Thank you to Body and Soul's guest speakers!

Eva Yaa Asantewaa (photo: selfie)

A smiling Black woman wearing headphones and a turtleneck sweater sits in front of a bookcase (partial view). Her chin rests on her left hand.

I'm taking a moment to express my deep gratitude to the many respected artists and educators who have contributed to BODY AND SOUL podcast since its revival in December 2022, sharing experience, knowledge, insights, passions, and what keeps them awake at night. These guest speakers have included:

Ziiomi Law
Lisa La Touche
María de los Ángeles Rodríguez Jiménez
devynn emory
Maxine Montilus
Kayhan Irani
Brinda Guha
Travis Knights
Judith Sánchez Ruíz
Daphne Lee
Stephanie Skura
George Emilio Sanchez
Cory Nakasue
Elena Demanyenko
Megan Curet
Samar Haddad King
Ricarrdo Valentine
Iquail Shaheed
Tamisha A. Guy
Catherine Kirk
Italy Bianca
Kate Mattingly
Thomas Ford
Stephan Koplowitz
Heather Robles
Vicky Shick
Rebecca Fitton
Dr. Nina Angela Mercer
Olaiya Olayemi
Bhumi B Patel
Melanie George
Valencia James
Alexandra Beller
Daniel Phoenix Singh
Petra Kuppers
Katrina Reid

If you haven't listened yet, dip into this treasure trove now!

LISTEN HERE:
https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/eva-yaa-asantewaa

or here:
https://open.spotify.com/show/6rwqny2GMb43jImKhCj1sh

Body and Soul: Rebecca Fitton: Rethinking fiscal sponsorship and equity

Rebecca Fitton (photo: Sarah Annie Navarette)

 

Rebecca, a mixed-race Asian American person with messy short brown hair smiles. Their hands are in the pockets of a short-sleeve, navy corduroy jumpsuit.

In this episode of Body and Soul podcast, dance artist and administrator Rebecca Fitton (she/they) presents insights from her research into the ways current systems of fiscal sponsorship maintain the status quo of power and fail artists.

Listen to her Body and Soul episode via Spotify, and watch her film, Best Practices (2022).

Transcript of this episode

Rebecca Fitton is from many places and peoples. She nurtures community through movement, conversation, and food, strives to equally prioritize her multifaceted roles as an artist, administrator, and advocate.  Fitton works as Co-Director/Director of Operations and Development for Bridge Live Arts and as the Director of Studio Rawls for artist Will Rawls. She has previously produced multi-disciplinary works for J. Bouey, zavé martohardjono, and FAILSPACE. From 2017-2021, she worked with DELIRIOUS Dances/Edisa Weeks to coordinate community gatherings focused on abolition movements. She was a Dance/NYC’s Junior Committee member from 2018-2020 and participated in Dance/USA’s Institute for Leadership Training in 2021. Their writing has been published by Triskelion Arts, Emergency Index, In Dance, The Dancer-Citizen, Etudes, Critical Correspondence, and Dance Research Journal. They hold a BFA in Dance from Florida State University and an MA in Performance as Public Practice from the University of Texas at Austin. rebeccafittonprojects.com

Body and Soul: Vicky Shick: The refuge we take in trust

Vicky Shick (photo: Alan Mandell)

 

Describing this photo, Vicky Shick writes:

I am sitting on a gray bench with a bunch of green leaves behind me. My hair is loosely piled.on top of my head. I am wearing a dark gray sweater - a light green collar is sticking out and around my neck is a colorful gray, red and pink scarf.

In this episode of Body and Soul podcast, the respected, award-winning artist and educator Vicky Shick discusses the challenge and "universal necessity" of trust in a time of widespread distrust and anxiety. As an artist, she sources trust in "the innate intelligence in our bodies" and "in the vulnerable practice of creation."

Listen to Vicky's episode here. And scroll down to learn more about her work!

