June 2007
Four new dance works were choreographed by Rulan for the Santa Fe Film Festival at the Lensic Theater. Opening night featured "Origi-nation" to the mesmerizing Peyote Healing song from Robbie Robertson's album, with 6 dancers spreading wet red clay on eachothers bodies. Special thanks to Santa Fe Clay for the donation of the clay! Dancers included Nichole Salazar ( a teen student of Rulan, newly returned from several years as a lead dancer with Cleo Parker Robinson in Denver), veteran dancer and painter Roger Montoya, Ballet Folkorico de Mexico's famed dancer Jaco Cortes, amazing capoeirista and diversity lecturer Deollo Johnson, and talented apprentices Ria Thundercloud and Ruben Rascon. This dance reflected the re-discovery of a creation story, and was previewed outdoors at the courtyard of the Institute of American Indian Arts.
The Sunday community program featured 2 male and 2 female dancers dancing to the socially conscious lyric's of Pomo hip-hop artist Ras K Dee's "Mother Earth", with bold yellow t-shirts stencilled by Leland Chapin with images of archetypal warrior/leader Tatanka Iyotanka.Closing night featured a sensual duet inspired by people of land and water confluence, and an aerial hoop solo to Ulali's compelling "All My Relations".Meanwhile that same week in Argentina, Rulan presented a performance installation with cultural artist Leland Chapin, entitled TIERRAS CUERPO-REALIDADES. The Centro Cultural in the Recoleto of Buenos Aires had over a thousand visitors daily, witnessing the artworks, body painting, movement and installation created inside the Gallery. Inspired by four decades of research by Leland's father Mac Chapin, the installation used indigenous mapping symbols as the primary theme. Rulan and Leland attended many important lectures and workshops as part of the Hemispheric Encuentro of Performance and Politics, focused on this year's theme of Body Politics.