We’re working on a new project called Rosemont Ours, a dance film celebrating the plants and animals found in the site of the proposed Rosemont Copper Mine. Please help us reach our fundraising goal of $6,500 to compensate artists, pay for production costs, and hold public screenings of the film in Fall 2013.
Follow the link below to Kickstarter to support our campaign and we’ll love you forever!
We’ve been working to embody plant and animal species (resident and migratory) found within or near the proposed Rosemont Mine site in Southern Arizona. Our task is challenging and beautiful: to find the subtle, the ostentatious, the feral movements or sustained stillness of these magnificent species; and to attempt to understand what it feels like to grow within or travel across this spectacular landscape.
Here is a preview of our work so far:
Rosemont Ours Preview from Kimi Eisele on Vimeo.
We Are Crawling. We Are Hopping. We Are Flying.
New ARTiculations was taking a nap. Some of the sleep was deep. Some of it was restless, filled with thoughts and questions: What’s the best way to get audiences interested in the work? What is the best kind of work to make? Who really cares about dance in this town? How can we invite more people to be moved? How can we pay for our productions? How can we pay ourselves?
We rolled over. We yawned.
We slept some more. We let things stir around in the darkness. We dreamed. We like our dreams.
Then someone knocked at the door. A photographer and a lover of wild places and a communitarian. He said, “Can you help? This thing is happening and it’s really painful and we need to do more. We need to make people see what is happening and feel something about it. We need all the artists to help do that.”
We rubbed our eyes. We felt something stir in our feet, in our spine, in the space inside our ribcage.
“Okay,” we said. We believe in seeing and feeling. “We will wake up now.”
The thing that is happening is in a place called Rosemont Ranch, a patch of land thirty miles away, south of I-10, east of Highway 83, on the northeastern slopes of the Santa Rita Mountains. The region supports a wide diversity of plants and animals. The common: hawks, ground squirrels, hawks, agaves, oaks, sotol, bluebirds, warblers, hedgehog cacti. The threatened and endangered: Rosemont talussnails, yellow-billed cuckoos, Southwestern willow flycatchers, Coleman’s coralroot orchids, lesser long-nosed bats, Pima pineapple cacti, ocelots, and jaguars. Yes, jaguars.
Nearby is the Cienega Creek, a significant riparian area in the desert, from which water would be drawn to sustain mining activities. The creek is home to coatimundi, lizards, flycatchers, warblers, Sonoran dace, and the endangered Chiricahua leopard frogs, Gila chub, and Gila topminnow fish, among other species.
These are prized and beautiful places inhabited by prized and beautiful creatures.
The other prize is copper, 243 million pounds a year for 20 years, to be mined from a 4,500-acre pit by a Canadian company called Augusta Resources that bought the ranch in 2005. The company is currently awaiting approval from the U.S. Forest Service for its mining operations.
There is also water, which is perhaps the biggest prize of all. Mining operations would potentially result in contaminated surface and groundwater; decreased flow or drying up of springs, seeps, wetlands, and streams; increased sediment load in streams; and changes in aquifer recharge.
There is wind. There is sky. There is rock. There are systems. There are tiny lives. There are stealthy lives. There is flight. There are subtle underground shifts. There are minerals. There are decisions. There are values. There is beauty. There is convenience. There are cell phones. There are electronics. There is paying attention. There is listening. There is consciousness. There is a sting in the heart. There is danger. There are livelihoods. There is saying no. There is saying yes. There is capital. There is no capital. There is little water. There are impacts. There are sides to stand on. There are petitions. There is waiting. There is hoping.
There is the body. There is movement.
“Okay,” we said. “We will wake up now.”
And so now we are making trips to the mine site and to the Cienega Creek and we are embodying the plant and animal species that will be impacted by the mining. We are working with a filmmaker to capture our movement on location. The filmmaker is Ben Johnson. You can see some of his work here.
We are learning how to become intimate with the land and with these species with our bodies. We are learning that it is both possible and not possible to fly.
We are aiming to show how we, as humans, are very much like these special species and also how each of these species is entirely singular. Maybe our efforts will help other humans see and feel something about these plants and animals.