Vicky Shick has been involved in the New York dance community for four decades--teaching, performing, and making pieces. She feels grateful to all the incredible people with whom she has worked. She was a member of the Trisha Brown Dance Company and staged several of Brown’s dances, including in her hometown, Budapest. Previously, she was a member of the Sara Rudner Performance Ensemble. Vicky has developed student pieces at Barnard, The New School and Yale, among other institutions. Her last two works were at Arts on Site, and a collaborative performance at Roulette with choreographer/artist Jon Kinzel. In New York City, she teaches at Movement Research, for the Trisha Brown Dance Company and has taught for 15 years at Hunter College. She was a Movement Research Artist-in-Residence (twice), a Bessie recipient (twice), a grant recipient from the Foundation for Contemporary Arts, a Gibney DiP grantee, and a Guggenheim Fellow.

BODY AND SOUL: Heather Robles: Reclaiming aliveness

Heather Robles (photo: AK47 Division)

In this headshot of Heather, she smiles while facing the camera, her brown hair pulled back in a bun, while wearing red lipstick, red dangly earrings, and a black suit jacket with white shirt underneath.

Heather Robles gently beckons us out of the numbness we might have slipped into as the world feels so hard right now. What do we desire and how can desire and curiosity awaken and guide us forward towards joy?

You'll notice this episode has no background music. I didn't need or want that sound to cover Frijolito's snoring!

CLICK HERE TO LISTEN!

Heather Robles (photo: by Keith A Manning)

Black and white photo shows Heather in a full body position back arched up, arms above head and hands furled like a plant about to unfold, her legs standing with one knee bent and foot forced arch. She is in front of a window with city lights showing through, the floor wooden. She is wearing a long asymmetrical sleeveless top and black leggings while barefoot.

Heather Robles is a nondisabled queer Latinx cis woman of Indigenous Mexican descent who lives on the stolen land of the Lenape and Canarsie peoples in what is colonially called Brooklyn. She is Founder and Artistic Executive Director of Alma Dance Company. As a choreographer and performer, she has worked with many artists including Yvonne Rainer, Sidra Bell, Pavel Zuštiak, Nathan Trice, DANCENOISE, André M. Zachery, Buglisi Dance Theater, Fredrick Earl Mosley, Suzzanne Ponomarenko Dance, The Equus Projects. She is also the Executive Director of the New York Dance and Performance Awards, The Bessies, and a certified birth doula at Our Birth Doula. Heather is also a dance educator, teaching artist, producer, and advocate for mental health in the dance field. https://www.almadanceco.com

BODY AND SOUL: Stephan Koplowitz: History in place

Stephan Koplowitz (photo: Lynn Lane)

 

Award-winning choreographer and writer Stephan Koplowitz discusses the importance of thorough research into the history of a place--and knowledge of one's own relationship to history--in the making of site-specific performance. He describes site work as disruptive and all performance as political.

Listen to Stephan's episode of Body and Soul podcast here. And scroll down to learn more about his own history and work! 

 

Occupy by Stephan Koplowitz (photo: George Simian)

Mill Town by Stephan Koplowitz (photo: Jonathan Hsu)

 

Stephan Koplowitz is an award-winning artist/educator who creates site-specific and staged
dance performances, interactive media installations, and short films. His site performances aim
to alter people’s perspectives of place, site, and scale, infused with a sense of the human
condition, and concerned with the intersection of natural, social, and cultural ecologies within
urban and natural environments. His productions have been produced by performing arts
venues domestically and abroad having created 93 works (66 commissions) in the US, Europe,
and Asia. He received a 2017 Rockefeller Bellagio Fellowship, a 2004 Alpert Award, a 2003
Guggenheim Fellowship, 2000 “Bessie,” and 6 NEA Choreography Fellowships (1988-97). He
was named a Distinguished Alumni by Wesleyan University (BA in Music Composition) and the
University of Utah (MFA, Choreography). In April 2022, Oxford University Press published his
critically praised book On Site: Methods for Creating Site-Specific Performance. Koplowitz lives
in New York City. https://www.stephankoplowitz.com

BODY AND SOUL: Thomas Ford: For love of Black queer identity

Thomas Ford (photo: Angelo Soriano)

A person with brown skin wears a gray cap and a gray sleeveless shirt tucked into black athletic pants. His torso bends to the side, and ears hang over his shoulder in the same direction. The fingers of his right hand gently reach to the camera, while his knees bend and legs spread in a wide position.

In today's episode of Body and Soul podcast, dance artist and writer Thomas Ford reflects on his research into the violent colonial history at the root of homophobia in Black families and community.

