Eigner Dances with Words

Make Your 2011 Summer Movement Monastery Plans Now!

eignerdancereviews — Tue, 15 Mar 2011 02:30:43 +0000

~Warmest greetings to all ~

Summer Movement Monastery 2011 excitement is in the air! Here is some important, time-sensitive information about registration and room availability.
Confirming your registration (aka, paid-in-full) by April 1st will afford you the most cost-effective rate being offered this year. The accommodations at the Synergia Ranch are thoroughly charming and I know all of you will be delighted with them. The following rates are for the full retreat only and are available until April 2 (includes extra overnight stay):

Primo Private Room (w. own bathroom) $2440.00
Private Room (private room w. shared bathroom) $2065.00
Shared Room (shared room, shared bathroom) $1915.00

There are limited rooms available at the Shared Room rate.

Step 1: If you are looking for the most cost-effective rate, you will need to register for a Shared Room soon. Rooms will be assigned on a first-come, first-serve basis. Once the double rooms have been assigned, your only option will be a Private Room, at the increased, Private Room rate. Those with intention to camp/tent, understand that you must technically reserve a room at the double room rate.
Register Now

Step 2: Once you are officially registered, the next step is to contact Liz Abbene, our Retreat Manager, (elizabethabbene@charter.net or 612-578-4784) and let her know if you have a roommate request.

Step 3: Solidify your travel plans and contact Liz with that information. She will track everyone’s travel arrangements and contract with the shuttle service to secure the lowest possible rates between the airport and Synergia Ranch. When we get closer to our retreat date, Liz will contact everyone again with the final shuttle schedule and any other last minute SMM 2011 information.

We look forward to sharing time with you on the Dancemeditation™ path at Synergia Ranch in beautiful New Mexico.

Peace & pleasure!
Dunya

Register Now
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Below are additional sample Options. We can accommodate any amount of time you’d like to attend during the first week. Please let us know and we’ll set up that option):

One Week (7 days)*
Primo Room $1,365 * Private Room $1,190 * Shared Room $1,120

Three Days*
Primo Room $585 * Private Room $510 * Shared Room $480

Two Days*
Primo Room $390 * Private Room $340 * Shared Room $320

Single Day (includes full workshop day & one meal, no housing) $120

* (These fees do not include extra overnight stay.)

Summer Movement Monastery gives time to deepen your practices with a community of like-minded people. Breathe, stretch, move, rest, dance, bellydance, chant and whirl without words, with beautiful music, with your eyes open or closed. Enjoy innovative approaches to movement, music, body-work techniques as well as magical impromtu performances. You’ll experience the deep relaxation, abundant creativity, improved immune function, healing and inner peace you’ve been looking for. You’ll take home renewed vigor and inspiration. No previous movement or dance experience is required. Welcome!

Dancemeditation™ cultivates undivided attention, seamless concentration, breath awareness, continuous flow of movement, and compassionate witness of self and others. We’ll open our awareness through breath, music, and slow movement; then let the body move as it wishes, using inward-focused movement to cultivate receptivity, creativity, presence, and healing. Resting with attention to breath allows the quiet inner state and body awareness to linger during the return to normal consciousness. Its non-competitive orientation affirms each person’s beauty, harmony, and magnificence.

The benefits of Dancemeditation™ include:

self-sustaining vitality
refined, embodied awareness
a quiet mind
an awakened heart

Dunya Dianne McPherson, acclaimed authority and meditative leader, is the originator of Spiritual Bellydance, and founder and Principal Teacher of the healing movement system, Dancemeditation™, a path of breath and intuition. A Juilliard graduate, Sufi Master, and NEA Choreography Fellow, Dunya’s teaching credits include Princeton University, Swarthmore College, New York University, Hunter College , Barnard College, New York Open Center and others. Dunya has her MA in writing and is the author of Skin of Glass: Finding Spirit in the Flesh, a memoir about dance as a spiritual path.

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Robert Mirabal and Dancing Earth to Perform at Macey Center, Socorro NM

eignerdancereviews — Fri, 23 Apr 2010 17:44:27 +0000

What: Concert & Dance Performance with Robert Mirabal and Dancing
Earth (dance troupe)
When: Friday, April 23, 7:30pm
Where: Macey Center, One Olive Lane, Socorro, NM
Price: $16/Adult; $14/Senior; $12/Youth, all general admission seating
Tickets Available at: Brownbilt Shoes and Western Wear, Burrito Tyme,
Cashier at Fidel Center Student Union Bldg; at the door; OR, call
575-835-5688.

Web: www.nmtpas.org; www.starroadrecords.com; www.dancingearth.org

Taos Pueblo Grammy Winner, Robert Mirabal, with Acclaimed Indigenous Dance Troupe, Dancing Earth Performs in Socorro on Earth Day Weekend

SOCORRO – Get close to the Earth for Earth Day. On April 23, Robert Mirabal, acclaimed musician from Taos Pueblo, and the native dance troupe Dancing Earth, perform at Macey Center as part of New Mexico Tech’s Performing Arts Series. The show is at 7:30pm.

Local sponsors for the performance are New Mexico Educators Federal Credit Union, EMRTC, Fitch and Tausch Attorneys at Law, and Super 8 Motel of Socorro. This program is partially funded by a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts Challenge America program.

Before the concert, Tech Club – Club Macey (TCCM) holds a social in Macey Center’s Galena Room, from 5 to 7 p.m., with Navajo Taco appetizers. TCCM is a social club for people 21 and over. There is a $5 cover charge if you are not a member of TCCM.

Robert Mirabal is a two-time Grammy-Award winner who weaves ancient and contemporary music in a thoroughly original way. Described as a Native American “Renaissance man,” he is a master flute maker composer, painter, craftsman, poet, actor, screenwriter, horseman and farmer. Robert travels extensively and plays his music all over the world.

Music from Robert’s latest album, “In the Blood,” will be featured: songs that blend scenes from the American experience-past, present and future-with themes from contemporary Native life, some sung in English and others in Mirabal’s native tongue, Tiwa. Love songs merge with ghost songs that further roll into Americana ballads and full-on tribal rockers. Woven together with Robert’s music will be original choreography by Dancing Earth.

Living at the foot of sacred Taos Mountain, Robert Mirabal still participates in the ceremonial life of the Taos Pueblo people. Speaking both English and Tiwa, his first language, he shares the importance of staying connected to the earth and preserving indigenous ways.

Robert’s first mainstream success came in the John Tesh production, One World. His 2001 Public Television Special, Music from a Painted Cave, remains a benchmark for Native American theatrical expression.

“My music is informed by the ceremonial music that I’ve heard all my life,” he says. “What I create comes out of my body and soul in a desire to take care of the spirits of the earth.”

