Emily Johnson<\/a>\u00a0and her collaborators perform\u00a0Niicugni. Niicugni is a Yu’pik word meaning Pay Attention, Listen.<\/p>\nThis is the second part of a trilogy, the first one focused on home, what it is, how we know it and experience it. \u00a0This performance focuses on the land and our always relationship to it, yet how we can become distanced from it so easily. \u00a0Reminds me of the quotes I posted from Chief Luther Standing Bear just below.<\/p>\n
Emily and her co-dancer and collaborator, Aretha, (one of 5 members of Catalyst) tried to imagine how they could be in two places at once on the land. \u00a0Much of the movement in the performance grew from improvisation based on that idea. \u00a0The idea behind it, the intention of the piece, was to\u00a0memorialize the fact that at any one point in time the land beneath our feet is connected to some other land, all other land, yes, but in particular land that may hold special meaning for us, like home if we are not at home.<\/p>\n
Much of the work had little to no narrative line and included collaborators from three groups: \u00a0urban farmers, (I forget right now.) and people who learned the Yu’pik art of fish lantern creation.<\/p>\n
Allison, also a docent friend and a dancer, learned how to sew the fish skin lantern and made one that hung in the lobby of the auditorium. \u00a0Many of the some 50 fish skin lanterns were the main lighting for the entire hour long performance. \u00a0Salmon are a primary food source for the Yu’pik in Alaska, Emily’s people and her home. \u00a0To make the fish skin lanterns the sewers skin the fish, then scrape all that could rot off, a process that can take up to 16 hours for each skin and four are used in the making of the lanterns. \u00a0So, a lot of work and work related directly to living from mother earth.<\/p>\n
The intriguing part of the performance with the collaborators from the three different groups is that she gathers different groups together each place she performs the piece and choreographs their involvement so it integrates with her work.<\/p>\n
In case you’re interested here’s a video on making fish-skin lanterns.<\/p>\n