Exploring the Interpersonal Realm through Stillness & Movement
A Vipassana Retreat with Mindful Movement
December 14th and 15th, 2013
I’m looking forward to exploring new territory co-teaching a weekend retreat with Brian LeSage. The workshop schedule will alternate between solo meditation, partner interactions using improvisational movement and discussion. Click here for more workshop information and registration form.
CALENDAR of EVENTS
Night Dressed as Day October 12, 2013
Human Nature Dance Theatre returns to Arcosanti for our 20th consecutive year of performance at at the Colly Soleri Music Center. This year’s performers include Delisa Myles, Jayne Lee, Paul Moore, Francis Martineau, Breanna Rogers, Mizu Desierto, Nathan Montgomery, Amelia Burns and Bob Webb. We are in residence at Arcosanti for a week before the performance and during that time we create the show. It’s a fast and furious process and our collaborative skills are on overdrive as we find our way to the show on Saturday night. For tickets and more info go to arcosanti.org.
Breaking Ground 2013 Contemporary Dance and Film Festival
January 24-26 at Tempe Center for the Arts
It’s an honor to have been chosen to perform my solo “Home” for Breaking Ground 2013. My performance happens on the last night of the festival, January 26th at Intermission and will appear in the Sculpture Garden outside the Tempe Center for the Arts. “Home” was co-choreographed by Breanna Rogers and myself as a tribute to my ancestors, my Great Grandmother and Great Aunt who inspired me with their stories of strength, suffering, and the tenacity it took to carve out their lives as early Mormon pioneers and settlers of the West. My Mother turned eighty years old last summer and my family all gathered at her birth place in Panaca, Nevada to visit her childhood home, hear stories of her memories of growing up, remember the people that influenced her, and see the grave sites of our ancestors who were the first settlers of this small town. I had heard the stories before, but this time when I listened, inspiration for a dance started to swirl in me. Breanna was an extraordinary collaborator and gave the right amount of structure for me to fill out with the power of emotion and energy that was coming through me. I give her great thanks for her artful eye and support. I look forward to sharing “Home” in a new space among many fine performers in this festival. See my Thoughts page for photos of the solo.
Dancing Over the Mountain
A dance improvisation workshop focusing on touch, sensation and contouring through landscapes of imagination and body. You will be guided on solo explorations and through partner and small group interactions that allow a safe space to sink into and surf the unfolding present moment.
At Datura Studio MIngus Art Center Jerome Building B Wednesday December 5th 6:00-8:00 cost $10-$15
Collaboration with Tamara Albaitis in Dwell
Friday September 21st 7:30pm
Saturday September 22nd 3:00pm
503 Tunnel Ave
San Francisco, CA 94134
I’m excited and honored be collaborating with Tamara Albaitis for two performances as part of her residency at Recology. We’ll be moving within her sound sculpture installation made from materials she’s found at the dump. Here’s a bit from the Recology website. for more info go to recology.com or Tamara’s website burnthebox.org.
The Artist in Residence Program at Recology San Francisco is a unique art and education program that provides Bay Area artists with access to discarded materials, a stipend, and a large studio space at the Recology Solid Waste Transfer and Recycling Center. By supporting artists who work with recycled materials, Recology hopes to encourage people to conserve natural resources and promote new ways of thinking about art and the environment.
Since 1990, over ninety-five professional artists and twenty student artists have completed residencies at this one-of-a-kind program and have made art from discarded materials. The studio is located at the San Francisco Solid Waste Transfer and Recycling Center (Recology San Francisco), a 47-acre facility that includes the garbage transfer station (where garbage goes before being sent to landfill), the Household Hazardous Waste Facility, the Organics Annex, the Public Disposal and Recycling Area (“The Dump”), and other recycling areas. The facility, which is located west of Highway 101 near Candlestick Park, also is home to a three-acre sculpture garden containing work by former artists-in-residence.
During their residencies, artists have scavenging privileges and 24-hour access to the company’s well-equipped art studio. Artists speak to elementary school classes and adult tour groups about the experience of working with recycled materials. At the conclusion of their residency, Recology hosts a two-day public exhibition and reception for the artists featuring the artwork made during their residency. When the residency ends, artists contribute artwork to the program’s permanent collection and these pieces continue to be shown in off-site exhibitions that promote recycling and reuse.