Listen to Ford's talk here.

Thomas Ford is a dance artist, writer and scholar whose research examines the mechanisms of identity and culture through an exploration of embodiment, choreography, and Black, queer, critical and performance studies. https://www.thomasfordnyc.com/

BODY AND SOUL: Kate Mattingly: Troubling the silence

 

 

Kate Mattingly

Above: a white woman's face with curly, honey-colored hair, smiling and tilting her head slightly left. No photographer credit. Courtesy of Kate Mattingly.

This Spring, author Kate Mattingly published Shaping Dance Canons: Criticism, Aesthetics, Equity, an analysis of many decades of dance criticism in the US (University of Florida Press). As a white woman, she accepts responsibility to speak out about white supremacy. In her talk today, she shares thoughts on how white supremacy has historically defined and dominated dance criticism and continues to silence women in academia.

Dr. Mattingly has written for The New York Times, The Village Voice, Dance Magazine, and Pointe Magazine and is associate editor of Dance Chronicle. She is assistant professor of dance at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia.

Listen to Dr. Mattingly's talk on Body and Soul podcast here.

Below: two dancers, a Black man and white woman, seen in profile, with his right hand holding her right hand as she leans away from his body. He stands firmly in a deep lunge while she leans into her left hip. Image of Troy Blackwell and Kate Mattingly from a workshop staging of William Forsythe's Steptext at New York University. (Photo: Peter A. Smith)

Kate Mattingly (she/her) focuses on fostering equity in dance education. As an assistant professor at Old Dominion University, she teaches ballet, dance histories, teaching principles, dance studies, and graduate research methods. Her book, Shaping Dance Canons, interrogates how critics have foreclosed opportunities for certain artists and dance forms while generating validity for others, thereby contributing to a racialized dance canon. Her writing has been published in The New York Times, The Village Voice, Dance and Pointe magazines, The Washington Post, and academic journals. She has a forthcoming anthology, called Antiracism in Ballet Teaching, that will be published by Routledge. Kate’s undergraduate degree in Architecture is from Princeton University, her MFA degree in Dance is from NYU, and her doctoral degree in Performance Studies with a Designated Emphasis in New Media is from University of California, Berkeley.

Shaping Dance Canons: Criticism, Aesthetics, Equity (University of Florida Press, 2023)
Dance Chronicle, Executive Editor
Special Issue: "Interrogating Histories and Historicizing Dance Studies"

BODY AND SOUL: Italy Bianca: Pleasure Within

Italy Bianca (photo: Ashanti Hinton)

A brown-skinned woman with locs wearing a black,orange, and green halter top on the left side of the frame. Behind, a white background.

Photo: Aesam Sharafaldin

A brown-skinned woman with locs down to her waist and wearing a silver long necklace with two silver bracelets. Eyes closed and right arm on top of the left. Behind, a black background.

 

"My life is a dance," says dancer-healer-teacher Italy Bianca, "How am I going to stage it, each and every day?" Body and soul are connected, she knows from personal experience of trauma, healing, and creativity. In this talk to inspire other artists, teachers, caregivers, and anyone, Italy invokes what she has learned through modalities such as massage, acupuncture, herbalism, spiritual practice, and the use of sensory deprivation tanks.

Listen to her episode of Body and Soul podcast here!

Photo: Ernesto Mancebo

A brown-skinned woman with locs in a black dress leaning against a black cloth. The body is leaning towards the right with legs in a squat-like position. Arms are reaching out to the left side.

Italy Bianca is a sacred multimedia artist and herbalist who seeks to serve and enlighten the collective. From South Carolina and based in Brooklyn, NY, Italy believes that dancing leads to the transformation and healing of our personal and collective traumas; and aspires to offer the gift of transformational healing through community art. Her work focuses on creating work that portrays the rawest layers of human experience in collaboration with other local dancers and musicians. She has collaborated with various NYC dancers and companies such as Aeternus Dance Company, Asha Dance Company, Fiyah Dancehall Theatre, Sydnie L. Mosley Dances, and Marguerite Hemmings. In 2017, Italy was nominated for a Bessie Award in the Outstanding Performer c, and Chategory and appeared in Crystal Water's I am House video in 2018. Italy received a B.A. in Dance Education, Performance and choreography from Coker University and trained at the Joffrey Ballet School in their Jazz and Contemporary Dance program. https://www.italybianca.com/

BODY AND SOUL: Catherine Kirk: an artist of many measures

Catherine Kirk (photo: Carrie Schneider)

A brown-skin Black woman, facing her right looking out straight ahead. She has a shaved head and is in front of a Black backdrop.