Our project is not called “Rosemont Mine,” but “Rosemont Ours.”
And it is also yours.
Please learn more about it by following our blog at www.RosemontOurs.com.
Rosemont Ours will likely be shown as part of the Lens on the Land photo exhibit as well as at other future events, TBA.
A fundraising campaign will begin shortly. We’ll be knocking on your door, too. We hope you will wake up in whatever way you do best.
-Kimi Eisele, co-director
Ben Johnson captures Katie's hawk dance.
Katie Rutterer as Zone-Tailed Hawk.
An ensemble of improvisational artists comes to Tucson in early 2013 offering workshops and a performance.
This Here Now: An evening of Movement Improvisation with The Architects and Movement Salon
Saturday, Jan. 5.
7:30 pm
ZUZI Theater in the Historic Y
738 N. 5th Ave
Tucson, AZ 85705
520-629-0237
Winter Movement Intensive in Compositional Improvisation
4 days of play with the Architects
Jan. 3-6, 2013
This 4 day intensive balances in-depth individual exploration with rigorous practice in spontaneous ensemble dance-making. Fresh perceptions are set in motion daily through provoking, open-ended questions. Each kinesthetic and conceptual proposition acts as an entrance point for the mover and composer, a window into authenticity, connection, depth, and range. Of particular interest here is the emerging : compositional languages and modes of perceiving and engaging that are in-progress, unfolding, as-yet-unseen.
Throughout the intensive, the artistic integrity of one’s voice is sharpened in conversation with the whole and a dialogue emerges as individual aesthetics meet, interact, and expand. As time allows, group discussions contribute to conscious integration of the experiential and the conceptual. Even here, moving into words is an invitation to discover, to uncover diverse perspectives, spark the imagination, and to notice the aesthetic and poetic effect of our compositional choices.
Limited to 25 participants. Previous experience with improvisation is necessary. Mature dancers are encouraged to investigate the workshop. All participants share a curiosity about improvisation as performing art and as composition. With a willingness to invite the unknown, we practice first hand rigorous research in the field, together with artists who teach, perform and apply improvisation in their professional creative work.
All workshops and events take place in the beautiful studios of the ZUZI! Dance Theatre in downtown Tucson and the expansive studio of The Rhythm Industry. Out of town participants are housed in the funky and comfortable Roadrunner Hostel and Inn, walking distance away from the theater and lively 4th Ave, home to many cafes, restaurants, bars and boutiques.
Full workshop: $300
Drop in: $25 for 2 hour sessions, $35 for 3-hour sessions
Thursday-Sunday: 9-12pm, 2-5pm, 7-9pm.
All workshops are at ZUZI Theater, except Thursday, 2-5 and Friday, 9-12, which will be held at Rhythm Industry
Contact Director@NewArticulations.org for more information.
We recently completed an artist-in-residency program at Borton Primary Magnet School. We brought aspects of our project FLOW to second and third graders, using movement to explore the local water cycle, riparian animals, and the history of the Santa Cruz River. We had a wonderful time wiggling around with these lively and intelligent children. Thank you, Borton!
Arizona Public Media captured this story about the residency:
Watch the river FLOW again. Hear stories from those who remember it flowing. Glimpse the mythical La Llorona. Celebrate your love of water!
Sunday, April 22
10am-12 noon
Santa Cruz River Trail Park
900 N. Riverside Dr. (park and playground halfway between St. Mary’s and Speedway, west side of river)
Dance works address our daily bathroom routines, our excessive consumption of plastic water bottles, the joy and sorrow of swimming where there’s no water, and the natural and cultural history of the Santa Cruz River
Guest performers include:
Odaiko Sonora
Borton Magnet School
Pima County Coummunity Centers After-school youth
PLUS:
Family-friendly activities & refreshments in a beautiful setting!
Suggested donation: $10
Come sit, walk, or bike along the path and watch the river “flow.”
FLOW is a project of NEW ARTiculations Dance Theatre exploring the local watershed, the Santa Cruz River, and water conservation strategies through dance. With support from the Kresge Foundation, the Tucson-Pima Arts Council, Arizona Commission on the Arts, and generous individuals.