Human Nature Dance Theatre presents Vertical Horizon
At Arcosanti
Saturday, September 29, 2012
HNDT presents Vertical Horizon, two tribes converging, four women, four men. We merge our personal worlds into a collaborative sharing. Examining everyday distinctions between conventional, original, marginal and essential through dance, theater, music and voice. You are invited to witness a story of human interaction in the twenty-first century.
WALKING4? June 16, 2012 3:30-4:45
As part of Tsunami on the Square, four women in white; Breanna, Ashley, Lily and myself will circumnavigate the Prescott Courthouse. It’s a walking/dancing/meditative passage. Unity, repetition, walking, and impromptu gestures are the compositional elements. We have a sequence of timing and formation that we practice. Even though we repeat the same sequence each time, it is completely different in the things that happen. It’s the people that witness and the things they say that has been intriguing. We are moving slowly so we get a longer time to overhear conversations of people as we pass them. As we’ve been rehearsing we’ve had all kinds of responses, mostly what is it? What is it you are doing? Yoga? Meditation? Tai Chi? Are you part of a spiritual group? One man was in front of us as we were walking, and he turned around quickly and pretended to shoot us with a machine gun. Another guy said “slow down, thanks, that’s what I need to do.” People have joined us and insulted us and thanked us. For me the whole human psychology is fascinating to observe. Every kind of response is available inside and outside. I fully enjoy the range of what happens in a span of time when awareness is focused and there is an ability to step outside ordinary life for a bit. So, we will do this moving meditation or whatever it is, on Saturday at the Courthouse Square. It will start on the NW corner of the square and travel counterclockwise, it’s approximately an hour and 15 minutes. WALKING4? is part of the offerings of Tsunami on the Square, celebrating it’s 14th year of making a magical day ofperformance happen in Prescott.
February 24th, 2012 Bricks and Bones – Collaboration with Tamara Albaitis
Tamara Albaitis, sound/sculpture artist will be an Artist in Residence at Prescott College in February and will be installing a new sound/sculpture piece in the Prescott College Art Gallery at Sam Hill Warehouse. Using thousands of feet of speaker wire and small speaker cones Tamara will transform the gallery to create rooms of shapes and sound in which Delisa Myles and guest dancers will move through with physical response. The history of Sam Hill Warehouse, originally built in 1903 will serve as inspiration for the performance. What would the walls of this long-time gathering place say, if they could talk? What are the stories in the bricks and in the bones of the building and of the people that pass through? Opening and reception 6:00-8:00. Performance 8:00. 232 N. Granite Street. Prescott See burnthebox.org for more info on Tamara Albaitis’ work.
Wednesday Morning Meditation and Mindful Movement = WM4
WM4 is an ongoing weekly gathering, starting with a half hour of sitting meditation followed by a combination of awareness/embodiment practices, yoga, guided movement improvisation and ending with a short spoken sharing. Meditation starts at 8:00 am and class ends at 9:30. Anyone interested in meditating with others and opening to the imagination of the body is invited to join in. Donations are welcome, but not necessary. Held at Skyline Nest. Please email delisanest@animail.net for directions.
Bridge Walkers (an adaptation of Dream Rakers)
October 29th, 3:00 under LaGuardia Bridge at Granite Creek Park
As part of the Prescott Harvest and Day of the Dead Festival, Breanna Rogers, Ashley Fine and myself are performing under the bridge at Granite Creek Park. We are adapting our original Tsunami on the Square performance and costumes to merge with Day of the Dead theme . Once a year when the light changes and the winds grows wild the invisible ones under the bridge can be seen….Come see for yourself. The performance is part of the day-long festival that runs from 12:00-8:00, with Calexico as the headliner. For tickets and info on the festival go to prescottharvestfestival.com
INTO THE GARDEN WITH DANCE AND CAMERA- Workshop with Delisa Myles
August 14th, 10:00-1:00 Prior Day Farm, Portland, Oregon.