At left, Catherine Kirk; at right, Tamisha A. Guy in the duet MotorRover (photo: Whitney Browne)

from MotorRover, a new work by Kyle Abraham in collaboration with A.I.M, here showing two Black female dancers. The dancer on the left has a shaved head and is standing upright with her hand on her chest looking to her right, wearing olive colored pants and top. The dancer on the right wears dark gray, descends to the ground with her right hand outstretched, and looks down to her right.

Like her bestie Tamisha Guy, who spoke in our previous episode, Dallas native Catherine Kirk is a ten-year veteran of A.I.M by Kyle Abraham and a thrilling performer. Kirk describes herself as "an artist of many measures," one fascinated by stories and questions of "why humans are the way we are."

Listen to Catherine Kirk's episode on Body and Soul podcast here.

Catherine Kirk in If We Were A Love Song (photo: Christopher Duggan)

A Black woman wearing a dark gray dress. Body facing left with her arm reaching on a downward diagonal and her leg outstretched.

Catherine Kirk (she/her) was born on the unceded land of the Kiickaapoi and Wichita peoples, now called Dallas, Texas. She began formally studying dance at Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts before graduating from New York University, Tisch School of Dance. A multi-hyphenate, Catherine is also a dance maker, marketing strategist, arts administrator, dance educator, and yoga teacher. Kirk has completed seasonal programs with San Francisco Conservatory of Dance, Movement Invention Project, and Springboard Danse Montreal, where she performed work by Fernando Melo, Ohad Naharin, and Sharon Eyal. Upon graduating, Catherine apprenticed for Sidra Bell Dance NY before collaborating and performing with Danakah Dance, UNA Productions, Burr Johnson, Jasmine Hearn, and Helen Simoneau Danse. She is thrilled to be working as A.I.M’s Marketing Associate and performing with the company. Catherine joined A.I.M by Kyle Abraham in 2013.

For more information on A.I.M by Kyle Abraham, click here.

BODY AND SOUL: Tamisha A. Guy: Bring it back home

Tamisha A. Guy (photo: Carrie Schneider)

A brown-skin Black woman looks over her left shoulder and directly at the camera. Her hair is out in an afro style, she has a soft gaze, half smile, and sits in front of a black backdrop.

Tamisha A. Guy in Bebe Miller's Rain (photo: Christopher Duggan)

A Black woman wearing a bright red dress and tights, facing left in a bow with her arms outstretched as they flick one leg into the air aiming to connect both knees.

Caribbean-born dancer Tamisha A. Guy celebrates her tenth year with A.I.M by Kyle Abraham--the New York-based, award-winning troupe which recently completed a triumphant spring season at The Joyce Theater. Acknowledging a time of deep contemplation and yearning for home, Guy speaks of her own fervent aim--to perform live for her family and community in Trinidad.

Listen to Tamisha A. Guy on Body and Soul podcast here.

At left, Catherine Kirk; at right, Tamisha A. Guy in the duet MotorRover (photo: Whitney Browne)

from MotorRover, a new work by Kyle Abraham in collaboration with A.I.M, here showing two Black female dancers. The dancer on the left has a shaved head and is standing upright with her hand on her chest looking to her right, wearing olive colored pants and top. The dancer on the right wears dark gray, descends to the ground with her right hand outstretched, and looks down to her right.

