I.F.: Indigenous Futurities: Dancing Earth in CyberSpace

Toasterlab’s Involvement

Toasterlab presented I.F.: Indigenous Futurities: Dancing Earth in CyberSpace.

Overview of Discipline, Context, Intention

I.F.: Indigenous Futurities: Dancing Earth in CyberSpace sees collaborating artist visionaries reveal cyberspace as a realm of ritual, to reimagine the future from the brink of collapse of the dominant system and re-emergence of Indigenous cosmologies. Technology is reclaimed to affirm connections between distant places and times. At a time of DisDancing, what is the message from human-to-human; what is the sacred invisible web that connects us? We reach into the constellations to remember ancestral stories of creation after destruction, to guide us forward.

Experience

Viewers can experience I.F.: Indigenous Futurities: Dancing Earth in CyberSpace through a livestream hosted by HowlRound TV. Video overlays, moving green screen backgrounds, digital animations, sound, and music fill the screen to augment the performance. Performers offer a combination of prayer, creation stories, song, dance, and drama.

Development

I.F.: Indigenous Futurities: Dancing in CyberSpace was created using traditional indigenous dance techniques. Dancing Earth focuses on creation in response to place.

The movement language was informed by place, thematic questions, and by technical capabilities. A dialogue between the dancers and the technology emerged: the dancers would push the technology to its limitations, and the limitations of the technology, in turn, would shape the dance.

Performance Runs

I.F.: Indigenous Futurities: Dancing Earth in CyberSpace livestreamed on HowlRound TV network at howlround.tv on Thursday, 18 June 2020.

The archive of the live performance is currently available on the HowlRound Theatre Commons YouTube channel.

Relevant Organizations and People

Dancing Earth Creations creates contemporary dance and related arts through global-indigenous and intercultural relationships centered in ecological and cultural diversity for creativity, health, and wellness.

HowlRound TV is a global, commons-based peer produced, open access livestreaming and video archive project stewarded by the nonprofit HowlRound.

Multi Artist Dancers/Vocalists/Speakers/Cultural Collaborators
Jade Whaanga – Performer/Vocal Performer
Eugene “Trey” Pickett III – Performer/Vocal Performer
Dakota Alcantara-Camacho – Matao/CHamaru/Performer/Writer/Vocal Performer
Lumhe Micco Sampson – Hoop Dancer/Vocal Performer

Artists
Rulan Tangen – Director/Choreographer
Tisina Parker – Project Assistant/Social Impact Producer
Ian Garrett – Technical Director/Visual Artist
Quetzal Guerraro – Musical Director/Violin