Movement Workshop with Rosy Simas: she who lives on the road to war

Please join 2024 Gibney Presents artist Rosy Simas for a Movement Workshop on Saturday, November 4 from 11am to 2pm and a Community Performer Audition on Sunday, November 5 from 10am to 12pm.

she who lives on the road to war, an evening length performance installation by Rosy Simas, will be performed at Gibney from April 4-6, 2024. she who lives on the road to war is an immersive installation and dance performance created by Rosy Simas with her longtime collaborator, composer François Richomme, in response to global loss and the collective need to come together in peace and reconciliation. 

she who lives on the road to war is a place for visitors to meditate, rest, grieve, condole with one another. Simas considers rest, refuge, grieving, condoning, and cultivating a deep attention as a way of being together. Performers participate in this process, as the evolution of this project moves to  support their own artistic endeavors. Simas works toward a model that sustains a supportive, creative process that invites audiences, community, other artists, and scholars to experience together.

she who lives on the road to war MOVEMENT WORKSHOP guided by Sam Aros Mitchell, Rosy Simas Danse

REGISTER FOR THE WORKSHOP HERE
INFO + REGISTRATION FOR WORKSHOP & AUDITION HERE

Saturday, November 4, 2023
11:00 am – 2:00 pm
Gibney 280 Broadway
Studio G

PRICE: Pay What You Can ($20 suggested contribution)
Venmo–@rosysimasdanse
PayPal–dance@rosysimas.com

The “Deep Listening: Poetry of the Moving Body Workshop” is led by Sam Aros Mitchell, RSD Dancer and Community Engagement Consultant. Workshop participants will be introduced to movement prompts from Simas’ embodied practice as well as scores from their current performance work, she who lives on the road to war (SWLRW). The workshop will include prompts such as moving with eyes closed and open, moving away from and towards the light, initiating movement from various points on the body (outside in to inside out), and moving in response to information from the skin. In addition, workshop participants will learn about the historical and cultural significance of deer lace for Haudenosaunee people and be invited to explore movement scores from the SWLRW performance related to working with deer lace to “untangle the knots”. This workshop is intended for movers of various ages and levels of experience.

Level: Professional, college/university students, high school students,
and the general public

Age range: Intergenerational (12 years and older)

Participant Demographics: Open to All

BIOS

Rosy Simas Danse (RSD) was founded by Native choreographer and transdisciplinary artist Rosy Simas in 2012. Our primary commitment is to create and present innovative, transdisciplinary Native contemporary art that connects artists and audiences. With strong ties to Native communities and local and national dance communities, RSD uniquely bridges disciplines and cultures. On stages, outside and in museums, we create resonant work in collaboration with artists and community members. An emphasis on process produces intimate, nuanced work; comprehensive engagement events connect with audiences long before the performances.

Our efforts make visible the work of Native artists nationally and internationally, shifting the global view of how Native people are seen, demonstrating that Native artists are contemporary, groundbreaking artists bringing critical Indigenous worldviews to all arts fields. Our international ties help increase the visibility of and understanding about Native people to the world. We network with community arts organizations and national institutions to create critical connections, fostering both artist and audience development. Rosy Simas Danse

Rosy Simas (Seneca) is a transdisciplinary and dance artist whose work weaves themes of identity with family, sovereignty, and healing. Simas creates work with Native and BIQTPOC artists, driven by movement-vocabularies developed through deep listening.

The extensive knowledge of her family lineage is the underpinning of her relationship to culture and history – stored in her body – which is expressed through her work – of moving people, moving image, and moving objects that she makes for stage and installation. 

Simas’ dance works include Weave, Skin(s) and We Wait In The Darkness, which toured throughout Turtle Island. Simas’ installations have been exhibited at the Seneca Iroquois National Museum, Colorado College, All My Relations Arts, and Soo Visual Art Center.

Simas is a Doris Duke Artist, Fellow with Native Arts and Cultures Foundation, Guggenheim Creative Arts, McKnight Choreography, Dance/USA, 2022 USA Fellow, a recipient of a Joyce Award, Native Arts and Cultures Foundation SHIFT award, and multiple awards from NEFA National Dance Project, MAP Fund, and NPN.

Simas’ new work she who lives on the road to war premiered in September 2022 at All My Relations Arts and the Weisman Art Museum, in Minneapolis, and will tour Turtle Island in 2023-24. Rosy Simas

Sam Aros Mitchell (he/him/his) is an enrolled member of the Texas Band of Yaqui Indians. As an art-maker, dancer, and scholar, his work spans the disciplines of performance, sound/light/scenic design, choreography, and embodied writing. Since 2017, he has worked with Rosy Simas Danse as a performer, teacher, and community engagement organizer. Aros-Mitchell’s abstract, “José Limón, The Unsung and Yoeme Syncretism” was recently accepted for publication in a book that celebrates Yaqui choreographer José Limón, titled “Transcending Amerincaness”. In 2019, Aros-Mitchell founded Aros and Son Publishing, dedicated to publishing the work of Native writers. Aros-Mitchell holds a Ph.D. in Drama and Theater from the joint doctoral program at UC San Diego/UC Irvine, an MFA in Dance Theatre from UC San Diego, and a BFA in Dance from UC Santa Barbara. Aros-Mitchell is a 2023 McKnight Dance Fellow.

Photo: Jessika Akpaka (foreground) and Sam Johnson (background) by Valerie Oliveiro