Mirabal was twice named the Native American Music Awards’ Artist of the Year, and received the Songwriter of the Year award three times. He was featured in Grammy Award winning album, Sacred Ground-a Tribute to Mother Earth in 2006 for Best Native American Music Album and won the 2008 Grammy Award for Best Native American Album of the Year
Johnny Whitehorse Totemic Flute Chants.

Dancing Earth is an inspirational array of Indigenous contemporary dance artists who work as a collaborative ensemble under the leadership of Rulan Tangen. Rulan may be remembered by some in Socorro County when she worked with the National Dance Institute residencies in Alamo-Navajo and Magdalena Schools, and danced in the Painted Cave tour with Robert Mirabal, at Macey Center several years ago.

The company strives to embody the unique essence of indigenous identity and perspective by creation and renewal of artistic and cultural movement rituals. Springing from the heart and spirit of originator Rulan Tangen, Dancing Earth creates bridges for art and humanity, tradition and experimentation.

With passionate and committed artistic exploration, Dancing Earth revitalizes issues of environmental, social, cultural, spiritual, historical, educational, and philosophical relevance. Through art, they promote awareness and communication as cultural exchange with both Indigenous communities and global audiences.

Rulan Tangen was recently noted in DANCE MAGAZINE as one of the “Top 25 to Watch” for 2007. Her lifetime passion for dance includes international experience in the US, Canada, Europe, Mexico, and South America as a choreographer, performer, and teacher. Her credits include ballet and modern dance companies in New York (Michael Mao Dance and Peridance), Vancouver (Karen Jamieson Dance), Santa Fe (Moving People, Dancing One Soul) and California (Marin Ballet), and appearances with the One Railroad Circus, as well as extensive yoga training, and powwow trail experiences as a Northern Plains traditional women’s dancer.

The grant from the National Endowment is to support the Socorro presentation of Dancing Earth with Robert Mirabal and his band, the artistic collaboration between the two companies, outreach activities for the Socorro and Alamo-Navajo Schools, and a performance at the Alamo-Navajo Wellness Center. Dancing Earth dancers will be
developing and rehearsing original choreography, in collaboration with Robert Mirabal and his band, produced here in Socorro at Macey Center, for this performance only.

Tickets for the Socorro performance are $16 for adults, $14 for senior citizens, and $12 for youth17 and under. Tickets are available at the door or in advance at NM Tech Cashier’s Office (second floor of Fidel Center), Brownbilt Western Wear, Sofia’s Kitchen, and Video Shack.

Admission is free to full-time New Mexico Tech students – those taking at least 6 hours and showing a valid ID. Students should pick up their tickets in advance at the Tech Bookstore.

-NMT-

Ronna Kalish, Director
NM Tech Performing Arts Series
Macey Center
801 Leroy Place
Socorro, NM 87801
(575) 835-5688
(575) 835-5597 (Fax)
rkalish@admin.nmt.edu
www.nmtpas.org
www.nmpresenters.org

Two Women Dancing at the Santa Fe Playhouse, March 6, 2010

eignerdancereviews — Thu, 08 Apr 2010 18:25:39 +0000

by Janet Eigner

Each one of the Two Women Dancing concerts has evolved from the last in a more interesting way. It is Santa Fe’s loss that Kate Eberle decided this concert would be her last performance in the duet company, co-founded by the two modern dancers, Julie Brette Adams and Eberle in 2004. This six year run has earned respect.

The concert opened a nearly hypnotic through-theme, just two dancers saying goodbye, moving on and off the stage in a flow of solos and duets, with very brief pauses, enough for the audience to catch its aesthetic breath and the dancers to rearrange their costumes twice, but with such subtly shifted design that only those quite attentive to gray and black leotards and cumberbunds would have noticed the changes. Each dance expressed a different mood related to the artists’ relationship, though each work could be seen as a finished dance in itself.

Three of the works were choreographed by Kiki Jadus, the associate artistic director, two by Adams and Eberle, one by Adams, Eberle and Jefferson Vorhees, one by Adams and Lindsay Mayo, and one by Eberle, adapting a previous work, Freakshow that Curtis Uhlemann choreographed in 2006. Of the eight dances, six were premieres.

The concert was well- supported by Jefferson Voorhees’s all-around skill set, especially sound design and live percussion, and Skip Rapoport, lighting designer. The lights were subtle and just enough, leaning to the dim side, aiding the silky transitions from one work to the next. The Playhouse seats were filled with a rapt audience.

Adams inhabits her movement work with a clean modern vocabulary that includes some jazz moves. The intensity of her facial expression complements her movement so that the audience can know her emotional mood. She has a wide, expressive palette.

Over the six years, Eberle has become much more emotionally expressive, melding mood with movement, so that she as well as Adams are fully present in their performances. Eberle’s movement includes modern and yogic vocabulary, with dollops of jazz and martial arts moves.

“Yatra,” the opening duet, showed the women walking away and toward each other, sometimes in simultaneous moves, some complementary, some languorous, many extended, slow and crouching, with pleased and joyful interactions, soft, modern and airy. The cellos of Joan Jeanrenaud’s music gave a poignant and lovely feel to this introduction.

A woman’s dusky voice accompanies “Turn,” a duet with sharper quicker moves, still introspective, with many long-limbed moves, a duet of Shiva-like multiple arms, darting starts, undulating arms and crisp angles. The movements looked as though the artists were signaling each other using sign language, sending some frenzied intense messages. The lighting warmed the dancers’ sleeveless arms as they concluded this section gazing at each other.

Eberle danced the next section, “Opt. 1″ in silence, though a cello helped the transition from “Turn” into this work. She worked a semi circle, used her long limbs to swing and hit at her torso, moved up and down onto and from the floor, silkely, powerfully. A spiraling rise and fall, a jog that revved up to full speed, and she disappeared at the back of the black curtain that served as scrim and mysterious divider between the dances.

Adams reappeared from behind that scrim in “Heart Dancing Open”, with the divine harmonies of the Beatles singing “Because” to a joyful whirling, playful, skipping work that transitioned to a gentle, acapella Spanish song by Ana Lains while the moves expressed the delicacy of the song, interspersed with small elbows thrusts, though the choreography got repetitious.

“Euclid’s Whim” brought the duo to a metal climbing apparatus that allowed both dancers to etch geometric lines over, under and around each other on novel angles. As the light dimmed, the silver tubing shone in contrast to their warmly lit flesh. Along with the music of Michael Gordon, Vorhees’ backstage sheet metal percussion and the intense, contemporary sound of cello strings energized the slow, deliberate movements about the double rectangles.

“Opt 2″ Continued the cello’s sound, the cello’s bow now bouncing across its strings. Adams in a rectangle of light bounced the heel of her hand off her forehead. This introspective solo brought her to sit on her knees in silence, and restrict her movement to small, intermittent changes: to circle her head, undulate her torso, flex her hands, but only rise and walk away slowly.

