Highlighting Our 12th Annual Summer Institute
Tara Bucknor
Tara Bucknor is originally from Miami, Florida, but grew up in the small town of Jupiter. Having an interest in the performing arts from a young age, Tara auditioned for and was accepted into BAK Middle school of the Arts, and later, Dreyfoos School of the Arts as a theater major. She studied Dance at the University of Florida. She attended and had her works shown at American Dance Festival where she also performed in a Cunningham MinEvent. She studied Gaga at Bates Dance Festival and in 2018 attended the Alonzo King Lines Ballet Summer Intensive. After graduating with her BFA in Dance from UF in 2020 she went on to complete the two-year Alonzo King Lines Ballet Training Program. During her time in LBTP, she performed the original works of Mike Tyus, Greg Dawson, and Keelan Whitmore as well as Lines rep. Tara has been choreographing since high school and continues making work through her college and post-grad career at UF and Lines. Tara has had her work shown in venues such as the Harn Museum of Art, Dance Center Du Marais, and Grace Cathedral. Most recently she was accepted into ODC’s 73rd Pilot Program and created work as well as a self-produced show alongside her six-person cohort.
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Dancing Earth self produces and collaborates with partners for:
*Dance programming for youth
*Cultivating Artist Leadership : mentoring in arts management
*Seasonal Institutes for Dancing Earth intensive movement training
*Restoring the Source Retreats Cultural Exchanges
*Creation of original Dance works, with costumes, music, video projection, visual art design and construction with sets and props
*Cinematic Movement : Dance on Film
*Choreography commissioned by schools, companies or collaborators
*Interdisciplinary gatherings and festivals
About Dancing Earth
Dancing Earth Creations dynamically activates our mission, to create contemporary dance and related arts through global indigenous and intercultural relationships centered in ecological and cultural diversity for creativity, health, and wellness.
Founded by Artistic Director Rulan Tangen, to serve a need rarely met in the USA, DEC gives hope and opportunity to Native, mixed, global Indigenous and BIPOC talent who have been largely outside the dialogue of mainstream performance because of lack of access. DEC is an organic constellation of largely self-taught dancers, composers, costumers, filmmakers, and spoken word artists.
Together, DEC artists work with community members, culture carriers, and inter-cultural elders to explore the rich diversity of ancestral heritage, contemporary identity, and relationship building, by collaborating on innovative ecologically themed performances. DEC's work promotes environmental awareness, cultural diversity, and understanding between peoples through contemporary arts expressions.
“We gather as individual artists to create experimental yet elemental dances that reflect our rich cultural heritage as contemporary global peoples. We strive to embody the unique essences of cultural perspectives by creation and renewal of artistic and cultural movement rituals. Ancient and futuristic, our dances are an elemental language of bone and blood memory in motion.” - Founding Director, Rulan Tangen