Trend Magazine 2020, Seeding Stars - Dancing Earth New Generations of Leadership & Creativity

Seeding Stars - Dancing Earth New Generations of Leadership & Creativity

Trend Magazine, Digital Issue 2020
by Jade Whaanga

Santa Fe-based Dancing Earth Indigenous Contemporary Dance Creations not only performs internationally, but also brings powerful programs to local communities, pueblos, and reservations. Artistic director Rulan Tangen founded the organization in 2004. It has since recruited many members, who in turn influence younger generations with dance pro grams that are grounded in culture. What makes these programs successful are the individuals-the dancers, activists, and teachers-who bring unique perspectives to Indigenous contemporary dance.

Anne Pesata is one such force. She identifies with her Jicarilla Apache heritage and is also of Puerto Rican and Filipino ancestry. Having grown up dancing in powwows, Pesata first met Tangen while participating in the National Dance Institute when she was in elementary school. Arriving in Santa Fe from San Francisco via New York, Tangen comes from a multitude of ancestral waters, including Pam pangan, Norwegian, Spanish, Chinese, French Canadian, Negrito, Scottish, and Irish. She is also adopted (hunka) by Lakota Tiyospaye ofKul Wicasa Oyate and claimed by families of Kanai and of Anishinaabeg/ Metis people. She's interested in how culture shapes a person as a dancer, and she saw something special in Pesata early on. Within a decade, Pesata says she was "enthusiastically attending everything" that Dancing Earth offered, including summer intensives and productions. "The whole reason I wanted to be a part of Dancing Earth was I saw an image of myself," she says. "It was the first time I felt like I could be something more than just an outlier."

Cover photo by Alejandro Quintana

By 2014 she was a core dancer with the company. Drawn to its eco-conscious and culturally informed work, Pesata explains, "When the motivation comes from a deeper place, a more real place, I think it resonates deeper. We give the audience an opportunity to participate and be inspired to create change."

As the company's name implies, its productions often address the integral part we play with nonhuman existence. With transformative contemporary dance rooted in various backgrounds and techniques, performances aim to educate audiences about our relationship with the environment and generally involve eco-friendly costumes and stage design with a low carbon footprint. On stage, earth, water, sky, and the cosmos are inseparable from human bodies. As Tangen says, Pesata will collaborate with Dine hip-hop artist Def.i on a music video. Pesata says that training with Dancing Earth has developed and strengthened her body, unlocking its potential. "They want to see you succeed," she says. "The heartbeat of the Earth is the drum the pulse of the dance." With a focus on health and wellness as well as Native representation in the arts, Pesata recently performed at her home community in Jicarilla Apache. She's into freestyle and spirit dance and recently accompanied another member, Raven Bright, in the 18th Annual Breakin' Hearts hip-hop event in Albuquerque. Both were also selected as representatives for the Albuquerque episode of KQED's If Cities Could Dance series.

Another dancer, Deollo Johnson of Xi Amaru Aboriginal Indigenous American heritage, spent most of his life training in martial arts and has a background in West African, capoeira, modern, jazz, aerial, and classical Thai dance. In 2007, Tangen saw Johnson perform West African dance, and she shared her vision for the company. Johnson went on to tour with Bodies of Elements, Walking on the Edge of Water, SEEDS, and SEEDS: RE GENERATION productions. The company is engaged in healing and unlocking cultural knowledge, and this is one of the many reasons Johnson became involved in Dancing Earth. He says Tangen cultivates a safe space for deep exploration of one's own culture. He's since been involved in touring and teaching, most recently with the cultural creative movement program at Cochiti Pueblo where he works with elementary school children. He's also been delivering virtual qigong classes during the coronavirus pandemic. Someday, he hopes, Dancing Earth will have a physi cal facility dedicated to rehearsal, classes, and workshops. He's also been delivering virtual qigong classes during the pandemic. Someday, he hopes, Dancing Earth will have a physical facility dedicated to rehearsal, classes, and workshops.