“Dreamfire,” Eberle’s explosive solo to music by Devotchka, showed a disciplined wildness, an unhinged and terrific capacity to express a number of intense feelings, driven, maybe by the grief of loss. Eberle’s lively and akimbo, quick movements became spellbinding; she held her hands over her face as a male voice wailed his music that led to an over-the-top tango. She thrust and undulated her torso, spoofing tango, clutched at herself in a big hug, used odd, spastic moves to the music’s percussive rhythm, and stirred a sense of scare and risk when her twitching, lunging movements looked barely under control. The music of a street organ backed her slide to the ground; then, with one finger, she sat herself back up. The vistas of her outstretched arms and sudden twitching again embraced the air as an accordion deepened her sense of release and grief.

The last work, “Separate,” had the duo pacing the stage, like wonderful Charlie Chaplins on drugs. Eberle sat down, close to the edge of the stage, with her back to the audience. After a long silence, without music, the synthesized pulsing of Devotchka backed the pair. Adams put her hands over her face, the through movement in this concert as the accordion pulsed a repetitive chorus. Both women rose and knelt on one knee with chin-to-knee; lyrics filled in a tale of leaving. “You already know how this will end,” sang a man, as the dancers used big, outstretched, sustained moves, one set resembling a sun asana, as the two bowed to each other. Each faced an opposite side of the stage and exited to the high register of violins.

The deep respect, love, celebration and sadness about the end of their several years performing together showed through movement the dancers deeply felt, so that, rather than looking or feeling sentimental, the concert touched a resonant chord in the responsive audience.

Filed under: Dance Reviews

Rulan Tangen’s Dancing Earth in “Of Bodies, Of Elements” World Preview, Sunday, January 31, 2010 at National Dance Institute (NDI-NM) Dance Barns

eignerdancereviews — Sun, 28 Mar 2010 23:09:46 +0000

Standing room only, bleachers filled to the rafters, late comers lined the aisles at the NDI at the world preview of the latest of Dancing Earth’s contemporary indigenous performances. Word is that the same audience interest filled the Albuquerque premiere of the work at VSA North Fourth Art Center, Feb. 6th and 7th.

The ninety minute work, divided into two acts, read like a string of unpolished beads, one story segment after another, strung together by a resonant collage of indigenous music, some vocal and acapella, some purely melodic, masterfully coordinated and sound-engineered by the Albuquerque composer-musician Jeff Brown.

Choreographer, Director RulanTangen had workshopped segments of this theater piece in the year preceding the concert with some of the present cast and some dancers who didn’t appear, because half of Dancing Earth’s artists live outside of New Mexico. Each performance gathers this company’s dancers who can break off their acting, dancing, visual arts or musical careers to gather for rehearsals wherever the company is performing.

The dancers who wove in and out in ensembles and solos included Tangen herself, Serena Rascon (who also performed as aerial soloist for the Albuquerque concerts the next weekend), Kalani Queypo (Guest Artist), Nichole Salazar, Sarracina Littlebird, Erika Archer, Edgar Soto Garcia, Djollo Johnson, Eric Lopez, and Amy Becenti (Apprentice). Raoul Trujillo consulted as Director for the “Caged” section of Act 1.

The metaphoric creation stories began with three small groups lying prone, then forming a chain like a strand of DNA coalescing— cosmic, trembling, writhing ensembles. Tangen and Queypo entered and exited at a slow, ceremonial pace, The delicate scrim lighting enhanced and didn’t distract or overwhelm this production, though the second act scene enacting modern consumption needed more illumination.

Tangen and the male dancers stood out for their strength and technique, Garcia, Johnson and Lopez for their hip-hop-break dance skills combined with the native and contemporary moves, Queypo and Tangen for a stunning dignity and presence in their contemporary indigenous style. In the shadows, to the sounds of wind, four men doing individual movements with long poles, began slowly and whirled offstage. Three women as a sunflower sisterhood twitched undulated, and another woman rapidly cris-crossed her legs and traveled in a version of an indigenous fancy dance.

To the sound of turtle shells, three men and one woman encaged the sunflower women with three-layered-wire hoops, from which the women struggled to emerge, frenzied in their moves, the men fierce in theirs.

The second act began with a graceful, eerie version of the ghost dance, the men’s bodies in golden light with Johnson as an eagle, hopping, wings flapping, after which a couple appears twisted in cord, pulling against each other, until the man whirls free of his binding, and struggles to breathe. As the man freed of his ties, he twirls and back-flips without using his arms, an explosion of break dance moves, after which Tangen appears.

Powerful and notable, though not lighted well enough to fully understand its impact, Tangen enacts a metaphor for the greed and detritus of modern life — reaching and clawing skyward, her mouth open to receive all the stuff she could drop in and chew. Embedded in her ample long black gown were dirty plastic bags, empty junk food wrappers, soda cans. Like an indigenous Mother Ginger from Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker, she lifted her skirts and four dancers crawled out, enacting varieties of narcissistic preening and devouring.

To indigenous drumming, the hip hop ensemble raises its arms as if holding rifles, aims, and a chanting begins, faces grimacing, then more African-inspired urban dance, all dancers close to the ground, when Queypo, soothes with a slow, sustained arm reach, followed by the ensemble undulating, quivering, break dancing, rolling and re-rolling across the stage. Then a trio unites, and crawls off looking caterpillar-like, and as the frenzy builds and suddenly, the ensemble slows, all dancers thrust their arms into the air, gracefully, take a big breath, thrust up one arm, and lights blacked out.

The dancers’ technical levels varied…the work needs more rehearsal time for a couple of the women to have the strength and presence to sustain their movements in transitions from one choreographed move to the next…the mark of a performance dancer is one who understands how each moment counts, that there is no “down” time or movement on stage. Sarracina Littlebird, Serena Rascon and Nicole Salazar used fluidity and power in their movements though the choreography didn’t fully allow for an integrated and flowing design that would allow the dancers to weave together the segments. Still, the potential for this work was clear. Tangen has created powerful and integrated works before. She’s still experimenting with the contemporary, indigenous form.

The audience’s excitement and standing ovation lasted quite a while, followed by a Question and Answer dialogue with the audience. Tangen described how she had wanted to do the dance of “our ancestors,” and started this work as a structured improvisation, aiming to make the work a functional ritual.

Filed under: Dance Reviews

Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo at the Lensic Theater, Feb. 9, 2010

eignerdancereviews — Sun, 28 Mar 2010 23:05:52 +0000

The hairy-chested Odette in feathers and tutu (Fernando Medina Gallego) spoofed her own flirting with the Swan Lake’s Prince, winking at the sold-out crowd at the Lensic Performing Arts Center in Santa Fe, New Mexico. The Prince (Josh Grant) played his role straight…an ironic word choice when describing a company of men who dance both female and male roles, depending on what the repertory demands. Their humor is droll, in the spirit of Victor Borge in toe shoes meets Monty Python in tutu.

