Skin(s)

Skin(s)

Performance Directed and Choreographed by Rosy Simas

Exhibition Curated by Heid E. Erdrich

Presented by Intermedia Arts as part of The Catalyst Series

Minneapolis, MN – A new work by Director/Choreographer  Rosy Simas, Skin(s) shares the

beauty and diversity of how urban Native people identify, examining the contradictions, pride, joy,

pain, and sorrow that arise out of our multi-dimensional identities. The dance explores physicality

at its most basic human level: Who are we individually and in community, historically and in the

moment, physically and spiritually – because of our skin?

Skin(s) is sensuous, meditative, and emotional. It unpacks personal and community experiences

through a somatic methodology.

Skin(s) takes place among sewn paper sculptures imitating skin and landscape. Projected onto

these sculptures is film footage of people, skin, objects, and land. Composer  Francois

Richomme combines recordings of community interviews, environmental sounds, language, and

overtones to create a striking quadrophonic score that resonates deep within the body. A film

conceptualized and created by  Elizabeth Day, Heid E. Erdrich, and  Rosy Simas bridges the

dance with abstract and poignant images of the community, bringing the community directly into

the dance production. On stage, Simas performs alongside  Lela Pierce, Holo Lue Choy, and

other guest performers.

Skin(s) challenges the conventions of contemporary performance by redefining what creating

dance is. With Skin(s) Simas is employing a Native circular model of creation: birth-life-deathbirth.

By eliminating the concept of a premiere and, in cyclical fashion, creating (researchrehearsal-

discussion-performance-research) during the residencies, Simas is creating a

continually evolving work in which community and audience inform and observe the process as it

evolves.

Skin(s)  Rosy Simas (director/choreographer) is joined by  Heid E. Erdrich (poet),  Elizabeth

Day (filmmaker), François Richomme (composer),  Lela Pierce(performer),  Holo Lue

Choy (performer) and other guest performers. Skin(s) is being developed in three regions -- the

Twin Cities, the San Francisco Bay Area, and Chicago metropolitan area. The work is

commissioned by EastSide Arts in Oakland, LaPeña in Berkeley, and Intermedia Arts in

Minneapolis.

Accompanying the performance is an exhibition of artworks by Minnesotans who express multidimensional

identities from Dakota, Ojibwe, Ponca, Lakota, Navajo, and other indigenous nations.

TheSkin(s) exhibition features the work of  Hilary Abe, Carolyn Lee Anderson, James Autio,

Julie Buffalohead, Andrea Carlson, Aza Erdrich, Marlena Myles, Jonathan Thunder, Maggie

Thompson, Rory Wakemup, Dyani White Hawk, and  Marne Zafar. Curated by Heid E. Erdrich,

these paintings, prints, sculptures, and film s suggest answers to the question “Where are you

from?

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ADMISSION

$15 Advance, Student, Senior

$18 at the Door

 WHEN/WHERE

DATE:

October 21-23, 2016

TIME:

October 21-23 at 7:30PM

October 23 at 2PM

LOCATION

Intermedia Arts, 2822 Lyndale Ave South, Minneapolis, MN 55408

 ABOUT THE ARTISTS

Rosy Simas is an enrolled Seneca from the Heron clan. She is a Minneapolis based

choreographer, engaged in the dance field as a performer, teacher, curator, advocate and mentor

to other Native artists and artists of color. For more than 20 years she has created work dealing

with a wide range of political, social and cultural subject matter from a Native feminist

perspective.

Simas is 2016 McKnight Choreography fellow, 2016 First Peoples Fund Artist in Business

Leadership fellow, a 2015 Guggenheim fellow, and a 2013 Native Arts and Cultures Foundation

fellow. Her work is supported nationally by NEFA National Dance Project (2014, 2016), National

Presenters Network (2015), and regionally by the Minnesota State Arts Board (2014, 2016) and

the Metropolitan Regional Arts Council (2014).

Her most recent work, We Wait In The Darkness, has toured to 14 cities and won a 2014 Sage

Award and a 2014 City Pages Artist of the Year citation.

 Heid E. Erdrich is the author of seven books. She is also an independent curator and an

interdisciplinary artist who often collaborates on short films. Heid teaches in the Low-residency

MFA program at Augsburg College. Her next book, Curator of Ephemera at the New Museum for

Archaic Research, is due out in early 2017. She is Ojibwe, enrolled at Turtle Mountain.

 François Richomme is a musician, sound engineer and sound designer trained in contemporary

dance. He creates the scores of numerous world-class choreographic productions. His work

investigates mainly the question of sound considered as a space, movements of sounds using

multiple speakers installations and explores how the body, dance and choreography can become

a source language defining musical structure in composition. Some of the choreographers

Richomme has collaborated with include: Ann Lheureux, Fadhel Jaïbi, Christian Zagaria & Khalid

Benghrib, Marc Vincent, Emmanuel Grivet, and Atamira Dance Company. Richomme has also

danced with Mathilde Monnier (Sursaut) and Anna Halprin (Spirit of Place).

 ABOUT INTERMEDIA ARTS | IntermediaArts.org

As Minnesota's premier multidisciplinary, multicultural arts organization, Intermedia Arts builds

understanding among people by catalyzing and inspiring artists to make changes in their lives

and communities. We provide creative people of all ages with the opportunities, tools, and

support to come together across disciplines, sectors, and boundaries to connect, create, share,

collaborate, innovate, think big, and act as catalysts for positive community-driven and

community-defined change.  We are a nationally recognized leader in empowering artists and

community leaders to used arts-based approaches to solve community issues. By

stimulating deeper community engagement and providing a platform for the stories and

experiences of underrepresented communities locally, nationally, and internationally, we

contribute to a stronger, healthier society.

The presentation of Skin(s) was made possible by the New England Foundation for the Arts’ National Dance

Project, with lead funding from the Doris Duke Charitable Fundation and The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation,

with additional support from the National Endowment for the Arts.

Skin(s) is a National Performance Network (NPN) Creation Fund Project co-commissioned by Intermedia

Arts in partnership with La Peña Cultural Center, Eastside Arts Alliance, Rosy Simas Danse, and NPN. The

Creation Fund is supported by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, Ford Foundation, and the National

Endowment for the Arts (a federal agency). For more information: www.npnweb.org.

Rosy Simas is a 2015 Guggenheim Creative Arts Fellowship. Simas is also a fiscal year 2016

recipient of an Artist Initiative grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board. Skin(s) is made possible

by the voters of Minnesota through a grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board, thanks to a

Minnesota State legislature; and by a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts.

François Richomme appears via a partnership with Association Artifact, Montpellier, France.

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