Tamisha A. Guy (she/her), a native of Trinidad and Tobago, began her formal dance training at Ballet Tech, under the direction of Eliot Feld. Later she attended Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School and SUNY Purchase College as a double major in dance and arts management. She has completed summer programs with Complexions Contemporary Ballet and Springboard Danse Montreal and has performed works by William Forsythe, Pam Tanowitz, and Mark Morris. In 2013, Guy graduated with honors from SUNY Purchase College and joined the Martha Graham Dance Company shortly after. In 2016, Guy was selected as one of Dance Magazine's Top 25 to Watch and she also received the 2016 Princess Grace Award. In 2017, she was named one of the Best Dancers of the Year by Dance Europe. In 2021, she was awarded the 2022 Vilcek Prize for Creative Promise in Dance which recognizes foreign-born scientists and artists in the United States. Tamisha joined A.I.M by Kyle Abraham in 2014.

For more information on A.I.M by Kyle Abraham, click here.

BODY AND SOUL: Dr. Iquail Shaheed: Blackness. Social justice. Joy.

Dr. Iquail Shaheed

 

(photos: Andrew Fassbender of Rachel Neville Studios, courtesy DANCE IQUAIL!)

 

My guest, Dr. Iquail Shaheed, Artistic Director of Philadelphia-based DANCE IQUAIL!, sits in to talk about his desire to reflect the "three pillars of creating a new world" and how working with incarcerated populations has led to his new work, Public Enemy.

Listen to Dr. Shaheed's remarks on Body and Soul podcast here.

BIO: Dr. Iquail Shaheed is a Philadelphia-based artist, activist, and the executive artistic director of DANCE IQUAIL! through which he creates new works and programs that centers on Blackness, Justice, and Joy.

Dr. Shaheed has worked with internationally acclaimed companies such as Philadanco, Compagnie Thor (Brussels), Sean Curran Company, Ronald K Brown/Evidence, and the Fred Benjamin Dance Company.

As an educator, Iquail preserves the Horton Technique by serving on faculty at The Ailey School, and NAISDA Dance College in Australia.

He received a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in ballet performance from the University of the Arts, and a Master of Fine Arts degree in Choreography from Purchase College. Dr. Shaheed is also the first Black Male to earn a Doctor of Philosophy degree in Dance from Texas Woman’s University.

http://www.danceiquail.org/

BODY AND SOUL: Ricarrdo Valentine: Rest for freedom

Ricarrdo Valentine (photo: Orlando Zane Hunter Jr)

A Black man wearing a salmon-colored sweater is looking directly into the camera, wearing a gold ring on the left and a silver and blue ring on the right with a multicolored Kufi hat.

During the pandemic, dance artist and photographer Ricarrdo Valentine continued to work towards a graduate degree in Dance, keenly aware of academia's toll on body, mind, and spirit. Influenced by healing philosophies, such as the famed Nap Ministry of Tricia Hersey, Valentine shares what he has learned about self-compassion and rest, critical tools of liberation from capitalism and grind culture.

To listen to today's Body and Soul podcast with Ricarrdo Valentine, click here!

Bio: Ricarrdo Valentine is a second-generation Black, Jamaican American/estadounidense, Same-gender-loving photographer and dancer who finds value in collaboration, individuality, and intimacy. I move and take photos from intuition. Ricarrdo’s photographic work has been exhibited at Universidad Autónoma de San Luis Potosí, Centro Universitario de las Artes (MX). He has presented his choreography at Bates Dance Festival, Brooklyn Museum, El Museo del Barrio, LaGuardia Community College, and more. Ricarrdo continues to collaborate and work with Christal Brown/INspirit, Edisa Weeks/Delirious Dance, Paloma McGregor, Dante Brown/Warehouse Dance, Malcolm Low/Formal Structure, Jill Sigman/Thinkdance, Sage Ni'Ja Whitson-Adebanjo/NWA project, Andre Zachary/RPG, Emily Berry/B3W, and Barak ade Soliel. Ricarrdo is also the co-founder of Brother(hood) Dance!, a Brooklyn-based dance collective and a 2020 Bessie Award honoree for Afro/Solo/Man.  He is working on an ethno-visual project, Where My People At?, as a 2020-2021 NorthStar Art Incubator Fellow in addition to pursuing an MFA in Dance integrating agriculture and technology at The Ohio State University.  To view Ricarrdo's images, you can visit www.ricarrdovalentine.com. Also visit www.bhooddance.com.

BODY AND SOUL: Samar Haddad King: on time

Samar Haddad King

Woman wearing sea foam green tank top with long brown eyes and dark brown hair draped over right shoulder staring into camera. She is sitting with left hand is in a fist resting on her sternum.

