river, river, river is a body of work that encompasses a solo performance and several tributaries of creative inquiry. As a solo performance, "river, river, river" parallels the tumultuous arc of the creative process while simultaneously excavating my family’s history in the south, the nature of my parents' work at a nuclear waste cleanup site on Yakama Nation land, and the circuitous ways these things are woven into the experience of being a contemporary dance artist.

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river, river, river is also a choreographic inquiry into memoire, how we make ourselves by stories, how stories are happening as bodies are moving through space and landscape and history. A very hard conversation takes place between father and daughter in a Panera Bread.  river, river, river is the process of trying to understand everything that led up to that point to make a different kind of familial archive in order to move through it. The work includes visitors’ movements and stories as they are also actively contained in the space with everything else.

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Choreography/Text/Performance: Shannon Stewart
Dramaturgy: Iris McCloughan

Photographs: Ian Douglas

Production Team: TBA​

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Premier: Contemporary Arts Center New Orleans (Fall/Winter 2023)

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WATCH:

WIP Excerpt at Movement Research at Judson Church

Full WIP showing

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The creation of river, river, river (solo performance) was made possible in part by the CAC's 2020-2021 Commissioning Initiative with a grant from South Arts in partnership with the National Endowment for the Arts and the Louisiana Division for the Arts.  Additional support has been provided by UCROSS Foundation, re:Frame, Art Klub, and 75 individual donors. As part of the re:FRAME collective, river, river river has received support from the Platforms Fund (Andy Warhol Foundation in partnership with Antenna, Junebug, Ashe Cultural Center), National Performance Network Creation Fund, and as a finalist in the National Dance Project Production Grant. 

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Work in Progress Showings:

​December 11 & 12, 2019 - Jonathan Ferrara Gallery during the NPN Annual Conference (New Orleans)

January 6, 2020 - Movement Research at the Judson Memorial Church (New York City)

December 11, 2021 - January 2, 2022 - The Front Gallery (New Orleans)

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Related Works:

Involuntary Park (2021)- Installation

river, river, river - a solo dance text (2022) - Print object/chapbook

 

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