Rootstock 24
This year we are engaging with the website more organically. Details about the residents will be added during the season as they arrive. Following are the names of the artists who will be in residence next to their residency dates for this summer. The aesthetic response images, descriptions, and pictures will populate the page as the season progresses.
Amber Ortega & Lauren Tietz
June 2nd - 9th
Artists pictured from L to R Amber Ortega & Lauren Tietz. PC: Benjamin Cheney
Image Description: Two dancers are on a deck side by side. The are framed by out of focus rebar. Amber is on the L. She is kneeling with her hands gently resting on her upper thighs. He elbows are gently opening to her side. Her eyes are closed and head is slightly tilted to her right. She is wearing teal pants and a white short sleeve graphic tee. Her hair is pulled back revealing an undercut on the left side. Lauren is on the R. She is leaning on her left side body with her torso supported by her L forearm. Her right foot reaches into space appearing to almost touch Amber’s foot. Her right arm is fron of her body with a 90 degree bend in the elbow. Her fingers are extended, reaching towards teh deck. Her eyes are closed an her head is slightly tilted to her left. She is wearing black pants and a brown and black print sweater. Her hair is down, half of it falling toward the deck with gravity and the other half framing the R side of her face.
Amber and Lauren will be culling through their current practices to establish viable methodologies for developing the embodied writing practice they have been co-developing over time. This is an emergent practice with which they are both eager to immerse in and explore. Their intention is for the development of their own writing as dance/movement artists. Within this also they vision to create a clear methodology for sharing this work and practice with others.
Nic Gareiss
June 9th - 16th
Pictured Nic Gareiss PC: Benjamin Cheney
Image Description: Nic is captured in mid air dancing on a deck with a view of trees and lake in the background. His feet are blurred from the pace of their percussive movement. He is dancing on a small red tap floor that rests on a blue and white striped carpet, which lays on a large deck. We can see the backs of audience members who are watching him. Nic is looking down at the tap floor. his arms are lofted gently to either side, while softened at the elbow. His L leg is bent and the knee, ready to strike. Nic is wearing a jean long sleeve button up shirt with the sleeves rolled up. He is wearing navy and pants with a white pinstripe. His shoes are a taupe and red combo.
Nic spent concentrated time at the Croft listening to archival audio of folk musicians recorded on Beaver Island obtained through the MSU Museum. He explored the intricacies of each track including the musical structure, timing, timbre, and audio artifacts captured/created by the recording technology. He viewed archival footage of Michigan step dancers from the same historical era. He drew from his background in Irish step dance, Appalachian flatfooting, and Francophone Canadian stepping (all of which would have been present in Michigan during the early 20th century), approach each recording as an invitation to movement. He spent time improvising with these recordings, tracking the tendencies of his own extemporaneous improvisations using video recording, note-taking, and/or physical memory. He reflected on the way that the climate and environment of the Croft/Beaver Island may have affected the movement/sound of past dancing bodies and his own movement in the present. He shared his findings in an informal sharing at The Croft.
Kelsey Burns & Kim Upstill
June 16th - 30th
Headshots of Kelsey Burns & Kim Upstill taken on the Horton Bay Schoolhouse deck. Kelsey is on the L and Kim is on the R. PC: Kim for Kelsey’s headshot and Kelsey for Kim’s headshot.
Image Description: There are two separate headshots placed next to one another with a black lined border connecting them. Kelsey is on the left of the image looking over the left shoulder. She is smiling and has long red hair. She is wearing a black sleeveless top. Kim is on the image on the right of the image. She has her head tilted and slightly turned to the right. She is smiling and has short brown hair. She is wearing a black sleeveless top.
Kim and Kelsey spent time exploring through partner dance, and food what it means to follow, explore connection, and deeply listen. They explored the differences that arose from embodied and verbal dialogue. For their sharing they had a dinner & dance event where they prepared food, and had open space for embodied & verbal dialogue. They also made sure to go out to take local ballroom classes and went to a honkey tonk line dance.
