The Animist + river, river, river
On this night of Dance Innovators, Shannon Stewart will perform her 30 minute work entitled river, river, river and Haruko Crow Nishimura will perform a new 30 minute work entitled “The Animist”
I. The Animist (work under development)
Tonight’s structured improvisation is part of the development of Degenerate Art Ensemble’s newest work Anima Mundi, an exploration of our connection to the rest of the natural world and to each other, and challenges our human centric perceptions. The work is being devised through listening to our deep sensorial skin in order to change the way we care for the world around us. It works with the internal battles of our perceptions that obscure the actions needed to connect and heal. At the same time it is inspired by the ways that human beings have been able to cultivate interconnectedness with each other and to nature through ceremony, ritual and finding connection to our animal senses. This ongoing work channels these connective
Danced and directed by Haruko Crow Nishimura.
Video created by Haruko Crow Nishimura with Joshua Kohl and Leo Mayberry.
Sound score by Joshua Kohl and Haruko Crow Nishimura.
Set construction by Jason Williams
Special thanks for costume help to Frances Nayrolles
Poetry/Lyrics by Shin Yu Pai
II. river, river, river
river, river, river | A very hard conversation takes place between family members at a Panera Bread and it turns into a dance that turns into an experimental memoir and back into a dance using the structure of Trisha Brown’s Set And Reset—or what’s been gleaned about the dance’s structure fromYouTube, company members, and rumors.
Writer/Performer: Shannon Stewart
Dramaturgs: Iris McCloughan & Jody Kuehner
Co-director for full length version – Jody Kuehner
Text editors: Amy Lawless & Iris McCloughan
Sound & video editing support – Adam Sekuler
Design director – xotchil musser
Photo archive – Dot and Bob Stewart
river, river, river is a body of work that encapsulates a print publication, multiple installations and a series of performances. Shannon grew up in what is referred to as Richland, Washington and graduated from Richland High School, home of the “Bombers.” Both of her parents worked at Hanford as part of the massive effort to clean up the radioactive Superfund site.
Funding Credits
river, river, river was created within the container of re:FRAME, a collective of five choreographers who were based in the south working together to support artistic practice and disrupt US funding structures. re:FRAME has received support through the Contemporary Arts Center 2020-22 Commissioning Initiative with a grant from South Arts In partnership with the National Endowment for the Arts and the Louisiana Division of the Arts. re:FRAME was a 2022 finalist for the National Dance Project and received a National Performance Network Creation Fund grant and 2024 Storytelling Grant, as well as support from the Platforms Fund, a collaborative effort of Antenna, Ashé Cultural Art Center, Junebug Productions, The Black School and the Andy Warhol Foundation. The development of river, river, river was supported through residencies at UCROSS, Art Omi, and Maggie Allesee National Center for Choreography.
A portion of artist fees and donations are shared with Columbia Riverkeeper to support the effort to clean up Hanford. www.columbiariverkeeper.org. Visit the Hanford Challenge for more important information about Hanford whistleblowers.
BIOS
Haruko Crow Nishimura | Haruko Crow Nishimura is a dancer, vocalist and artistic director of Degenerate Art Ensemble (DAE). Her unique style of movement is informed by her somatic practices of embodiment and imagery rooted in physical theater and Butoh dance. In her work, she combines projected imagery with movement and live sound to create new mythologies, revealing other dimensions, challenging reality in a multi-dimensional storytelling experience. Highlights of her work include a residency at the Baryshnikov Arts Center, a commission from director Robert Wilson, a solo dance with Kronos Quartet and a performance for choreographer Anna Halprin’s 95th birthday celebration. Her recent work Skeleton Flower was shown at the International Festival of Contemporary Dance in Mexico City, the Hans Christian Andersen Festival in Denmark and premiered in San Francisco at ODC Theater 2024. Her collaboration with sculptor Senga Nengudi and musician Yuniya Kwon and DAE had its premier at NY Live Arts in November of 2023 and will be presented in Seattle at On the Boards, and
her newest work Anima Mundi will be shown in-part at the Seattle Symphony’s space Octave 9. She is a Guggenheim Fellow, a recipient of Dale Chihully / Artist Trust Innovators Award and is a Creative Capital Awardee.
Shannon Stewart | Born in the South and raised in the mountains and DIY music scenes of the Pacific Northwest, shannon stewart | screaming traps explores the intersection of dance with embodied identities and social choreographies. Shannon’s choreographic research approaches the creative process as a way to understand what is constructed, erased, and reconstituted–revealing subtext, embodied archives, and working for a more active engagement with systemic exclusionary choreographies that exist inside and beyond the studio. This influences the form and feeling of her/their work as it often takes place in unconventional settings, brings dance into conversation with other issues and modalities, and uses choreographic thinking to imagine new possibilities of meaning making.