US-raised Palestinian artist Samar Haddad King (Artistic/Founding Director of Yaa Samar! Dance Theatre) ruminates on what pregnancy, birth, and raising her daughter have taught her about time.

To listen to today's Body and Soul podcast with Samar Haddad King, click here!

And read The New York Times' review of the Spring 2022 Gibney presentation of YSDT's Last Ward ⁠here⁠.

⁠https://ysdt.org/

BIO: Samar Haddad King is a writer, choreographer, and composer and Artistic/Founding Director of Yaa Samar! Dance Theatre; King graduated from the Ailey/Fordham BFA program (NYC). King’s work has been performed in 17 countries on 4 continents, with commissions throughout the US and abroad including The Shed (NYC); Hubbard Street 2 (Chicago); Ramallah Contemporary Dance Festival (Ramallah); The Walk with Little Amal: Good Chance Theatre (Marseille) and St. Ann’s Warehouse/The Walk Productions (NYC); /si:n/ Festival (Ramallah), among others. Awards/Fellowships include: Creative Capital Wild Futures Awardee, Prix des Jeunes Créateurs Palestiniens pour la Diversité des Expressions Artistiques (Palest’In&Out Festival, Paris); La Fabrique Chaillot Residency (Chaillot - théâtre national de la Danse, Paris); The Center for Ballet and the Arts at NYU and Toulmin Creator (CBA/ National Sawdust, NYC). Theater/musical theater credits include Dead Are My People (Noor Theatre, NYC), Hoota (Sard Theatre, Haifa) and We Live in Cairo (American Repertory Theater, Boston). www.ysdt.org

BODY AND SOUL: Megan Curet: in collective rhythm

Megan Curet (photo: Jonathan Maier)

Light skin black woman in a turtle neck sweater smiling with arms wrapped around neck. Dark short black hair brushed back. Backdrop of cliffs and a sandy beach. Image shot in black and white.

In her work with Afro-Puerto Rican bomba traditions and contemporary dance, Megan Curet considers the relationship between movement, sound, and decolonization within communal practice in Black diaspora. She says, "I wanted to be a part of the conversation that shakes up the body, that shakes up the way we think, and I believe no other approach does so better than the act of moving, the act of repeating movement, and that act of coming into space together."

To listen to today's podcast with Megan Curet, click here!

And scroll down for more information!

 

Megan Curet in PULSATION (photo: Michelle Mor)

Dark skin black Latina female hovering over the floor of a dimly lit theater stage. In an all white long sleeve turtle neck with her long braids following over in front of her chest and her upstage left arm arched over.

Bio: Megan Curet is a Bronx Native Nuyorican dancer, choreographer and educator. Currently serving as Coordinator to the Artist of Color Council at Movement Research while completing a practice-led research PhD in decolonial methodology within dance at Plymouth University in the UK. Curet’s practice expands upon the elements of bomba through cultural syncretism of contemporary dance through her public En Ritmo workshops. Other public community programming efforts include the annual youth dance Symposium, Bronx Grows dance, which takes place at BAAD! and made possible through Pepatian South Bronx. Former founder and artistic director of Curet Performance Project, a contemporary dance company, and founder/editor of online dance magazine TiLLT Magazine. Currently based in San Diego, Curet’s work, choreography and practice has toured South America, The Middle East, The Caribbean, North America and Europe. http://megancuret.com/

BODY AND SOUL: Elena Demyanenko: The art of disobedience

Elena Demyanenko (photo: Charles Pace)

In this portrait set against a black background, Elena Demyanenko faces downward and at a diagonal. She is light-skinned with short, reddish hair and wears a thin necklace with a stone pendant.

Russian-born dance artist and educator Elena Demyanenko traveled from her adopted home in New York to Berlin to support the growing community of artists fleeing Russia's devastating war on Ukraine. In this moving talk, Demyanenko reflects on questions for herself and other artists making work in times of war, propaganda, censorship, and courageous disobedience.

 

Listen to Elena Demyanenko on Body and Soul podcast here. 

To learn more about her work, scroll down. 