Besides the ongoing comedy, a through – theme in the first act was the vaudevillian-style Dying Swan.
Larisa Dumbchenka (Raffaele Morra) rushed back onstage to end of the first act, with a most gymnastic routine: she would preen, bow, look appalled as she shed a molt of feathers, sink to the stage, fold her wings over herself, bow again and die again and bow again and generally wring well-deserved belly laughs from the audience.

Irina Koslesterolikova, Marat Legupski, Marina Plezegetovstageskaya — their faux Russian female names tweak the names of classical 19th century prima ballerinas, but the thirty-four year old company has an international cast of vibrant dancers: besides American, French, Canadian, Australian, Mexican, Italian, Spanish, Colombian, Israeli, Chinese. Over two decades ago, I saw this company in New York and St. Louis. Still based in New York, they are welcomed the world over, newly cast, not exactly dewy but still vivid with a concept that, because the Trocks retain their fine classical balletic technique and programming, they can be as over-the-top and devilishly funny as they wish.

The concert included two 19th century ballets, “La Vivandiere” introduced at Her Majesty’s Theater in
London to the Pas de Six” with an original Bohemian polka, and “Majisimas” with music by Jules Massenet, that featured classical ballet influenced by the dignity of a traditional Spanish dance that had been integrated into the second act of “El Cid,” an 1885 opera.

Oh those big feet in pink toe shoes, especially when the damoiselles dropped their heels (clunk) to a flat-footed walk across the stage, or came down heavy on their heels in time with Tchaikovsky’s rhythm. Oh, those well- muscled arms when, for effect, the shortest, thinnest men in “La Vivandiere”, clad in velvet waistcoats, dark tights and soft ballet slippers, assumed the princely form to partner the “ballerinas” and by the dance’s conclusion, were swept up by the princesses, ending in the royal-skirted laps. The principal dancers, Joseph Jeffries as Minnie Van Driver and Long Zou as Ketevan Losidfidi, were joined by a Corps de Ballet.

Perhaps the most droll spoof, “Patterns in Space,” took Merce Cunningham’s choreography, an austere
modern work, and employed three blank-faced dancers doing minimalist moves (Calvin Gentry as Helen Highwaters, Or Sagi as Maria Paranova and an unidentified man as Ilya Bobonikov,) with two more dancers as very somber modern musicians (Rafaella Mora as Pepe Dufka and Fernando Medina Gallego as R.M. Prince Myshkin) playing John Cage’s rich array of instruments which began conservatively with castanets and ended with bonkers found-instruments (kazoos, water spray, popped balloon) and sounds (cow, sheep, chicken).

The ballerina in “Stars and Stripes Forever,” (this work was quickly announced but not printed, names not provided), a foot taller and maybe fifty pounds heavier than “her” male partner, shone in several of the works, blending John Phillip Sousa patriotism while prancing and pirouetting with red, white and blue-costumed schtick.

After a concert of high-jinks artfully interspersed within serious technique, the audience wasn’t prepared for the serious mood of “Magisimas,” so that when the ballerinos snapped open their Spanish fans, a ripple of giggles sped through the audience, until they realized this work was the real thing. The restrained, graceful and sensual dignity of the Jules Massenet work was danced by the full company.

Jacques d’ Ambrosia, Ida Nevasayneva, Vanya Verikosa, Svetlana Lofatkina…imagine the haute humor at some future retirement haven for these divas. Brava/Bravo.

Filed under: Dance Reviews

Preview, Rulan Tangen and Dancing Earth

eignerdancereviews — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 04:56:30 +0000

by Janet Eigner

“Now let’s do the section where you’re sea kelp,” Rulan Tangen briskly directs. The artistic director and
choreographer of Dancing Earth, the indigenous contemporary dance ensemble, is rehearsing seven of the ten dancers at the College of Santa Fe’s Oñate Hall dance studio. Several set designers, costumers, guest choreographer (Raoul Trujillo) and visual artists are arriving later to prepare for the upcoming debut of a collaborative piece called “Of Bodies, of Elements,” in which Tangen dances and Hawaiian native Kalani Quepo is a guest dancer. A preview performance of the work takes place at the National Dance Institute of New Mexico’s Dance Barns on Sunday, Jan. 31. “Like the Ballet Russe in the early 20th century,” Tangen notes, “ all of the indigenous nations arts converge to create this work.” Last summer and fall, she met with some of her dancers to workshop and sharpen the choreographic concepts in this work. In contrast with the late 20th century in the dance world, when economics allowed a dance company to rehearse for three months, Dancing Earth has two weeks to ready for the company’s preview and three for its world premiere.

Genetic scientists and astronomers have worked to unravel and document the genetic and atomic materials we share with other species and heavenly bodies, but indigenous nations have long believed that humans share vital connections with “all our relations” (as Winona La Duke wrote in her 1999 book of the same title). Tangen takes as inspiration aboriginal origin stories from all sides of the globe. She choreographs these interspecies and interplanetary stories, made vivid with costuming, hairstyles, and body paint. These are not sacred traditional dances, though she is influenced by the forms and movement language of traditional Native dance. Green is the theme of this new production by her company–ecological and cultural sustainability, seen through the intersection of ritual, culture and ecology. Sets (made from recycled materials), costumes, body paint, and an attempt at lighting (solar-powered) are designed with the aim of limiting the company’s carbon footprint.

The native Californian, who grew up traveling, didn’t start out her career with an Indigenous focus. Though her mixed ancestry includes Canadian Metis, Tangen first learned ballet’s classical discipline, then modern dance vocabulary. Her powerful, graceful technique and beauty propelled her into the New York modern dance company of Michael Mao, that toured the world. But modern dance wasn’t fulfilling her need to create and present Indigenous culture through dance.

As Tangen met some of the pioneers of contemporary Indigenous dance, she realized that following her own drumbeat meant developing young Native dancers who could share her cultural vision. Hers was a hard ride on the bumpy but exciting performance road for the last 12 years, gradually making progress, and continuing to select fine company dancers during her travels, which have included choreographing for, dancing and acting in films, including Apocalypto and The New World. She hires already polished dancers from classical, jazz, break dance and modern backgrounds for Dancing Earth. Concurrent with the olympian efforts involved in developing a dance company, Tangen dealt with and overcame a serious cancer, using the same will, focus, intelligence and community support that has breathed life into Dancing Earth. Out of the health challenge came inspiration for a specific viewpoint in an aspect of a creation story — recreation from a dark place — performed by the artists who became the core of her company, which was formally created in 2004.

