : Lumhe Sampson, Natalie Benally, Dakota Alcantara-Camacho, Ciera Budge, Raven Bright, Kayla Banks
Concept : Rulan Tangen with Dancing Earth artists, Carolina Azteca Sirias, and Jonathan Sims, incorporating collaboration and visioning sessions with diasporic community members through lived cultural research and relationship building
Choreography by : Dancing Earth artists with Rulan Tangen
Film Assistance Courtesy of : Film Assistance: Luycia Longhair with Natalie Benally; Isaac Banks with Kayla Banks, Anne Pesata with Raven Bright
Selected Film Footage : Marion Wasserman
Music and Sound :
Azteca compositions
In You I See Myself by Ehren Kee Natay ( for Dancing Earth’s Walking at the Edge of Water)
Whisper by Natalie Benally with sound design by Ras K Dee ( with participants of Dancing Earth Summer Institute 2017 )
Tracks from Between Underground and Skyworld stage production including :
Emergence by Ehren Kee Natay
Rainbow story from peoples of Tonga, as spoken by Dancing Earth artists
Wee Totaa : Lyrics in Tongva & English by L. Frank Manriquez, music composed by L. Frank & Esmé Olivia, produced by Esmé Olivia
Lullabye composition by Dakota Camacho as well as remix of voices include Robert Mirabal
Onstage Cast : Natalie Aceves-Ghezzi, Raven Bright, Ciera Budge, Justin Giehm, Trey Pickett, Olivia Camfield, Fabiola Torralba, Kayla Banks, Rulan Tangen
Additional company collaborators during the creative process : Natalie Benally, Deollo Johnson, Esmé Olivia, Anne Pesata, Jade Whaanga, and all Summer Institute artist collaborators since 2017
Projections : Marion Claire Wasserman of Elemental Designs, with cinematography of Moon dance/lullaby by Louis Leray. Drone camera work with Luke Fitch and Cedar Jocks - artists and community members in projection imagery include Ciera Budge, Deollo Johnson, Anne Pesata, Elijah Kennar, Justin Giehm, Venaya Yazzie, Melanie Pesata, Hyda Maria, Talavai Denipah-Cook
Costume, Accessories and Masks: Connie WindWalker
Set Design : Kayo Muller and Drew VahnBruhn
Episode 4
Luminarias in Darkness Dreaming in the Future
Artistic Director : Rulan Tangen with collaborators
Media Producer : Jonathan Sims of NoResPro.com, Acoma Pueblo
Creative Futurity Developer : Carolina Azteca Sirias
Performers/Filmmakers : Lumhe Sampson, Natalie Benally, Dakota Alcantara-Camacho, Ciera Budge, Raven Bright, Kayla Banks
Concept : Rulan Tangen with Dancing Earth artists, Carolina Azteca Sirias, and Jonathan Sims, incorporating collaboration and visioning sessions with diasporic community members through lived cultural research and relationship building
Choreography by : Dancing Earth artists with Rulan Tangen
Film Assistance courtesy of : Luycia Longhair with Natalie Benally; Isaac Banks with Kayla Banks, Anne Pesata with Raven Bright
Selected Film Footage : Marion Wasserman
Tipi Footage : courtesy of Melvin John, Tony Duncan, Violet Duncan, Rosa John
Sound : Additional compositions by Alejandro Aguerre, Ehren Kee Natay, Jeva Uqualla, Quetzal Guerrero, and Randy L Barton’s The BlessingWay album
Episode 5
Rituals of Rooting, Connecting, Integration
Artistic Director : Rulan Tangen and collaborators
Media Producer : Jonathan Sims of NoResPro.com, Acoma Pueblo
Creative Futurity Developer : Carolina Azteca Sirias
Performers/Filmmakers : Lumhe Sampson, Natalie Benally, Dakota Alcantara-Camacho, Ciera Budge, Raven Bright, Kayla Banks
Concept : Rulan Tangen with Dancing Earth artists, Carolina Azteca Sirias, and Jonathan Sims, incorporating collaboration and visioning sessions with diasporic community members through lived cultural research and relationship building
Choreography by : Dancing Earth artists with Rulan Tangen
Film Assistance courtesy of : Jean Van Ordstrand with Kayla Banks
Selected Film Footage : Marion Wasserman & Alex Meraz
Tipi Footage : courtesy of Melvin John, Tony Duncan, Violet Duncan, Rosa Joh
Additional Music : Compositions and remixes including Mystery Cave- Alejandro Aguerre, Fifth World Order - Randy B.
