Artist Bio

Dancing Earth's Indigenous
Dance Creations

Of Bodies of Elements
Presented by Dancing Earth Indigenous Dance Creations, SFIAF and American Indian Contemporary Arts (AICA).

Dancing Earth, an indigenous contemporary dance ensemble directed by choreographer Rulan Tangen, will make a rare Bay Area appearance with the local premiere of Tangen’s evening length work Of Bodies of Elements, as part of a National Dance Project supported tour. The piece explores the relationship between humanity within nature, from mythic narrative into contemporary relevance. Tangen puts forth cardinal stories, a Naragansett sunflower tale and other themes that will be woven metaphorically into a cultural and environmental fabric.

DANCING EARTH spins, stomps and spirals into life on the world’s dancing grounds as a collective of intertribal Indigenous dance artists, under the leadership of internationally respected choreographer Rulan Tangen. Rooted in the spirit and energy of the first peoples and the land, the mythic power of DANCING EARTH’ s creations respect, embrace and expand the context of Indigenous culture into vital contemporary relevance.

We strive to embody the unique essence of Indigenous worldview by creation and renewal of artistic and cultural movement rituals. Ancient and futuristic, our dances are an elemental language of bone and blood memory in motion. We gather to create experimental yet elemental dances that explore contemporary identity and reflect the rich diversity of our cultural heritage. We are passionately committed to indigenous contemporary at the core of building community, as a vital force that can serve to illuminate issues of cultural, historical, philosophical, environmental, mythic, and spiritual relevance.

They have been named by Dance Magazine as "One of the Top 25 to Watch", and are recipients of the National Museum of American Indian’ s Expressive Arts Award, balancing a commitment to share dances with regional, national and international communities. At venues as varied as festivals, Universities, elementary-high schools, Native wellness gatherings, youth leadership symposiums, art museums and desert canyons and dried river beds, and symposiums for social-environmental justice, DANCING EARTH inspires creativity and cultural consciousness through community art practice, energetic dance training workshops, site specific rituals and full length eco-productions.

DANCING EARTH is honored to return home to the Bay Area, the birthplace of the modern inter-tribal solidarity movement for Native visibility at Alcatraz. Their ongoing commitment to low cost dance training local Indio-Latino youth is in place through Cuicacalli dance program, led by the brilliant dancer/instructor Jesus (Jacoh) Cortes.