Tangen writes in an essay for a forthcoming anthology by indigenous dance pioneers, that, in her company, “We go through a series of exercises of unmaking, of returning the body into raw instinct ….We seek out the movement from the marrow….Then, by incorporation of indigenous language and sound patterns and philosophies, we start to find rhythms and motions that bring articulation to the primordial ooze.” She encourages each member of Dancing Earth to make conceptual and movement-specific contributions to the work.

Eric Garcia Lopez, a U.S.-born dancer of indigenous Mexican (Tarasco, Purpecha) dances, among many other roles, a fisherman casting a net and as break dancer in rehearsal. He speaks of Tangen as a visionary. “Rulan’s unlike any other artistic director or choreographer I’ve ever worked for. Her company is most unique. She’s extremely conceptual, pulling from different folk stories and native beliefs. I had a lot of confusion growing up as a first-generation American. This work really got me closer to the roots of Indigenous people of this continent. She brings the concepts to life and renews the spirit within.”

Serena Rascon, a New Mexico native (Yaqui), describes Tangen as a strong woman, a model and mentor. “This work is about intention and purpose and developing conscious breath. She gives us counts and an idea, like moving through air or mud, and we all interpret it differently. (The movement) has to develop as you go on.”

Tangen enlisted Edgar Soto Garcia (“somewhere in the Mayan area”) when she discovered he was both a hairdresser and a dramatic break-dancing talent. Now he brings both skill sets to her company. “ And I do the Rope Duet in the second act, (in contrast to the ancient creation stories of the first act.) I cut the umbilical cord attached to nature and the old ways, which sets us up for generations of (cultural disconnection) drought.”

Djallo Johnson (West African Fulani, Creole and Cherokee) describes Tangen as excellent at picking dancers who quickly develop an energetic synergy. “I respect her intentionality, her honor, appreciation and reverence for the elders. She is like a sculptor and we’re clay. She says, ‘Let me see what kind of clay you have.’ ”

Tangen sits at the front of the room, her back to the full-length mirror, near her production assistant, Alejandro Quintana, who focuses on playing and replaying the right music tracks and timing each dance. Up and down the phylogenetic tree * the company goes, and back again– the dancers becoming stars, shiny stardust, a mythic woman who falls from the stars, spiders, caterpillars, clay, a dead-ringer for a scorpion, turtle, bird, rabbit, air, praying mantis, dry earth, water, yucca.

Dancing Earth’s riveting style has attracted many invitations to international native festivals, cultural
centers, museums, educational institutions, indigenous communities and youth conferences. Many invitations come without the promise of funding. The company has toured Canada, Argentina, and Brasil, as well as U.S. locals. Then recognition began to oil the financial wheels, a bit: Dance Magazine named Tangen one of “25 to Watch” in 2007. Washington University recently honored Tangen as a Visiting Distinguished Scholar. Stanford University has invited Dancing Earth to participate as a project leader this spring in its Race and the Environment program, also sponsoring her with a scholar residency through its Institute for Diversity in the Arts.

Dancing Earth is the first Indigenous contemporary dance ensemble chosen for funding from the National Dance Project production grant (the program is administered by the New England Foundation for the Arts), put together by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, as well as Ford, Mellon and MetLife Foundations. “Of Bodies” stems from that grant, in addition to supplements from many local sources and in-kind sources, the Santa Fe Art Institute, College of Santa Fe, Southwest American Indian Association (SWAIA), the Institute for American Indian Arts Museum and College (IAIA), Global Centre for Cultural Entrepreneurship, National Dance Institute of New Mexico (NDI-NM), VSA North Fourth Art Center’s Global Dance Festival and Two Worlds Festival, Moving People Dance, and Wise Fool New Mexico.

After the preview in Santa Fe, Dancing Earth presents the concert at one pueblo and three northern New Mexico communities in the Espanola Valley area each day, the last week of January. Also, 500 Santa Fe school children will attend a concert, bussed to the NDI from pueblos and Santa Fe schools, courtesy of the National Hispanic Cultural Center, The Santa Fe Opera, Espanola Arts in Schools program and Roger Montoya.

After the Albuquerque premiere of “Of Bodies, of Elements, at Albuquerque’s Two Worlds Festival and
Global Dance Festival, her company is negotiating tours of the new production to Alaska, Stanford University, Arizona State University, and Washington University, among other places.

Dancing Earth plans to perform in 2012 at the National Hispanic Cultural Center in Albuquerque, where Tangen will also work with the Executive Director of NHCC, Dr. Estevan Rael-Galvez. Rael-Galvez says, “the power of dance…gives us the ability to expand a standard curriculum in the schools. …(and) enables a collaboration with an amazingly gifted artist and ensemble…Our hope is that it will expand the dialogue… within and across cultures and communities, and inspire new forms of creativity in students living in northern New Mexico.”

Tangen speaks of her yearning for a creative and collaborative clan before she formed Dancing Earth. “When I (solo) dance up Canyon Road and various venues, I feel like the last indigenous being on Earth. But now I have, for three weeks, the container where we can put ourselves and our ancestors into the performance. We are told we come from the stars. Onstage we won’t be entirely human–we’ll be all our relations.”

**the scale of evolutionary unfolding: as the human fetus develops (ontogeny), it mimics or recapitulates the forms of species as they evolved (phylogeny)

Details Box:
- Sunday, January 31, 7 p.m., National Dance Institute, 1140 Alto St. at NDI Dance Barns, Santa Fe.
Buy tickets at the door or in advance at KICKS, 801 Cerrillos Rd, 982-9277.
-Saturday Feb. 6, 8 p.m. and Sunday, Feb. 7, 2p.m. at VSA North Fourth Art Center, 4904 4th NW, Albuquerque.

Tickets: phone box office: 505-344-4542 or visit www.vsartsnm.org.
$15 general admission, $10 children, students with ID, and seniors.

Filed under: Dance Reviews

Moving People Dance Opportunities

eignerdancereviews — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 21:49:10 +0000

New York City Dance Alliance

National Convention / Competition

We would like to take students to the NYCDA Convention in Denver Colorado. This is an opportunity to dance with hundreds of other students from all over the country, take classes from master teachers, audition for scholarships and awards, and attend special seminars geared towards talking about options for dance after high school. NYCDA is one of the best of its kind and last year they gave away over $320,000 in college scholarships at their national convention in NYC as well as numerous scholarships and cash awards at all of their regional conventions. This is always a fun educational experience that contributes to boosting confidence, encouraging growth and camaraderie and helping prepare students for future audition experiences.

If you are interested in attending please contact Layla ASAP
(layla@movingpeopledance.org)

New York City Dance Alliance Convention / February 27 – 28 / Denver CO
www.nycdance.com
NYCDA Convention
February 27 – 28
Denver, CO

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LINES Ballet Discovery Project

MPD is proud to be hosting the LINES Ballet Discovery Project for the third year in a row! This project was started by LINES Ballet School with the goal of strengthening and amplifying the presence of arts and arts education world wide.