 

Trio from Demyanenko's welter (photo: Wolfgang Daniel)

In this trio dance, Elena's right shoulder leans against the floor as her legs stretch up and her feet connect with and hold Chloë Engel’s head as Engel's body bends forward. Leah Morrison kneels nearby and observes.

Bio: Elena Demyanenko is a Russian/American dance artist, choreographer, improviser, maker of dance films, and educator who lives and works between New York City and Vermont. Elena has extensive professional performance and choreographic experience in a multicultural context from 30 years of touring around the world. She has been inventing “impossible” scores in order to un-censor the body as a source of information and a  primary site of healing and transformation. Elena is a former member of both Stephen Petronio Company (2003–2008), and Trisha Brown Dance Company (2009–2012). She has made dances with Dana Reitz, Susan Sgorbati, Joseph Poulson, Dai Jen, Pavel Zustiak, Lindsey Dietz Marchant, Kota Yamazaki, and Jimena Paz. Elena’s live performance works have been shown at many US performance venues, including Baryshnikov Art Center, Danspace Project, Roulette Intermedium, EMPAC, Movement Research at Judson Church, Dance New Amsterdam, and Dixon Place, and abroad at GARAGE (Moscow) and the Architecture of Movement Festival (Yaroslavl, Russia). As a maker of dance films, Demyanenko was the recipient of a Dance Movies Commission by EMPAC and was nominated for the Dance on Camera Jury Prize for her work on kino-eye.  www.elenademyanenko.com

BODY AND SOUL: Cory Nakasue: embracing complexity

Cory Nakasue

A woman with long, dark-brown hair and brown eyes sits at a desk in front of a computer and looks at the camera from the corner of her eye. A bright orange couch is in the background.

Nakasue in a performance still from Reframed, directed by Brent Felker (2011)

A woman with long, dark-brown hair stands on the grass, at the side of a barn holding the side of her head with one hand and reaching for the sky with the other. It’s like we’re spying on her from behind a tree. A shadow covers half of the barn and her head. The rest of the frame is in sunlight.

Cory Nakasue sees complexity all around us and within us--from the cosmic realm above to the most intimate spaces below here on planet Earth. Self-described as "a theater artist, writer, and astrologer whose work includes choreography, dramaturgy, and video," Nakasue likely inhabits far more than even those multiple identities and roles. In this talk for Body and Soul, she shares thoughts about how our tendency to avoid complexity denies us the pleasure of engaging with what's real.

Listen to this episode of Body and Soul here.

To learn more about Cory Nakasue, scroll down.

The Cosmic Event of the Body (Cosmic Doghouse Press, 2023)

A white book sits on a red rug. On the cover of the book is a bright red circle radiating black tendrils. The title of the book is at the top. The author’s name is at the bottom.

Bio: Cory Nakasue is a theater artist, writer, and astrologer whose work includes choreography, dramaturgy, and video. Her original dance and theater pieces have been presented internationally, and she is currently in dramaturgical process with Elisabeth Motley and Aynsley Vandenbroucke. She is a published poet and dance critic whose first chapbook, The Cosmic Event of Body, is coming out in March 2023. She’s the astrologer-in-residence at The Poetry Barn, Chronogram Magazine, Opus 40, and The Cosmic Dispatch, a weekly radio show/podcast. She holds MA degrees in Choreography and Performance Studies from Middlesex University, London, with additional graduate work in theater from CalArts. She’s been a movement educator and somatic therapist under the moniker Body Intelligence for the past 20 years. Her obsessions include narrative medicine, expanded eroticisms, and the cultivation of metaphor as an embodied sense. www.corynakasue.com and www.astrologybycory.com

BODY AND SOUL: george emilio sanchez: Information is medicine

george emilio sanchez (photo: Dave Sanders)

george emilio sanchez, wearing a black winter coat with a wine-purple scarf wrapped and tucked around his neck, stands against a blurred background. With an intent gaze towards the camera, sanchez has salt-and-pepper hair, mustache, and beard.

Still from In the Court of the Conqueror of a home occupying the ancestral lands of Kaskaskia, Tamaroa and Piankishaw Nations among other Mississippian Cultures. Image by Patty Ortiz.

 

The photo shows one side of a long white house surrounded by trees. There's a flagpole bearing the United States flag. At the base of the slide's image, a line of bright red letters spell out NOTYOURLAND.

