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The Thank-you Bar in Oklahoma! In March we were part of the New Genre Festival at Living Arts of Tulsa, along with great friends Art Spot Productions/Mondo Bizarro and Kristina Wong. The audiences in Tulsa were incredible – I can't wait to go back! It was quite interesting to perform a piece that is so linked to land/identity in Oklahoma - a land ingrained with the lives and deaths of displaced and relocated peoples - the promises of land “as long as the rivers flow and the grass is green” and the reality of sooners, land grabbers, and lies. The Thank-you Bar is not exactly a “political” piece, but here, it felt political. I was conscious of this and questioning of our role and relatively short relationship to this place. Prior to our performances I reached out to friends from or very familial with Oklahoma. I was graced with personal histories, accounts, and a feeling that doing this piece in Oklahoma was the exact right risk to take. I had some of my most ultimately heartfelt connections to audiences in Oklahoma. One audience member told me the show changed her life and I am humbled by her response. BLACKFISH performed an amazing concert and I believe a new CD is on it's way. Keep an eye out for BLACKFISH 3: Tulsa, it was recorded in a very live room with the sounds of history creaking up off the floors! THIS IS DISPLACEMENT: Native Artists Consider the Relationship Between Land & Identity existed in Tulsa because of our collaboration with oklaDADA. oklaDADA is a collective of Indian Artists networking and promoting Indigenous perspectives to create opportunities that give voice to Indian cultural identities. Thank you to all of the artists who contributed to this exhibit, especially Richard Ray Whitman who organized much of this collective work. As I rehearsed down the street, artists were pouring into the exhibit space, bringing paintings, photographs, lithographs – work that spoke so clearly and viscerally to the ills of displacement. Many of these works will now tour with This is Displacement. Please see the news page of my friend and co-curator, Carolyn Lee Anderson for a much more in-depth re-telling of this exhibit. Carolyn and I are both honored to be part of a growing, changing, and alive collection of art. Quyanarpiitli -Emily
The Thank-you Bar premiere!
Catalyst premieres The Thank-you Bar at Out North, in Anchorage, Alaska October 8 – 11, 2009, along with the accompanying art exhibit THIS IS DISPLACEMENT: Native Artists Consider the Relationship Between Land & Identity (co-curated with Carolyn Anderson) and concerts by BLACKFISH. See our upcoming shows page for more information!
2009 holds many exciting projects...
2007 is almost to a close and I could list the many performances Catalyst had throughout the year, and give you a heads up on what is to come, and this would probably be the smart thing to do....but, I am not in such a directorial, strategizing mood (I often am not) - and I looked up from my computer and I saw this poem and it seems more Who could ever tire of this heart-stopping transition, of this breakthrough shift between seeing and knowing you see, between being and knowing you be? It drives you to a life of concentration, it does, in which effort draws you down so very deep that when you surface you twist up exhilarated with a yelp and a gasp. Who could ever tire of this radiant transition, this surfacing to awareness and this deliberate plunging to oblivion - the theater curtain rising and falling? Who could tire of it when the sum of those moments at the edge - the conscious life we so dread losing - is all we have, the gift at the moment of opening it?
Catalyst enjoyed a fine 2006 with performances at the Rogue Buddha Art Gallery in Minneapolis (thank you RBG,) at Dance Theater Workshop in New York City, on the banks of the Missouri River in South Dakota, on a farm in Nebraska, along 35W in Iowa and as part of KICK! in Montreal, Quebec.
June brings the entire Catalyst dance company to the eastern coast of the U.S.A.; we’re performing in New York City for the first time: Heat and Life at Dance Theater Workshop June 28- July 1. We’re cooperating with New York’s “Citizens Campaign for the Environment,” holding post show discussions and conversations on the subject of global warming. They’re a great organization that has really helped us get the word out about the show. Find out more info on them at www.cce.org. For a recent interview about this show see Mental Contagion. To hear a recent podcast interview go to Great Dance. While in New York, JG Everest - the composer and musician (who also performs with us in Heat and Life) will play a solo show at Tonic with Berlin based “electro-pop-princess” Barbara Morgenstern. It’s going to be a very cool show. Check out the details and listen to samples at: This fall, Catalyst will perform Heat and Life on a farm in Nebraska and in public spaces in South Dakota and Iowa - all part of our goal of bringing Heat and Life to every state in the U.S.A. While on this massive 50-State-Tour we donate to www.gocarbonzero.com - our way of trying to off-set the carbon emissions created for our flights and driving. Try it (or, of course, try driving less!). New work is on the horizon as well, as we continue to work on “Windfarm.” Windfarm is our version of the future... complete with stilt walking. Look for it in 2007. Capture! the dance series produced by Catalyst at the Bryant Lake Bowl in MInneapolis continues with some exciting fall programming including work by Julyen Hamilton. We’re always on the search for new dance films, you can send them (with a SASE if you want it returned) throughout the year (see the Capture! page of our website). Thanks for your time. Come see some dancing. Emily Johnson
Happy New Year! Welcome to our newly redesigned website. I've never tried this 'news forum' before, but plan to update it monthly - so check back often. I'm starting out the new year with an intensive travel schedule, heading to Amsterdam to study with Julyen Hamilton, Brussels to visit the P.A.R.T.S studios, and Berlin - mostly to check out the scene. I hope to return to Minneapolis invigorated and inspired, ready for 2006. 2005 was, in large part, spent in fundraising and administrative mode as I am working to move Catalyst's dance piece "Heat and Life" to all 50 states in the U.S. "Heat and Life" is a work about global warming and this 50-State-Tour will cover enough ground to define the U.S. as a site where art-based work can be seen and be an impetus for change. That, at least - is my hope. We are on our way toward the 50-state goal with performances scheduled in New York at Dance Theater Workshop June 28-July 1 and Links Hall (Chicago) March 2007. Rogue performances will also happen in Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Indiana this year, bringing our state count up to 8. February in Minneapolis brings Catalyst to the highly hip Rogue Buddha art gallery with 3 performances in a series called "windfarm." I'm excited to bring some new work to this space, the first show includes longtime Catalyst dancers Melissa Kennedy, Vanessa Voskuil, Natasha Hassett and joining us for the first time - dancer Allison Lorenzen and violinist Jess Hayssen. I'm hoping to get a tattoo artist involved in this show, but am not sure I quite have the guts to be the one tattooed. I wish you the best in 2006. May we all work for peace. -Emily Johnson Director, Catalyst |
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