Through collaboration with communities and fellow dance educators, LINES will offer a four-day intensive workshop in ballet, pointe, modern, and Alonzo King’s LINES Ballet repertoire. These workshops are designed for students eleven and up, with an intermediate to advanced skill level. The four days will culminate with a showing and question and answer session open to the public.

For a nominal fee of $30 students will recieve four days of instruction from LINES’ stellar faculty Shirine Keyani – Rose, LeWei Chao, Maurya Kerr and Karah Abiog, and the chance to audition for the LINES Ballet Summer Intensive of Saturday, February 6, from 5 – 7 pm. One lucky dancer will receive a full scholarship to the LINES Ballet Summer Intensive!

LINES Ballet Discovery Project
February 4 – 7
$30
MPD Studios

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Summer Dance Intensive

Dance Different in the City Different

Moving People Dance Different Summer Intensive is designed to expose dancers to a diverse pool of leading artists in the field of dance while honing in on each individuals unique gifts. MPD creates a nurturing environment that provides students with a strong technical base while encouraging independent thinking and fluency of expression.
This year’s Intensive will run June 13 – July 3 and will include performance opportunities. Guest faculty will include Duncan Cooper – formerly Dance Theater of Harlem and San Fransisco Ballet, Karah Abiog – Complexions and Deeply Rooted Dance Theatre, Cathering Cabine -formerly Bill T. Jones, and Lydia Coco Roberts -formerly Alvin Ailey and more to be announced soon.

*faculty subject to change.
To find out how to audition or for more information call (505) 438 – 9180
Moving People Dance Different Summer Intensive

June 13 – July 3, 2010

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Louder Than Words Auditions

Back to TopMoving People, Too! will return to the Greer Garson stage April 27th – May 2nd with brand – new works by MPD choreographers. In addition to techniqe MPD places high value on performance quality and the rehearsal process. It all starts with the audition experience!
Saturday, January 9th
Level I / II ~ 1:00 – 1:45 pm
Level III / IV ~ 1:45 – 3:00 pm
*open to MPD students taking 3 or more classes /week

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Preview for Santa Fe Nutcracker Performances, expanded from the preview published in SF New Mexican’s Pasatiempo, 12/11/09

eignerdancereviews — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 21:23:22 +0000

The spine cracked on my old copy of the E.T.A. Hoffman short story, “The Nutcracker,” as I opened the yellowed pages to read at nap time to my three year old grandson. Even without illustrations, so fascinated by the story was Enrique that his eyelids didn’t begin to flutter for three quarters of an hour, and I was hooked on E.T.A. too.

Would any of this month’s upcoming local Nutcracker dance productions (Moving People Dance, Aspen Santa Fe Ballet, and National Dance Institute’s Nutcracker excerpts contain the dark portions of ETA’s story? None of the half dozen (and counting) danced versions of this tale.

I’ve so far attended in previous years and other cities, was as creepy as Hoffman’s story: a sinister, old godfather, Herr Drosselmeier, who seduces the young hero, Maria, with fantasy stories, then humiliates her when she believes the fantasies; or, for gross visuals, a son of the mouse queen has seven heads. Not even Mikhail Baryshnikov’s version for American Ballet Theatre, which closely follows the Hoffman storyline, makes the production identical in its darkness.

Dance productions cannot spare the time for Hoffman’s complicated literary transformations (from lovely princess infant to grotesque melon-head baby), curses (a Mouse Queen who pledges to return and bite off the head of the royal baby) and bad and good magic (the prince, transformed into a nutcracker, accidentally kills the mouse queen while undoing the spell on the infant princess, and later returns to his former princely self.)

Nor does any version I’ve seen allow Marie to remain with a romantic and magic conclusion. In Hoffman’s original tale, Marie leaves her family to return as Queen with the prince-as-King to reign together and forever from Marzipan Castle in Sweetmeatburgh. How closely will two of this month’s dancing Nutcracker productions incorporate Hoffman’s the original script?

Only positive magic emanates from the Moving People Dance production. Layla Amis, Executive Director of Moving People Dance (MPD), and Curtis Uhlemann, Artistic Director, Costume Design and Construction, co-direct, this the tenth and last year of their magical and contemporary Nutcracker, “Swingin’ Suites.” Music includes brief selections from Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker ballet score, but MPD selects most of the music from the jazz of Duke Ellington, Billy Strayhorn and Glenn Miller. The production was conceived and produced ten years ago by Amis, Ronn Stewart, now Director Emeritus, and Jose’ Luis Moncada, with choreography by Stewart, Amis, Echo Gustafson, Uhlemann, Erica Gionfriddo, Lori Brody, Rulan Tangen, Christin Severini and Mike Garcia. Charles Gamble narrates the tale. The MPD school’s instructors dance the adult roles; as with most productions of this standard, nearly all of a school’s students have the opportunity to perform at least once, since the concert is often given three times.

The Swingin’ Sweets story begins in the mid-1800′s, at the Montoya family’s holiday party in the territory of New Mexico, replacing the German, Stahlbaum family. The heroine is Maria Montoya. Maria’s eccentric aunt, Drosselda arrives with magical gifts, instructions in swing dance, and time traveling powers–no scary Herr Drosselmeier. After Maria and her aunt sample the surprises in The Land of Swingin’ Sweets, they travel on to arrive in the 1940′s, where the same Land of Sweets is being invaded by gangster rats. Of course the aunt’s good magic powers help save the magical place. Oh, there is no prince. The conclusion brings Maria home, to continue swing dancing with the cast. No hint of a dark side here.

Uhlemann promises a new production next holiday season, with live music and theater, based on traditions that exist in Northern New Mexico, created when the toothaches abate and blood sugar levels equilibrate in January.

National Dance Institute’s Vladimir Stadnik, directs this year’s “Nutcracker,” a twenty minute portion NDI’s “Home for the Holidays” production. I interviewed Stadnik by phone from NDI-Albuquerque, and NDI-Santa Fe. He’s both Associate Artistic Director of NDI in Albuquerque and Coordinator of Ballet for Santa Fe NDI’s School for Performing Arts.

He described a cheery menu of “Nutcracker” excerpts, devoid of the wooden man-turned-prince that gave the ballet its name–no nutcracker, no mice and no fighting! Instead, Stadnik opts for snippets of the ballet’s themes that he has newly choreographed for NDI’s youngsters and teens. The Sugar Plum Fairies dance remains the only classical ballet from old Russian versions. The “Holidays” program also contains carols, tap dancing, and other entertainments.