Rowan Janusiak & Collaborators
August 11th - 18th
Rowan Janusiak is pictured PC: Leah Crosby
Image Description: Rowan looks ahead at a soccer ball that they appear to have just headed. They are on a deck with trees in the background. Rowan has short bleach blonde hair, white sunglasses, a white tank-top, orange shorts, pink knee pads, and green shoes.
Rowan Janusiak was joined in residence by Alana Packo, Ariel Vidrio, and Stella Lansil. They were hosted by Leah Crosby and their partner Logan Tillery. While in residence, Rowan and their collaborators explored building a new work. Their explorations were based in play, memory, and construction. What does it mean to build news things, and how do we honor what they were before? How do explore ways of remembering who we were in relationship to place and space? Together with Leah and Logan, They hosted a dinner and shared videos of Rowan, Stella, Alana, and Ariels’ explorations with those who joined for dinner.
Levi Gonzalez & Collaborators
August 18th - September 1st
Pictured from L to R Rebecca Serrell Cyr, Kayvon Pourazar, and Levi Gonzalez. PC: Maddy Sher
Image Description: Rebecca, Kayvon, and Levi are on the dance deck. White pine tree can be seen in the distance. REbecca in dressed in black with her hair pulled back and facing the horizon. She has a jacket in her hands. Kayvon is in the foreground of the image. He is on his knees in a beige top and grey shorts. He is looking towards Levi. Levi is standing with eyes closed. He is caught in mid step. He is wearing a black outfit featuring a black cape and beige decorative chest piece. A basketball is on the deck in the background.
Levi Gonzalez was joined in residency by Kayvon Pourazar and Rebecca Serrell Cyr. They were hosted during their residency by Maddy Sher. As part of Rootstock 24 at the Croft Residency, Levi Gonzalez and collaborators Rebecca Cyr and Kayvon Pourazar presented fragments of the current work-in-progress Hoary. The work engages with site through half-factual, half-fictional narratives, vocal utterances, and movement explorations intended to activate the audience’s awareness of their own bodies in relation to the space we are collectively inhabiting. They had an informal sharing on the last Thursday of their residency.
Ramya Kapadia & Jennifer Scully-Thurston
September 8th - 18th
Pictured in the image Ramya Kapadia PC: Jennifer Scully-Thurston
Image Description: Ramya in laying on a black stage floor. Her upper body is on crinkled brown paper. A camera is above her focused on her upper body. Her legs straddle one of the legs of teh tripod, She is wearing a red hat, two tone blue horizontal striped shirt, and purple grey pants.
While in residence Ramya Kapadia and Jennifer Scully-Thurston made a short documentary/dance film connecting their research on the Hindu demon, Kamsa or Kans (depending on the regoin in India), and the work and staff of northern Michigan’s Community Recovery Alliance, CRA. They spent their time interviewing the staff of the CRA, filming dance video on site locations and in theater spaces. They shared a first cut of their documentary at The Crooked Tree school of ballet with the CRA staff present. Ramya also shared a hand gesture workshop with the students based on traditional Southern Indian dance.
Nattie Trogdon & Hollis Bartlett
September 21st - 26th
Pictured from L to R: Hollis Bartlett & Nattie Trogdon. PC: Nattie & HOllis
Image Descritption: The image focuses on a gap between teo deck boards. The background and foreground are out of focus. Three tress, the deck railing, two dancers, and a blue sky with clouds can be seen. The dancers are in full silhouette against the blue sky. The dancer on the L appears to be emerging from the a tree.
Our time at The Croft focused on nurturing the seeds of a new work we’re calling vessels, and we are so thankful for the supportive container that held us during this time. This new work had been swirling in our minds and in language for sometime - this residency allowed us to physicalize these thoughts and begin the process of making it tangible. The land allowed us to slow down, breathe, realign our circadian rhythms and listen to our bodies. We felt the echoes of artists and dear friends who have danced here before us. Our research for this new work draws on our bodily memory, aiming to blur the legibility of our embodied histories in pursuit of something that feels like transformation or preservation or simply just aliveness. The seeds we planted at The Croft have already started to grow and transform, we will share a first draft of these ideas in January and every time we step into the studio we tap back into the depth and breath we found at The Croft.