

river, river, river (premier 2023)
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.
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.
Choreography/Text/Performance: Shannon Stewart
Dramaturgy: Iris McCloughan
Photographs: Ian Douglas
Production Team: TBA
Premier: Contemporary Arts Center New Orleans (Fall/Winter 2023)
WATCH:
WIP Excerpt at Movement Research at Judson Church
Full WIP showing
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.
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)
Related Works:
Involuntary Park (2021)- Installation
river, river, river - a solo dance text (2022) - Print object/chapbook





