April 2011
New Mexico invitations for our local friends :Thursday April 14 we offer a showing of "Of Bodies and Elements" for the amazing students of the Santa Fe Indian School at the new wellness pavilion, where we hope to inspire true wellness of body, mind, heart and spirit. We announced the first Dancing Earth - Santa Fe Indian School scholarship to the talented Marty Fragua of Jemez Pueblo, who caught our eye with his oustanding performance with the SFIS Slam Poetry Team.Friday April 15 , several of our performers will participate in a fundraiser for the NM School for the Arts, at El Farol. Santa Fe-and, come have dinner at El Farol and a percentage of your check will be donated to the multi-art programming of the school !On Sunday April 17 we will present an open rehearsal in Santa Fe , to build interest for a theater performance in Santa fe this August, during Indian Market). A big thank you to the Moving People dance space for hosting this, from noon- 2pm at 1583 Pacheco ! Southern California friends , ( Hollywood actors and friends in the Luiseno, Juaneno, Soboba and Morongo Cahuilla rancherias, and Sherman Indian school students- be on the lookout !On FRIDAY APRIL 22 we come to UC Riverside to present a master class and an evening performance !This will be a special reunion as it is represents 7 yrs since Rulan's choreography was first invited by Professor Shea Murphy to be presented at UC Riverside. It also marks the United Nations assembly proclamation re-naming of Earth day by global Indigenous leaders as MOTHER EARTH DAY.To commemorate both, we will be inviting all stellar Dancing Earth alums, who are now based in California, to join us in cameo appearances. These include: violinist Quetzal Guererro, prize-winning director/actor Kalani Queypo, New Moon werewolf actor Alejandro/ Alex Meraz, and brilliant multi-artist educators Happy Frejo , Ariane Estrada and Jessica Allen ( those are their maiden names aka stage names !) who will be invited to dance with their new babies Miko, Camila and baby Rulan !This will be a memorable performance, and we hope to pack the house with our southern California friends !Tickets are available at : http://culturalevents.ucr.edu/Dancing_Earth.htmPOST SHOW NOTE: Our best yet, with seventeen performers onstage including baby Camila and baby Rulan, joining forces to make magic in honor of Mother Earth Day !In an truly memorable moment of acknowledgement, director Rulan Tangen was awarded a medal, presented by Professor J. Shea-Murphy , from the Ruper Costo Chair in American Indian Affairs in recognition of Research, Teaching and Service to UCR and the community . This profound honor is embraced by Rulan on behalf of all the collaborating artists who have helped shape the vision of DANCING EARTH !A quote from our presenter:"..thank you for an exquisite evening of storytelling through dance. It was such a poetic performance; one of the most beautiful and visually captivating works I’ve seen. Pure beauty." - Denise Stadelbacher, UC Riverside