Interview with Dancing Earth.

Dancing Earth is an array of indigenous dance artists who work as a collective under the leadership of Rulan Tangen, striving to embody a unique essence of Indigenous identity and perspective by creation and renewal of artistic and cultural movement rituals. 'Ancient and futuristic, our dances are an elemental language of bone and blood memory in motion. We cultivate our individual artistry on behalf of empowerment of all peoples, and create bridges for art and humanity, tradition and experimentation. Through movement, we gather with respect, inspiration and innovation. We create our works with Indigenous collaborators in the fields of music, mask making, photography, costume, light design, architecture, poetry and storytelling.' In this interview, conducted by Tina Majkowski at the Hemispheric Institute's 5th Encuentro (Belo Horizonte, Brazil, 2005), choreographer Rulan Tangen is joined by musician/dancer/painter Quetzal Guerrero (Cambiva, Yacqui, Ahumeche), dancer/photographer Anthony Ch-Wl-Tas Collins (Salt River Pima, Seneca, Osage), and dancer/actor/painter Alejandro Meraz (Tarasco). They discuss, among other things, the origins of their collaboration, the role of dance as a channel of empowerment for indigenous people, and the ways in which Dancing Earth works with memory, place, tradition, and ritual through movement. Hemispheric Institute of Performance and Politics