From stage production :
Dig Deeper : Natalie Benally and Esmé Olivia, and Randy L Barton from The BlessingWay Album
Reconnection : Instrumentals by Dakota Camacho. Vocals by Esmé Olivia, Deollo Johnson, Natalie Benally, Rulan Tangen, Kayla Banks, Olivia Camfield, and Trey Pickett, recorded by Esmé Olivia. Poems by Dancing Earth Summer 2017 artists. Mixed by Lumhe Sampson
Integration : Ehren Kee Natay
Episode 6
Life, Live
Artistic Director : Rulan Tangen with collaborators
Media Producer : Jonathan Sims of NoResPro.com, Acoma Pueblo
Creative Futurity Developer : Carolina Azteca Sirias
Performers/Filmmakers : Lumhe Sampson, Natalie Benally, Dakota Alcantara-Camacho, Ciera Budge, Raven Bright, Kayla Banks
Concept : Carolina Azteca Sirias, with artists, Jonathan Sims, and Rulan Tangen
Choreography by : Dancing Earth artists with Rulan Tangen
Film Assistance courtesy of : Jean Van Ordstrand with Kayla Banks
Selected Film Footage : Marion Wasserman
Music and Sound : Randy L Barton’s The BlessingWay album as remixed by Dakota Alcantara-Camacho, with voices of artists, and additional compositions
Visual by Carolina Azteca Sirias for Dancing Earth
On-Stage Credits | Between Underground & Skyworld
Onstage Cast: Natalie Aceves-Ghezzi, Raven Bright, Ciera Budge, Justin Giehm, Trey Pickett, Olivia Camfield, Fabiola Torralba, Kayla Banks, Rulan Tangen
Additional company collaborators during the creative process : Natalie Benally, Deollo Johnson, Esmé Olivia, Anne Pesata, Jade Whaanga, and all Summer Institute artist collaborators since 2017
Artistic Director : Rulan Tangen
Concept : Rulan Tangen and Dancing Earth artists, incorporating collaboration and visioning sessions with diasporic community members through lived cultural research and relationship building
Onstage Footage : Editing by Jonathan Sims, Camera work by Jon Sims and Jon Ray
Choreography by : Rulan Tangen and Dancing Earth artists
Rehearsal Assistants for BTW US : Natalie Benally, Esmé Olivia & Deollo Johnson
Projections : Marion Claire Wasserman of Elemental Designs, with cinematography of Moon dance/lullaby by Louis Leray. Drone camera work with Luke Fitch and Cedar Jocks - artists and community members in projection imagery include Ciera Budge, Deollo Johnson, Anne Pesata, Elijah Kennar, Justin Giehm, Venaya Yazzie, Melanie Pesata, Hyda Maria, Talavai Denipah-Cook
Sound Design / Original compositions commissioned from : Dakota Alcatrara-Camacho, Ehren Kee Natay, Esmé Olivia
Additional soundscapes created by : Dakota Camacho, Marc Mr. Boogie Gonzalez, John Rangel and Esmé Olivia in sound design, Randy Baryons The BlessingWay, Ras K’Dee, Bernadette Smith, Desirae Harjo, Kanyon Sayers Roods, and John Coltrane’s Naima (JowCol Music) as arranged by John Carlos Perea (Aerep Music) with rapping in Matao by Dakota Alcantara-Camacho, vocals by Esmé Olivia and Natalie Benally, and additional spoken word and rapping by Deollo Johnson, Esmé Olivia, Kayla Banks, Trey Pickett, Olivia Camfield. Sampling tracks which may include from esteemed artists such as Robert Mirabal with Aspen Mirabal, Kona Mirabal, Masa Mirabal; Saami singers Ethel Marja Mortensson, Elina Mikalsen, Katarina Barrruk; Beastie Boys; DJ Teao Sense; Tribe Called Red with John Trudell; Keith Secola and Wild Band of Indians, Pura Fe; Kanyon Sayers Roods; Bernadette Smith; Grace Nono; Ciera Budge; Ras K. Dee; Nina Simone; Lauryn Hill; Climbing Poetree; environmental sounds; “Wee Totaa” - Lyrics in Tongva & English by L. Frank Manriquez, music composed by L. Frank & Esmé Olivia; Rainbow Bridge story of people of Tonga with special thanks to uncle Sione; Incorporating voices, poems, and words by Dancing Earth artists and community members; other tracks and sounds as intuitively selected with support of DJs including DJ Beeso (Kino Benally)
Script Consultant : Ty Dafoe of Indigenous Directions
Tech Director/Stage Manager : Madeline Wilson & Harry Rubeck. Special thanks to Peter Holt for additional technical support
Program Management : Tiśina T. Parker
Costume, Accessories and Masks : Connie WindWalker
Set Design : Kayo Muller and Drew VahnBruhn
Headdress : Susan Baker
Program Management : Tiśina T. Parker
Other Acknowledgements : This creative work arises from responses and reflections from community conversations about climate change, commodification, and colonization, and the importance of cultivating hope to mobilize body, mind, spirit and emotions at this time, individually and communally. What is the collective futurity we are making? What is renewable and what is energy; what are a myriad of ways to renew eco-cultural sustainability that embraces relevant the cultural teachings of the past from elders as well as the great imagining of the future by the younger generation? This performance work of BTW US is part of a larger Indigenous Futurities multi-faceted project that includes all of us in every way!
We also want to acknowledge every Dancing Earth summer guest artist and company members who have been exploring these questions with deep conversations and creativity, as well as countless cultural advisors or contributors who include: Tony Skrelunas, Camilla Trujillo, Lupita Salazar, Natalie Benally, Molly Pesata, Anne Pesata, Talavai Denipah Cook, Randle Charles, Maria Firmino Castillo, Fidel Tohil Bernal, Dr Kina Murphy, Dr Yolanda Teran Maigua, Jorge Males, Norma Diala, Leny Strobel, Marion Wasserman, Alicia Rencountre Da Silva, Valeria Alarcon, Hazel James, Teahonna James and Kevin Belin, Jonathan Sims, Jon Ray, Ibrahim Loeks, Roxanne Swentzel, Ciera Budge and many other powerful visionaries (some of these who gathered with Dancing Earth with support from Invoking the Pause for Climate Change Trailblazers).
Dancing Earth is respectfully based in Ogaa Po Ogeh - occupied Tewa territory known as Santa Fe, NM and Yelamu - occupied Ohlone territory known as San Francisco, CA: we are honored that this new work in progress emerges from land and sky that has been danced and sung into renewal by humans since the beginning of time, and this vision includes contributions of respected and beloved cultural community members.
