August 2011

LAST NEW MEXICO PERFORMANCES OF OUR EPIC ECO-PRODUCTION "Of Bodies Of Elements" !AUGUST 6-9 : Workshop sessions to be offered to Indigenous performers for possibility of apprenticeship with company, pls contact Rulan @dancingearth.org for detailsAUGUST 11 : We are honored to be invited by the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center to participate in their private event for invited guests on August 11thAUGUST 12 : Santa Fe Art Institute hosts a lecture by Director Rulan Tangen, about the creative process of DANCING EARTH as a metaphor for diversity, as well as expanding understanding of Indigenous identityAUGUST 18 : On Thursday : we hold a special preview for our local Native community members, as invited by the Santa Fe Opera's Peublo Opera Program. Please contact mgmt@dancingearth.org to make your reservations asap !****AUGUST 19 :Please join us on Friday at 8 pm at James A Little Theater on the campus of NM School for the Deaf on Cerrillos Road, in celebration of the arts and artists on historic Indian Market . Tickets will be available  at the Lensic Box Office, AT THIS LINK : http://www.ticketssantafe.org/tsf/event_calendar/detail/906Meanwhile, look for artwork and jewelry of  Ehren Natay on the Plaza during Indian Market !Thank you for joining us and sharing in this experience ! Thank you to LOCAL FLAVOR, KSFR's Rhea Goodman, Greenfire Times, Santa Fe NewMexican's PASATIEMPO,  TREND, THE magazine, NATIVE PEOPLES Magazine, SF Reporter, Albq Journal,  and especially Janet Eigner for her thoughtful preview on KUNM and Santa Fe One Heart , see below:

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------KUNM-FM, Dancing Earth preview By Janet Eigner danceeigner@gmail.com Santa Fe’s Indian Market will be in fuller swing than usual next weekend because the indigenous, contemporary dance group, Dancing Earth, will perform at the city’s James A. Little Auditorium next Friday night, August 19^th.  The Santa Fe based dance company, led by choreographer, artistic director, Rulan Tangen, draws from the well of native origin stories, so that the stalls and kiosks of paintings, ceramics, katsinas, and crafts at Indian Market come to life in a fourth dimension.To the rhythms and melodies of Native American drums, turtle shells, fiddles and flutes, Dancing Earth tells its mythic stories.  The artists morph from constellations in the cosmos to a plunge to earth, falling onto the back of a turtle, to a mythic naming of all living things:  arching seaweed, fish and turtles finning and sprawling from ocean onto land, evolving as gardens of land plants, spiders and flying insects, and up the phylogenetic ladder to animals and first humans.Contemporary politics emerge when dancing corn stalks are fenced in and captured by men representing corporate pirates of the corn seed.  Materialism’s seduction weighs down the dress of  Tangen as a grieving Earth Mother with trash and plastic garbage bags dangling from her hem.  Old and new cultures blend in the language of break dance and a men’s cane dance.This full-length work couldn’t be more contemporary in its dedication to sustainable process and present-day environmental struggles. Ecological consciousness is reflected in every aspect of the production, with costumes of re-purposed and organic fabric accented with vegetable dyes and tribal tattoo patterns, and recycled bicycle tubing made into striking props.Tangen, the dancer-choreographer who crafts Of Bodies of Elements, a trenchant, beautiful and relevant dance from her people’s experiences, for all people, is trained in classical ballet and modern dance.  She danced in New York before finding her present passion ‑  listening to the stories of the elders – to entwine those tales with the journeys and needs of contemporary Indians living in urban settings and on traditional reservations.Of Bodies Of Elements combines classical, modern dance, yoga, powwow and break dance.  The opus grew out of workshops and concerts presented around the country, starting in Santa Fe, moving to Albuquerque, on to Stanford University’s conference on Race and Diversity for which Tangen designed and led topical workshops, on to reservations in Canada, and to Washington University in St. Louis, where Tangen was named a Distinguished Scholar. In 2007, Dance Magazine named Tangen one of their “25 to Watch.”We live among First Nations peoples here in New Mexico.  Dancing Earth offers to help us to appreciate their profound journeys and relate them to our own. Tickets may be purchased at the Lensic Theater box office and at the door. Janet Eigner is a Santa Fe poet and dance writer.