Observe, Listen, Absorb, Collect images, Move, Share. A morning of sinking into the sensual qualities of Prior Day Farm. What in the garden attracts your curiosity? Is it the blossoming, ripening, withering, composting? Or the colors, shapes, textures, plants, animals, tools? There will be prompts toward seeing and moving in relation with the place. Photographers who want to dance, dancers who want to make photos are welcome. Bring your digital camera and lap top to share images. Consider your costume.
INTO THE GARDEN
Prior Day Farm
Portland, OR
Saturday August, 13th
a site-specific dinner + dance performance featuring Japanese Butoh Masters Hiroko and Koichi Tamano of Harupin-Ha + Arizona Dancer and Choreographer, Delisa Myles.
Internationally touring artists of Butoh & Harupin-Ha creators, Koichi & Hiroko Tamano, were dancers in the first company of Tatsumi Hijikata (the founder of Butoh). They have been performing and teaching for over 30 years and are noted for bringing the dance form to the west. Koichi Tamano, who was the principal dancer of Hijikata’s company, was named by him “the bow-legged Nijinsky”. We are honored to host the final U.S. workshop and performance of the duo before they make their pilgrimage back to Japan (after 25 years of living in San Francisco).
Delisa Myles, a choreographer and dance educator from Arizona’s experientially-based and ecologically progressive Prescott College , has had a pervasive influence on some of Portland’s most interesting local talents, including Kathleen Keogh of Woolly Mammoth Comes to Dinner, Kestrel Gates of HiiH Gallery and Mizu Desierto of Water in the Desert. Delisa’s choreography and collaborations in recent years have investigated feminine archetypes, intergenerational work and environmental performance. She holds an MFA in Performance and Choreography from University of Colorado.
Into The Garden will be held at Prior Day Farm in St. Johns (the site of a future urban art/ecology center)
7PM: Japanese-Inspired Farm Feast (ADVANCED PURCHASE ONLY)
8PM: Performances
Dream Rakers: The Story of a Tree, a Bird and a Girl
June 16th, two showings: 5:30 and 7:00.
This outdoor traveling performance is the 2011 Flourish Before the Flood, the opening event for Tsunami on the Square. Dream Rakers is an unfolding journey of reconciliation between three unlikely friends. A lost girl wanders under a forgotten bridge and begins to dream a new reality where branches, wings and arms merge to retrieve the pieces of a broken heart.
The performance starts at Granite Creek Park under La Guardia Bridge and travels upstream.
Choreographed and performed by Delisa Myles, Breanna Rogers and Ashley Fine, with Jayne Lee as narrator.
Tickets $11. Children under 12 free. Purchase tickets at tsunamionthesquare.org, Flourish Before the Flood page, at Snap Snap on Cortez Street or purchase a half hour before the show at Granite Creek Park.
Animal Etiquette
Human Nature Dance Theatre is developing a new evening of performance entitled Animal Etiquette, new and best work from the last 16 years, exploring themes of feral and domestic, human and animal. feminine and masculine and manners and primal urges. See http://humannaturedance.wordpress.com/ for more photos and description of our process.
Fall Performances:
October 9 – Arcosanti, Arizona
October 15 – Coconino Center for the Arts, Flagstaff, Arizona
November 11-13 – The Headwaters, Portland, Oregon
“The Flying Nest” 6th annual summer dance intensive
August 22-29 with Delisa Myles and Jayne Lee at the Nest Dance Sanctuary in Jerome, Arizona.
The workshop begins each morning with Feldenkrais and moves into improvisation both in solo and group explorations. Afternoons and evenings are focused on frameworks that follow the seamless flow between internal life and external landscape… people, wind, rock, sky, rain, high desert, mountain, town. Through work with tarot and oracles of nature we will delve into archetypes of the self. Personal, and group material will be formed leading to a performance offering Saturday night. Work with imagery and writing exercises will stimulate the imagination and body. Excursions to nearby red rock canyons and swimming spots will be part of the week. Jayne and Delisa skillfully guide you toward listening to your movement, sensations, thoughts, images and dreams to form an organic pathway to dance and composition. The Flying Nest is an intimate week of sensitizing awareness while being guided toward personal and group artistic vision.
