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For the past three years dance artists shannon stewart and Tahni Holt have woven their interests together creating a kinship in deeply researched embodied forms. It is a form of love and friendship that brings together creation and community, in a way that mirrors their individual practices as artists and organizers/builders in the respective places they live. Shannon and Tahni’s work resides in the study of interconnected systems–ecology, history, performative bodies (including non-human), and expansive understandings of communication. They have danced FOREST in Portland, OR, Lawrence, KS, New Orleans, LA, Northampton, MA, and Walla Walla, WA. 

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UPCOMING

APRIL 25, 2026 | 10am

KU Field Station presents: 

A Field, a Forest: Rice Woodland

Site specific performance by Shannon Stewart + Tahni Holt + Óscar Trujillo 

1727 N 500 Rd, Palmyra KS 

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Supported through a Showcasing Open Spaces for Artist Adventurer grant from Outdoors Unscripted and the University of Kansas Department of Theatre & Dance

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PAST PERFORMANCES & EVENTS ​

FEB 1, 2025 | 8pm

A Field, A Forest: WALLA, WALLA, WA

Whitman College Studio Series, Walla Walla, WA

Harper Joy Theater

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Created and performed by Tahni Holt and shannon stewart

Sound design: Luke Wyland 

Costumes: Lee Kyle

Lighting: LD DeArmon

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FEB 17 - MAR 3, 2024

FOREST: New Orleans

The Front Gallery, New Orleans

Exhibition of Community Practice

Rooms 2 - 4: shannon stewart + tahni holt

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Dense, vertical, tangled. Connective tissue to roots and branches, blood to sap, wood to bark and slowed down energetic tree pulse. FOREST is the first installation of a migrating movement research project done collectively in collaboration with our tree kin and each other. 

 

Performers include:  Rebecca Allen, Cypress Atlas, Wes Chavis, paris cyan cian, Sierrah Dietz, Joanna Farley, Ann Glaviano, Tahini Holt, Rhi Jade, roni katz, Leona Strassberg Steiner, shannon stewart, and Garima Thakur

 

On view at the Front Feb 17 - Mar 3, performances happening throughout gallery open hours. 

 

Special performances Feb 17 & Mar 3 by Serpentine choir –a queer femme choir dedicated to healing, pleasure and joyful forms of embodiment through the presence of song. 

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SPECIAL PROGRAMMING 

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Saturday, February 17th, 7:30pm + Sunday March 3rd (time TBD)

Special Performance by Serpentine Choir –a queer femme choir dedicated to healing, pleasure and joyful forms of embodiment through the presence of song.Serpentine choir will join the ongoing performance of FOREST to open (Feb 17) and close (Mar 3) the space collectively.

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Sunday, February 18th, 10am

Special outdoor workshop by shannon stewart + tahni holt

Free and open to all interested, no prior movement experience necessary. Wear comfortable clothing and bring a notebook.

Couturie Forest, City Park

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Sunday March 3, 1pm

Planetary practices workshop with with Roni Katz

Meet @ the Front in advance of Serpentine performance

  

Planetary practices ask what kind of dances emerge through reorienting with other-than-human rhythms, durations, beingness, and inhabitations. The research works with circular translation of knowledge to develop experimental formats for embodied encounters with one self, with each other and with the environment. This workshop will take place partially outdoors. 

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@thsurrealshannonstewart

www.tahniholt.com @tahniholt