Tired of PowerPoint presentations? We thought so.
That’s why we teamed up with Watershed Management Group to create a different kind of presentation using DANCE to illustrate the concept of community-based “green infrastructure.”
This 20-minute moving “talk” will show you what is possible when you work with together with your neighbors to capture rain, control stormwater, attract wildlife, and beautify your neighborhood! Featuring Lisa Shipek, Executive Director of Watershed Management Group and NEW ARTiculations dancers in an unforgettable lecture that will make you wanna go home, get out your shovel, call your neighbors and get to work…before the monsoons!
See? We keep telling you that dance isn’t only pretty. It’s also useful!
Indeed, dance will wake you up and show you how to make your neighborhood greener, more desert-friendly and appropriate, and more alive!
Want to see it?
Tuesday, March 27, 3:30 pm: We’ll premiere the piece in front of 200 or so water and landscape specialists at the Arid Low Impact Development and Green Infrastructure Conference (AridLID).
Hotel Tucson Conference Center, 475 N Granada
Call 270-4352 for more info.
Saturday, March 31, 7 pm: NEW ARTiculations headlines the Rhythm Industry Quarterly Review this month with “Trickle Up” and other excerpts from FLOW, our upcoming performance in the Santa Cruz Riverbed, April 22, 10 am-12 noon. Additional performances by Odaiko Sonora, Jodi Netzer and the Water Festival team, Batucaxe, and other amazing Tucson performers housed at the Rhythm Industry!
Rhythm Industry, 1013 S. Tyndall
Suggested donation: $10
Join us for the final Walk the Watershed tour through an urban Tucson neighborhood.
Sunday, March 11, 1-3 pm
Location: Navajo Wash – near Ft Lowell and Mountain Blvd., Hendrick Acres Neighborhood.
View Larger Map
Hosted by Eric Dhruv of the Ironwood Tree Experience and NEW ARTiculations dancers. Learn about your watershed in a lively walkin’/talkin’/groovin’ way!
Free and open to the public.
Activities will include: listening, observing, playing, marveling, moving, and learning. Wear comfortable shoes, a hat, and sunscreen. Bring water.
“Walk the Watershed” is a tributary of FLOW, a New ARTiculations project exploring the local watershed, the Santa Cruz River, and water conservation strategies through dance.
Join us this Sunday for the second Walk the Watershed tour … especially for KIDS…and kids-at-heart!
Sunday, Feb. 26, 1-3 pm
Location: Santa Cruz River, park/meet at Santa Cruz River park, N. Riverside Rd. between St. Mary’s and Speedway (west side of river)
Hosted by Eric Dhruv of the Ironwood Tree Experience and NEW ARTiculations dancers. Learn about your watershed in a lively walkin’/talkin’/groovin’ way!
Free and open to the public.
Activities will include: listening, observing, playing, marveling, moving, and learning. Wear comfortable shoes, a hat, and sunscreen. Bring water.
“Walk the Watershed” is a tributary of FLOW, a New ARTiculations project exploring the local watershed, the Santa Cruz River, and water conservation strategies through dance.
Come delight in our dancing jukebox and devour a spicy and sweet dinner fare. Help us raise funds for FLOW, a project exploring the local watershed, the Santa Cruz River, and water conservation strategies through dance.
Feb. 10, 2012
7:30-10pm
Rhythm Industry, 1013 S. Tyndall Ave.
Homemade chile (vegetarian and non-veggie)! Chile/chocolate desserts! Live Jukebox dances! Buy a homemade valentine! Silent Auction! Win a HOT AIR BALLOON RIDE for 2!
$5 entry fee (CASH or CHECKS only. We cannot accept credit cards)
includes 2 free drinks
Additional for dinner/desserts ($5/chili, veggie and non-veggie options); $5/dessert).
Jukebox Selections ($5-$25/each).
Homemade Valentines (5/$5)
Raffle tickets ($5 each or 5 for $20)
Buy raffle tickets here (scroll down to bottom of page). You don’t need to be present to win: we’ll send you your ticket numbers!
