C. WHITNEY-WARD PHOTOGRAPHY
RULAN TANGEN is the brilliant Founding Director and Choreographer of DANCING EARTH, a Santa Fe indigenous contemporary dance ensemble that has brought vibrant cultural arts performances to 18 states and 8 countries and will perform this Friday evening at the Kennedy Center.
Rulan will be honored with the CITIZEN ARTIST AWARD for her work's embodiment of: Service, Freedom, Courage, and Gratitude. She has been instrumental in the lives of a generation of emerging indigenous performing artists, providing a creative and cultural environment that fosters personal growth and superior development of craft in movement arts.
This past weekend, DANCING EARTH performed at WISE FOOL - SEEDS RE-GENERATION - to celebrate the Kennedy Center honor and I tried to capture the vibrancy of the performance...
DANCING EARTH
APRIL 26, 2019 AT THE KENNEDY CENTER
SEEDS: RE-GENERATION
Photo courtesy of Rulan Tangen
"A purposeful performance that Indigen-izes space as vital transformative
gathering ground. Centered in Indigenous ecological knowledge, residencies culminate
in an immersive, interdisciplinary,
and participatory contemporary dance ritual. ...SEEDS : RE GENERATION… evolves from
Dancing Earth’s inter-tribal artists in exchanges with Native elders, farmers, foragers,
seed savers, and food and water justice groups, in visioning sessions and movement
workshops that root our restoring/restory-ing of land and people. With the core theme
of resilient adaptability, this work can be hosted by indoor or outdoor sites with
opening dance designed to adapt to people and place."