Portions of “The Nutcracker” to be danced at NDI’s Dance Barn include a young Clara who, on Christmas, wakes up to see huge boxes, five feet tall, that contain the dancing presents. Stadnik says the only character presented as human is Clara. The “toys” that emerge from their wrappings include three Sugar Plum Fairies, three Russian Dancers, one Arabian harem dancer with three schleppers (the males who carry her around), two Chinese girls who struggle over a teacup, and a duet which contains a minuet and gavotte folded into a French masquerade theme.

Good magic also forms the core of Aspen Santa Fe Ballet’s (ASFB) classical ballet “Nutcracker,” as created by Jean-Philippe Malaty and Tom Mossbrucker, Executive Director and Artistic Director, respectively, of ASFB’s professional company. In a phone interview with Malaty, during a break from rehearsing Fayetteville, Arkansa’s local cast of children and the professional company for that city’s first ASFB “Nutcracker,” Malaty spoke of a circus theme, clowns, and a faster-than-the-usual “Nutcracker” pace attending their production, as well as an emphasis on cinematic style, where more than one scene is always on stage, layered to keep children’s attention.

An avuncular Drosselmeier accompanies Clara through the story, and engages her in the ETA Hoffman tale, in the form of a giant, onstage book. Instead of Clara going to the land of the Sweets, she goes to a fair and sits on a carousel while watching the entertainments. This is the land of healthy snacks, it seems, with not all the traditional sweets dances, but other entertaining dances added. At its conclusion, Clara closes the giant book. The taped music is the Tchaikovsky score with some cuts and some enhancements, like more cannons.

Gisela Genschow, Director of the local School of Aspen Santa Fe Ballet, prepares her students for the production. She elaborated the philosophy of ASFB, saying that there’s enough darkness in the world and that they don’t want to scare their audience, so their Drosselmeier is “a little in his own world and not too boisterous,” but leads the production. She explained that each city (Santa Fe, Aspen, Fayetteville) engages the children from its local dance school for the The Nutcracker’s” youngster’s roles, with different children cast for each performance, so that all students have a chance to perform. The ASFB’s professional company dances the adult roles, with a few dancers hired just for these performances–a traditional Chinese dancer to perform her ethnic ribbon dance, a Russian couple, a trapeze artist, and a Drosselmeier. But not a dark Drosselmeier.

Malaty stressed, “…no curses, no evil and good, just the dream of a little girl.” True, though, Clara seizes a sword, kills the Rat King, and looking quite distressed, is comforted by Drosselmeier. Still, he continued, “If there’s a message, it’s about harmony and diversity, a community unified through the common language of dance.”

E.T.A Hoffman and His Legacy

Though darkness is banished for a winter weekend of jolly entertainment, heavy hitters in the child development field urge parents to prepare their children to live meaningful lives and know that they can deal with the inevitable troubles that every human encounters in a lifetime.

E.T.A. Hoffman had not intended his work to be read to, or by children, when he wrote “The Nutcracker” in 19th century Germany, though the work is about children and magical happenings. He’s credited with initiating the genre of horror and fantasy fiction. Hoffman’s creative work influenced major explorers of humanity’s psychic interiors, Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung, as well as the writer and poet, Edgar Allan Poe. The ripple effect of Hoffman’s dark creativity hasn’t ceased.

Marie-Louise von Frantz, an early twentieth century disciple of Jung, became fascinated with fairytales as well. She writes that a fairytale hero cannot be compared to a human being, who might have doubts and a range of feelings and have a change of heart by the end of a mythic story. Instead, von Frantz describes a fairytale hero as representing what Jung named an archetype, an aspect of the self concerned with building character; we see the Nutcracker as an archetype that displays a pattern for the right kind of behavior. The Nutcracker in Hoffman’s tale, for instance, rescues Marie from the threats and attacks of the seven-headed son of the mouse queen, and Marie saves the Nutcracker’s life by pitching a fatal blow at the seven-headed son with her shoe, both youngsters showing traits of heroism. Where does redemption enter the picture?

In Hoffman’s “Nutcracker,” redemption is what happens when someone has been cursed or bewitched through certain happenings or events and is redeemed by the action of a hero who noodles about until finally discovering how to remove the curse. When Marie declares her commitment to the Nutcracker, saying that even though he’s a wooden man, she’ll love him forever, she redeems the toy. He transforms into a prince who takes her to a delicious place where they reign forever, where as Hoffman ends the tale, “…the most wonderful and beautiful things of every kind–are to be seen–by those who have eyes to see them.”

Santa Fe Jungian analyst, Jerome Bernstein, spoke by phone about the importance of redemption in relationships, in order to live lives of meaning: children can learn from adults they trust about compassion, empathy and commitment to struggle, if the relationship is one they value. Then, they can apply those skills to “… the (dark) world they live in. they know the dark side is there; they experience it in night terrors or in their imaginations. These stories prepare them psychically for what they’ll be facing in their adult lives.”

Child and adult therapist Susan Bernstein uses Jungian concepts to help her young clients unpack their emotions. By phone, Bernstein described how frightening information comes at children quickly, in fragmented largely visual and aural forms (newscasts, short internet videos, other children’s reports.) She stressed that children need help to form a coherent understanding of emotional life experiences of fear and danger, good and bad, tragedy, rescue, and recovery, as found in old written myths. Bernstein said that they need a complete narrative in many full stories, in many forms, as von Frantz suggests. Bernstein finds fairytales and storytelling can be updated for contemporary youngsters with the likes of the Star Wars saga, which moves through the full cycle of experience, like the original Nutcracker.

Moving People Dance Oct. 24, 2009 at Moving People Dance Performance Space

eignerdancereviews — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 21:10:43 +0000

by Janet Eigner

What a mother lode of gifted dancers have gathered at Moving People in the last decade. Now that the company has moved into its own school and performing space, now that it has weathered the transition from one charismatic artistic and executive director, Ronn Stewart, to the company’s other co-founder, Layla Amos, we can hope for Moving People’s continued development. With her comes the addition to MPD of master tap dancer, John Kloss, Ms. Amos’s husband.

The studio was crammed with enthusiastic audience on padded folding chairs, SRO, but lacking raked seating, sight lines are difficult. Hope for quick financial success or the donated skill of local carpenters to build bleachers soon.

This concert showed that these artists are clearly ready for more choreography that matches their level of competence. Four works showed the skill and excitement they can bring to their performances–Robert Moses’s 2005 “Drop Pillow”, danced by Curtis Uhlemann and Rebecca Goldstone, Mr. Kloss’s premiere tap solo, “Stepology”, created and performed by the artist, “Glances”, a duet choreographed and danced by Sean Dahlberg and Erica Gionfriddo, and the 2009 “Lorca’s Lulluby” (sic), choreographed and danced by Echo Gustafson.

Though Mr. Uhlemann has both acted as Executive Director of MPD until Ms. Amos arrived, and has created some stunning, well integrated and coherent dances in the past few years, those premiered on the 24th, and those previously performed that were shown again, were all of a choreographic piece–frenetic, thrusting, lashing and repetitious. Yet, these works were characterized by high energy and the dancers’ technical excellence from start to finish.

