We are with You, Esteemed Friends & Supporters of Dancing Earth

"Dear Community - As of everyone of us is dealing with various life challenges and changes due to Covid-19 I would like to reach out to you to extend my heartfelt gratitude for our community of supporters, dancers, leaders and youth and I would like to send virtual hugs to you all in this time of social distancing where people may be feeling isolated and anxious. You are not alone, we are with you. Dancing Earth would also like to notify you that planned upcoming events, classes, in-person workshops and performances through the middle of April have been cancelled. We are taking this time to take a collective breath with our planet Earth and using this time to dive deep on developing more distance learning methods and platforms, inspirational practices that we can share with you. For events into the further distant future, please keep updated on our website and social media channels. Please keep safe and healthy during these trying times, unite in supporting one another. " 

Dear Community - As of everyone of us is dealing with various life challenges and changes due to Covid-19, we're reaching out to extend our heartfelt gratitude towards our community of supporters, dancers, leaders and youth and would like to send virtual hugs to you all in this time of social distancing where people may be feeling isolated and anxious. You are not alone, we are with you. DANCING EARTH would also like to notify you that planned upcoming events, classes, in-person workshops and performances through the middle of April have been canceled. We're taking this time to take a collective breath with our planet Earth and using this time to dive deep on developing more distance learning methods and platforms, inspirational practices that we can share with you. For events into the further distant future, please keep updated on our website and social media channels. Please keep safe and healthy during these trying times, unite in supporting one another.

Greeting Esteemed Friends & Supporters of Dancing Earth!   A personal message from Artistic Director Rulan: "As winter melts into spring and we walk on cracking ice of an unsure world in shift, I am breathing to take a moment of gratitude for Dancing Earth’s circle of relationships. Believe it or not, we are just about a week away from the spring equinox, a time of balance for the earth. Even as I write this note, our community engaged work is being canceled for the spring. So, we are moving fluidly to adapt with changing times, in the spirit of the ongoing dance of the earth for which we are named. And in the next week or so I will send updates about plans for online classes for youth and adults, to keep us all in good health by engaging in movement and collective, without risking health. So, I want to take this moment to send you energy for good health for your family and community, as we all face this global challenge together. And, as a flicker of bright light in dark and uncertain times, I want to share with you some reflections of recent tour, to give you some uplift and hope! Along with a heartfelt thank you for your past and ongoing support and love of Dancing Earth, so I share these words, images and video clips in the spirit of reciprocity.  Just a few months ago in the weeks before winter’s solstice winter we were so excited to get word from Patagonia, about being selected for match fund support through ACTIONWORKS! Great news, Patagonia was able to match all who donated via Actionworks for a 2-week period, doubling our donations and thus the scope and impact of our proposed work for January! We deeply appreciate all those  who made that end of year donation through Actionworks (which you should be feeling right now as a tax break!). For all our circle, here is an update about some of the amazing achievements in the very beginning of this year already. To update you, in January we were able to birth our newest performance ritual for eco-cultural futurism “BETWEEN UNDERGROUND AND SKYWORLD,” as manifested with the incredible support of our community engaged cultured vision for Indigenous Futurism, by ASU Gammage and staff, and NEFA Foundation’s National Theater Project funds and advisors. It has been seventeen Januaries since my first performance of Dancing Earth in Phoenix (named for rebirth, ad indeed my return to creativity after stage 4 cancer), so we cycled back there this year to the Piipash/O’odham territory which was homeland of my first 3 dancers, with an incredible first iteration of our dreamvision. Of these core members, one flew back from Australia to witness, one flew from his acting career in LA to film this promotional video, which I share with you HERE."     Upcoming Events Cuicacalli performance at De Young for Frida Kahlo March 21, San Francisco, CA CANCELED Indigenous Healing Festival, Natalie Benally at IAIA April 11, Santa Fe, NM   CANCELED   Movement as Medicine, Workshop w/ Fernando Miguel April 25, Oakland, CA DANCING EARTH w/ Natalie Aceves-Ghezzi April 28, Hayward, CA Hip Hop For Teens w/ Cuicacalli SF April 28, San Francisco, CA    Please check our webste for future updates!     The day began with an opening event that highlighted the brilliance of local community, with   -  cultural welcome by Teya Johnson - young artist leader of the Oodham - Piipash host Nation, -  Native vendors, -  food trucks, -  fashion show, -  free printing press and art exhibit by the Xico Arts collective, -  water dance, -  a live and recorded version of soundscape by local native community speaking their hopes for the future, including the cast of last years amazing project Native Nations by playwright Larissa Fasthorse, presented by ASU Gammage. Audience members also were invited to write their dreams on recycled brown paper bags, which during a moment in the show became paper bag lanterns with 40 community members - all beacons of light in their community - surrounded the audience like floating fireflies - their dreams becoming illuminated! The performance itself stretched to the deep guts of our storytelling, with live dialogue and recorded soundscape in multiple languages, movement, sets, costume, videoscape that included footage of elders bringing prayer to gas stations and oil drills. The young new generation of artists leaders burst forward, escaping apocalypse to step into their eco-warriors superhero powers and bring us a vision for the future...​ Please enjoy this link to an interview in PARVATI Magazine.     And, some words from colleagues, audience members, partners, beginning with words from our host presenter who was such an empowering supporter of this work... "A journey to the ancestral plane that will leave you full of love and spirit. Transcendental, I have had dreams with my ancestors reaching out to me with that same movement that was at the very end." Quetzal Guerrero  "Utter mythological magic." Raoul Trujillo  “ thank you for your fierce commitment, your excellent art, and your messages for the future, from the past, of the now.” Michael Rohd  "Jaw dropping AMAZING!" Janet Diaz, Xico Art Collective "I see the end of Today’s destruction on Mother Earth to end and the revitalization of our spirits of ancestors of old. Before that we must not forget those fragments that bind us together and weave stories and song together to make mosaic of cultures woven into one.” Rosa John, co-director Kehewin Dance Theater "Thank you for making space for us to be artists and indigenous people and walking ahead of all of us and clearing that grass and laying it down so softly and kindly so we may walk behind you and be allowed in the beautiful world you have worked so hard to create for us." Olivia Camfield

“I hope these highlights can brighten your heart and your outlook as most of us are in isolated states, to remind us of the power of arts at this time, and encourage us to bring the full powers of our creativity to support humanity at this time!” With love, respect, and gratitude, - Rulan & DANCING EARTH   THANK YOU FUNDERS