river, river, river (2024)
A very hard conversation takes place between family members at a Panera Bread and it turns into a dance that turns into an experimental memoir and back into a dance using the structure of Trisha Brown’s Set And Reset—or what’s been gleaned about the dance’s structure from
YouTube and rumors.
Writer/Performer: Shannon Stewart
Dramaturgs: Iris McCloughan & Jody Kuehner
Co-director for full length version - Jody Kuehner
Text editors: Amy Lawless & Iris McCloughan
Sound & video editing support - Adam Sekuler
Photographs: Ian Douglas (Judson Church), Jingzi Zhao (RISK/REWARD)
WATCH: WIP Excerpt at Movement Research at Judson Church
Works cited:
Brown, Trisha “Set & Reset/Reset” uploaded by Shawn Brush, 5 Sep. 2016. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zHNxNKOgQzM&t=6s
Set and Reset/Reset (2013) - Trisha Brown
Work Set by Keith Thompson
Rutgers University
Notes
river, river, river is a solo performance (45 minutes) that flows together embodied narratives of place, belonging, relationship to colonial history, art lineages, and mental health. It is part of a larger body of work that encapsulates a print publication and multiple installations. river, river, river was created within the container of re:FRAME, a collective of five choreographers who were based in the south working together to support artistic practice and disrupt US funding structures.
re:FRAME has received support through the Contemporary Arts Center 2020-21 Commissioning Initiative with a grant from South Arts In partnership with the National Endowment for the Arts and the Louisiana Division of the Arts. re:FRAME was a 2022 finalist for the National Dance Project and received a National Performance Network Creation Fund grant, and support from the Platforms Fund, a collaborative effort of Antenna, Ashé Cultural Art Center, Junebug Productions, The Black School and the Andy Warhol Foundation.
A portion of artist fees and donations are shared with Columbia Riverkeeper to support the effort to clean up Hanford. www.columbiariverkeeper.org
Hanford is located on the ancestral lands of the Wanapum, Nez Perce, Yakama, and Umatilla Nations who continue to work to restore and preserve its vitality. Trisha Brown was born in Aberdeen, WA approximately 260 miles from Hanford.
Performances:
Seattle Festival of Dance Improvisation Dance Innovators Series, 12th Avenue Arts, Seattle, WA (August 9, 2024)
Whitman College Studio Series, Harper Joy Theatre, Walla Walla (Official Premier) (January 20, 2024)
Maggie Allesee National Center for Choreography Public Showing, Black Box Studio Theatre, Montgomery Hall, Florida State University, Tallahassee (December 14, 2023)
Andy Arts Center Studio Showing, Detroit, MI (November 7, 2022)
Catapult, New Orleans (May 17, 2023)
Risk/Reward Festival, Portland, OR (June 23 - 25, 2023)
Conarté Queering Space, Monterrey, Mexico (November 17 & 18, 2022)
Improspekcije Festival, Zagreb, Croatia (October 10, 2022)
Making Moves at the Black Box, Kansas City, MO (June 21, 2021)
Movement Research at the Judson Memorial Church, New York City, NY (January 6, 2020)
Jonathan Ferrara Gallery, National Performance Network Annual Conference satellite performance, New Orleans (December 11 & 12, 2019)
Audience responses to river, river, river :
“river, river, river is quite extraordinary and beautiful and brutal, smart, raw, and crafted. There are so many inlets for the audience while at the same time being rigorously inside an experimental dance form.”
“river, river, river somehow manages to make complexity exquisitely accessible.”
“Thank you for staying with it. All of us lifers are emboldened by this work.”
“Funny, touching, virtuosic, weird, and delightful.”
“There is an economy to the language that manages to put a lot into the bare minimum of words.”
Related Works:
Involuntary Park (2021)- Installation and one-on-one performance
river, river, river - looping studio (2022) - audio installation
river, river, river - a solo - Hybrid memoir/choreographic score (in process)