We are taking 8 students with dance experience. Please register with a letter of intent, description of background and $100 deposit by August 1st
Students camp and cook on the studio deck and share evening meals. More information will follow for registered students. There is an option of staying with hosts in Jerome for an added fee. Fee for the workshop is $450.
Letters to Self
April 30st and May 1st, 7:30, $5.00 at the door
Granite Performing Arts Center, 218 N. Granite St.
Letters to Self is a project of the Prescott College course Choreography in the Community. The course was developed by Delisa Myles in 2000 with the charter project, Growth Rings: Stories of Our Lives. A decade later, Letters to Self returns to the original collaboration with Skyview Middle School students and elders from the Prescott community. Each member is writing a letter to his or her younger or older self. There are choreographed dances, poems, improvisations and songs that revolve around the theme of communicating with oneself at another age.
The course provides opportunities for Prescott College Performing Arts students to teach and learn with people they would not ordinarily come in contact with. Past course projects have included collaborating with a therapeutic high school for girls, with local musicians, and working with third graders. They have also explored dance in public environments and learned about social dance forms of tango and salsa.
The Vagina Monologues @ Prescott College
March 5, 6 and 7 Crossroads Center 7:00
Come see this classic performance with a powerful cast of women celebrating women. My first time of joining the cast
Human Nature Dance Theatre in Flying at Night
Saturday December 5th Old Town Center for the Arts 8:00
Human Nature Dance Theatre brings its unique blend of dance, theatre and live music to The Old Town Center for the Arts. This show marks a return of the performance group to its birthplace. The Verde Valley community witnessed the beginnings of the performance groups’ collaborative and improvisational process almost 20 years ago. The original mix of elements is generrated from a deep yearning for the true human experience. ” Flying at NIght” is the story of traveling into the unknown. We find ourselves surrounded by darkness, journeying deeper into our fears. While learning to trust new sensations, we create new pathways to take us where we need to go. We explore the transparencies that night brings on, shen the line between sleeping and waking is hard to distinguish. The impossible becomes possible and we begin to fly.
DANCEDOWNRIVERA prayer for the River & all wild places & wild things
Thursday November 19, 2009 7:30
Human Nature Dance Theatre and
Prescott College Art Gallery at Sam Hill Warehouse
DanceDownRiver was filmed on the Colorado River in Grand Canyon in October 2007. Sixteen artists took part in the project, seven dancers, two cinematographers, several musicians, photographers, a painter and a poet.
Flying at Night at Arcosanti
Saturday October 3, 2009
Human Nature Dance Theatre
This is Human Nature’s 14th annual performance engagement at Arcosanti. Flying at Night brings us into the quiet dark exhilaration or danger? of flying into the unknown. Feeling and flying our way around the next beckoning corner what will we find? Our cast this year includes the regulars: Jayne Lee, Paul Moore, Nathan Montgomery, Breanna Rogers, Francis Martineau, Marsahll Elliott and myself. In addition we have a few new collaborators Jonathan Best, Kristen Greco and Gina Shorten. The group meets one week before the performance at Arcosanti and in that time we find our way toward the performance. It is a collaborative process with no director, chaos ensues and we improvise our way to cohesion. It is a time of experimentation, trust, fear, pioneering new territory and surrendering to the genius of the group. Elements of dance, spoken word, live music and original set design combine to offer a multifaceted performance event.
Tour of Arcosanti is offered at 5:00, Dinner (Reservations Required) at 6:00, Performance at 7:30
$20 Performance, $10 Students, $20 Dinner, Tel: 928-632-7135 email: info@arcosanti.org
Boulder International Fringe Festival
Human Nature Dance Theatre and Tin House Experimental Dance have collaborated to create Small Moment of Sky. Spellbinding new work juxtaposing virtuosic dance with the bizarre nature of being human. Fleeting moments of high velocity imagery and strikingly poignant stillness. Cast: Breanna Rogers, Joanna Rotkin, Jayne Lee and Delisa Myles and eight local performers. At Naropa Performing Arts Center. See BoulderFringe.com for audience reviews and more info about the festival.
Show Times: Thu Aug 13 7:00, Fri Aug 14 8:30, Sat Aug 15 7:00, Sun Aug 16 7:00, Fri Aug 21 8:30