It's a dream Tangen shares. The company now rents studio space and she hopes to secure a permanent space to host multidisciplinary Indigenous collaborations, bringing together those working in food, wellness, architecture, and research, with the aim of re-storying Indigenous identities. Tangen believes that Indigenous perspectives can promote healthier human relations worldwide.

As future goals loom, the dancers keep evolving, and the programs more far reaching. Natalie Benally, assistant and rehearsal director with Dancing Earth, began focusing more on community work when she was also hired as an Indigenous program manager at Girls Inc. of Santa Fe. Of Dine, Zuni Pueblo, Southern Ute, and Mexican heritage, Benally was introduced to Dancing Earth in 2005 at the Native Wellness Institute in San Diego when she was only 16. She went on to get a bachelor's degree in theater and a teaching degree at Fort Lewis College, and then joined Dancing Earth full time. "I wanted to do work that honored my artistic self and that is able to encompass everything I am culturally," she says. "I am a person of two worlds and it's a dance in itself," she laughs. She speaks to navigating a traditional world rooted in Dine culture and a contemporary world of technology and social structures.

She acknowledges Dancing Earth has provided her with tools and skills to address the dualities. "We are people of the future," Benally says. When asked about the large body of Indigenous works that focus on historical trauma, she notes "that's not all we are." She points out that for many audiences, Dancing Earth productions are their first experience with Indigenous dance. "That's a critical opportunity," she says.

This year Benally is mentoring with Tangen, who is guiding her in leading on line classes, which the company launched in March. "All our live programs for the foreseeable future have been canceled," reports Tangen. "Yet the gifts carried by the teaching artists seem to be what people need at this time: to connect body, mind, spirit, memory, imagination, intuition, and hope."

Benally recently taught a Hozho In Motion class, which incorporates Dine philosophy. "It means balance and harmony in all aspects of life," she says. "The class is centered around finding Hozho in our bodies, minds, hearts, and spirits." Through the class, she guides participants in a core Dancing Earth exercise called the medicine wheel. This involves grounding one's feet and shifting one leg toward the cardinal directions and back to the center. "In our daily lives, we are so busy going in many directions, that we often forget to come back to our center to regroup," she says. Acknowledging the wisdom that is held in the body, in movement, and in cultural practices, one can begin to appreciate that infinite potential to unlock knowledge within each person. That has ripple effects in communities.

In addition to classes, Dancing Earth has started facilitating collaborative virtual productions, inviting artists around the world to participate. Among their recent live productions was Between Underground and Skyworld, which premiered at Arizona State University Gammage performing arts center in Phoenix. Tangen explains, "The show considered Indigenous futurities from the perspective of a new generation of young leaders searching for ancestral wisdom and remembering their powers as eco-warrior superheroes-to dream and embody a way forward for seven generations ahead."

This year, Dancing Earth is focused on training its dancers in high-integrity teaching methodologies with the goal to engage more Native youth. "Our intention is to up lift and support our communities, bringing movement practices that help us collectively move through fear, grief, sadness, and dis connection into an experience of culture and collective," says Tangen. "This gives the teaching artists a chance to embody their purpose on Earth." As the organization moves online, Tan gen says: "This feels like an expression of global artistic collaboration for the reclama tion of cyberspace as a realm of liberation, where we can reimagine and animate a re Indigenized future." As the next generation of Indigenous dancers prepare to take the stage, we are reminded of how important our songs, stories, and dances truly are.

Author: Jade Whaanga

Jade Whaanga is an Aotearoa (New Zealand)-based Indigenous dance artist who hails from Ngati Kahungunu. Holding a master's degree in dance studies at the University of Auckland, Jade's research focuses on reclaiming and healing Indigenous femininity through dance. She facilitates workshops and spaces for women to develop and embrace sisterhood.