Still, Mr. Uhlemann’s choreography lacked nuance, and an overarching coherence, for this reviewer. Please, more variety and more design, more balletic vocabulary mixed in, and more breathing space in future work. May Ms. Amos, who has made dynamic and interesting dances, have the time to contribute her choreographic talent.

Ms. Goldstone and Mr. Uhlemann’s “Drop Pillow” with music by The Junkman, looked like a playful contest containing smooth, precise moves, several swift, athletic pas de deux, a bit like a post-modern swing dance. The couple pitted and pulled their weight against each other, taking non-contentious falls. Her fists clenched as he lifted her; she imprinted a ladder of palms up his torso, one above the other; she climbed his torso with her palms flat, all to the music of muted, percussive temple bells.

Mr. Kloss credited Mr. Uhlemann with building the impressive red oak tap platform on and around which he performed. Accompanied by live piano music, he charmed with a relaxed style, talking and tapping out subtle rhythms and super-speed vibrations, experimenting with the sounds his taps made on the wood, off the wood on the cushy dance floor, and past the dance mat to the cement underfloor.

Like a warm zephyr, the duet by Mr.Dahlberg and Ms. Gionfriddo created, to the guitar and saxophone of “Gold in The Air of Summer” by Kings of Convenience, a beach-like encounter that lulled with sensual, relaxed and swift spins, jumps and lifts.

Ms. Gustafson’s “Lorca’s Lulluby” to “‘Nana de Sevilla’ Este Galapguito” by Monteserrat Figueras, looked like a filigree of rounded movement. So graceful was she in quiet, nearly static, slow, continual motion, and in its spiral-like design, surely she’ll be nominated to the spider web hall of fame.

Posted in Dance Reviews

Origin, Heart Streaming, An evening of Music, with Zuleikha’s Dance, Rhythm, Story, Poetry & Humor

eignerdancereviews — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 01:41:39 +0000

Oct. 23, 2009, The Armory / Santa Fe Performing Arts
by Janet Eigner

The tasteful delicacy of performance artist, Zuleikha’s concert
created a mood of meditative harmony and whimsical humor, though the
questions asked through short poems–questions about why the earth is
unraveling– were profound , so were the answers offered by Zuleikha’s
mythic storytelling. Her sumptuous Eastern costumes, sparkling
fabrics and bold colors matched the warmth of the archetypal stories
she presented. This was a concert for children of all ages.

Long-time local dancer-storyteller Zuleikha melded Eastern and
modern movement, in the performance at the Armory on October 23rd.
She also wove in Rahim Alhaj’s introspective oud, Issa Malluf’s
spring-clear middle eastern percussion, with a sprinkling of
spot-on-poetry from Hafiz, Rilke and Naomi Shihab Nye, convincingly
read by actor, Nicholas Ballas.

While the audience filed in, a pastel slide show clicked across the
Performing Arts stage’s back scrim, images that highlighted
recipients of The Storydancer Project. (TSP), the local artist’s
local and international artistic health resource, aims at
esteem-building through body-work and storytelling. Zuleikha teaches
expansive and modest movement with underserved groups in three Asian
countries and nine locations, and over 800 students in Santa Fe’s
public elementary schools.

The Asian faces in the slides–women and children in hospitals and
orphanages, raising their arms and hands to stretch, floating their
arms, like wings–reflected back the same joyful, lighthearted mood as
the concert delivered.
Many in the audience wore name tags identifying them as TSP
facilitators in the creativity, literacy wellness programs. The
program notes, “TSP facilitators read intercultural teaching stories,
interspersed with entertaining TSP Core Wellness Exercises…What
happens is alive learning.”

Much like the flamenco concert tradition that developed from East
Indian dance influences, the concert itself reflected the
interdependence of the musicians with Zuleikha’s complex Indian Kathak
rhythmic movement, their eyes fixed on her bare feet, her heels
drumming the stage, many rows of ankle bells like a little flock of
chirping birds that echoed the oud’s repetitive, hypnotic melody and
the frame drums’s crystalline emphasis. And like flamenco concerts,
dancing took its place alongside Alhaj’s rippling oud solos and
Malluf’s exciting and delicate percussive work on the long ceramic
drum glazed with a transparent skin, his fingers flying into varied
rhythmic patterns.

Zuleikha narrated universal stories while in motion, animating the
threads of drama underscored with exaggerated expressions on her
delightfully plastic face–huge eyes, a capacity to really drop her
jaw, showing a droll or highly amused or “can you believe it!” mood.
In fact, her mime’s sensibility, and angular movements often reminded
of Persian miniature scenes.

Even her images appeared multicultural: the artist’s graceful hands
and arms, her modified prances, her exaggerated side glances that had
her bent-kneed body posed in one direction while her spine curved
backwards and head rubber-necked in the opposite direction, had the
two-dimensional sense of hieroglyphics or figures ringing Greek vases.
She could also run and sprint at length without panting through part
of one story that emphasized dancing one’s way back to life. Even
with fast moves, her arms rose and settled slowly, as though rounding
out and bringing to conclusion a story’s moving thought. Both spare
movement and language vocabularies were honed to fully illuminate the
stories’ gentle prodding to live fully and with optimism, from the
heart, with generosity, spirit and kind humor.

The program included an amusing tour de force exploration on an
office chair of how varying people look and move while they are kept
waiting: she wove in the content by explaining that she’s watched
people world-wide, waiting.

Concluding the program, Zuleikha, robed in
dervish-designed gown, offered up a classic whirling ritual. Though
the audience had chuckled its way through the engrossing concert, the
whirling left them in a tranquilly blissful mood.

Posted in Dance Reviews

Eigner Dances with Words

Make Your 2011 Summer Movement Monastery Plans Now!

Robert Mirabal and Dancing Earth to Perform at Macey Center, Socorro NM

Two Women Dancing at the Santa Fe Playhouse, March 6, 2010

Rulan Tangen’s Dancing Earth in “Of Bodies, Of Elements” World Preview, Sunday, January 31, 2010 at National Dance Institute (NDI-NM) Dance Barns

Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo at the Lensic Theater, Feb. 9, 2010

Preview, Rulan Tangen and Dancing Earth

Moving People Dance Opportunities

Preview for Santa Fe Nutcracker Performances, expanded from the preview published in SF New Mexican’s Pasatiempo, 12/11/09

﻿Moving People Dance Oct. 24, 2009 at Moving People Dance Performance Space

Origin, Heart Streaming, An evening of Music, with Zuleikha’s Dance, Rhythm, Story, Poetry & Humor

Moving People Dance Oct. 24, 2009 at Moving People Dance Performance Space