My guest today, george emilio sanchez, is a passionate and critical voice for our times. A skilled artist and activist, he brings a gift for blending factual historical and cultural knowledge, lived experience, and creative storytelling in solo performances that inform, captivate, and challenge audiences. In this episode of Body and Soul, sanchez discusses a 19th-century Supreme Court ruling that violated indigenous tribal sovereignty; In the Court of the Conqueror, a performance in collaboration with visual artist Patty Ortiz; and The Shed's great exhibition on Brazil's indigenous Yanomami people.

Please forgive the abrupt ending of this episode! Details I edited out--concerning The Yanomami Struggle exhibition at The Shed, a New York City arts space--can be found at https://theshed.org/program/262-the-yanomami-struggle. The exhibition runs through Sunday, April 16, and I do highly recommend it.

To listen to today's podcast with george emilio sanchez, click here!

And scroll down for more information!

Still from In the Court of the Conqueror (photo: Maria Baranova)

Wearing his long white hair loose and a white, long-sleeved cotton shirt, sanchez gazes directly into the camera. He holds his arms and hands outward, left arm crossing in front of his chest, in the middle of a storytelling gesture.

Bio: george emilio sanchez is a writer, performance artist and advocate for indigenous rights and sovereignty.  Currently, he is touring the US with his recent performance collaboration with visual artist, Patty Ortiz, titled In the Court of the Conqueror.  This piece focuses on the 200 year-old history of US Supreme Court rulings that have diminished the Tribal Sovereignty of Native Nations, while also interlacing his individual journey of acknowledging his own indigeneity while being raised in an Ecuadorian immigrant household.  In the Court of the Conqueror premiered at Abrons Arts Center in New York City in March 2022 and has since toured to five states.  george emilio is also the performance director for Emergenyc, a program that experiments with the intersection of arts and activism and is celebrating its 15th year anniversary in 2023.  He was named the inaugural recipient of the Keith Haring Fellow at The MacDowell in 2021. https://www.georgeemiliosanchez.com/

BODY AND SOUL: Stephanie Skura: intention and surrender

 

Left: Stephanie Skura in her solo Sacrilege is Needed. Competency is Hell. Woman in orange jeans and red shirt with tasseled waistband, hands splayed and reddish hair akimbo. (Photo: Ian Douglas) Right: Skura's selfie. Woman with slight smile and knitted black-and-red wool hat with knitted red wool flower.

Bessie Award-winning Stephanie Skura is widely noted not only for her long career as a performer, maker, and teacher of post-modern dance but for being a magical catalyst for other artists' creativity. In today's talk, she shares how her imaginative practice, called scores, opens up liberating possibilities. For Skura, dance is a path to consciousness; a method to access the balancing, healing capacity of intuition; a way to play her role in repairing the world.                               

To listen to today's podcast with Stephanie Skura, click here!

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Wendy Perron, shadow of Juliette Mapp, and Stephanie Skura in Surreptitious Preparations for an Impossible Total Act, directed and scored by Skura. Two women in mid-motion stillnesses against a back wall, their gazes directed in different directions, with shadow of a third person looming large against the wall. (Photo: Anja Hitzenberger)

 

BIO: Stephanie Skura, ‘major American experimentalist‘ (Patsy Tarr) inaugural 1984 Bessie award-winner, is a choreographer/director/performer/teacher/teacher-trainer/writer. She has performed taught dance performance for over three decades in fifteen countries. With deep respect for individual diversity subconscious realms, she navigates boundaries intersections of dance, poetry and performance, and is passionate about empowering performers. Guided by integration of body/mind/heart, creativity technique, form content, art healing, she is committed to collaboration, multidisciplinary art and lifelong experiment. Recent work integrates radically visceral approaches to language voice. In 2008, she instigated Open Source Forms, a practice and Teacher Certification Program addressing deep commonalities of Skinner Releasing Technique and creative process. Formerly a New Yorker directing a touring dance company, she lives near Seattle where she’s become care-giver for her domestic partner. Having often regarded dance as a last stage before full-on spiritual practice, she now sees it all coalescing as soul-growing pursuits. www.stephanieskura.com