ORIGINS (2009)
Directed by: Rodrigo Esteva and Mirah Kllc Moriarty
Performers: Tawera Rodney Bell, Olivia Eng, Rodrigo Esteva, and Mirah Kllc Moriarty
Live Music: Pauchi Sasaki, Laura Inserra, and Claudia Cuentas
Origins was an in-process sharing as part of an Artist Residency at NOHSpace, SF, of a multimedia creation directed by DANCE MONKS. The artists investigated and chose the mythology of the old world connected to their ancestral origins (Maori, Mexican, Chinese, Slavic) as a starting point.
Made possible by the East Bay Arts Center / Center for Cultural Innovation, The Open Circle Foundation, and the Artists Residence Program of NOHSpace, SF.
ROAD TO REMEMBRANCE (2009)
Director and Performer: Mirah Kllc Moriarty
Advisor: Baco Ohama
Road (to Remembrance) was a solo inspired by the process of "descansos" or "to put to rest" by Dr. Clarissa Estes, a ritual process that marks significant moments in the passage of life. She performed inside a tent she made of more than 1,000 pieces of paper with projections of her ancestors and a sound landscape by the renowned musician Pauchi Sasaki.
Performed at Goddard College
BODY & SOUND
Curator: Mirah Kllc Moriarty
Body & Sound Festival was curated by DANCE MONKS with movement/practice workshops and live music performances by internationally renowned artists Pauchi Sasaki (Peru / Japan), Laura Inserra (Italy), T-Bird Luv (Brooklyn), and Dohee Lee (Korea).
KUNST STOFF ARTS, San Francisco.
Photo Credit: Pauchi Sasaki
CAVE (2009)
Director: Laura Inserra
Choreography: Mirah Moriarty and Rodrigo Esteva
Performers: Melecio Estrella, Christine Bonansea, Olivia Eng, Leah Rybolt, Mirah Moriarty and Rodrigo Esteva
Cave was a site-specific performance in a man-made "cave" on the side of the mountain in Hawk Hill. The piece included 20 hang players who were commissioned by Green Music Network.
TALKING MOUNTAIN (2008)
Talking Mountain was a music and dance collaboration performed by Laura Inserra, Pauchi Sasaki, Claudia Cuentas, Mirah Moriarty, and Rodrigo Esteva.
Samavesha Space Richmond, CA
POSTCARDS OF MEXICO (2007)
Directed by: Mirah Moriarty and Rodrigo Esteva
Dancers: Olivia Eng, Britt Karhoff, Marybeth Starr, Mirah Moriarty, and Rodrigo Esteva
Postcards of Mexico was a contemporary multimedia performance with traditional Mexican folk music and photographs of Sebastian Belaustegui, author of Guardianes del Tiempo / The Guardians of Time. The piece focused on endangered ways of daily life in Mexico due to the influx of large US corporations.
Premiered at CounterPULSE, SF
Made possible by the Zellerbach Family Foundation
GREEN: A FORCE OF NATURE
Directed by: Mirah Moriarty and Rodrigo Esteva
Dancers: Olivia Eng, Britt Karhoff, Marybeth Starr Hope, Mirah Moriarty, and Rodrigo Esteva
GREEN: A Force of Nature (2005) was an interdisciplinary environmental performance focused on returning Nature to cities through body memory. The piece included site-specific video projections filmed along the California coast.
Premiered at CounterPULSE, SF. Performed by Olivia Eng, Mary Starr Hope, Brit Karhoff, Mirah Moriarty, and Rodrigo Esteva. Made possible by the Zellerbach Family Foundation and the Open Circle Foundation.
THE OTHER SIDE/ of the border (2005)
Directed by: Mirah Moriarty and Rodrigo Esteva
The Other Side/of the border (El Otro Lado) (2005) was created from a series of interviews conducted by artists (in Spanish and English) with a wide variety of folks living on the Mexican side of the border and their vision of "the other side." This piece asked the questions: How do you envision the "other side?" How do we see ourselves at the US border, along the US and Mexico? What are our experiences? What are our prejudices? What would you like to be different? The recorded interviews were the soundscape of a love duet between the artists Rodrigo (Mexican) and Mirah (born in the United States) and included firsthand experiences of racial prejudice, childhood imaginings, memories, and folk wisdom.
Commissioned by the Summer Language Institute of Middlebury College, VT.
IMAGINED LAND (2003)
Directors: Mirah Moriarty and Rodrigo Esteva
Dancers: Omar Francisco Armella Romero, Elisa Mendez, and students of Iberoamericana University, MX
Tierra Imaginaria/Imagined Land was a specific group piece for the site directed by DANCE MONKS at the Universidad Iberoamericana (Universidad Iberoamericana) in Mexico City. The work was carried out in and around the trees on campus and included visual installations of found objects, including mountains of jacaranda flower petals (bluish).
Commissioned by the Universidad Iberoamericana, Mexico City.
LULABAI (2002)
Directed by: Mirah Moriarty and Rodrigo Esteva
Dancers: Students of Ollin Yolizli
Artwork: Students of Escuela Madrid
Lulabai was choreographed for dancers of the Ollin Yoliztli School of Arts. The work was inspired by drawings of elementary students in the Madrid School of their "ideal worlds", which were projected as part of the installation for the live presentation.
Premiered in Escuela Madrid and the UNAM (National University, Mexico City as Colores. Commissioned by Escuela Madrid, Mexico City.
THE BUTTERFLY HOUSE (2000)
Directed and Performed by: Mirah Moriarty and Rodrigo Esteva
The Butterfly House was a series of dreamlike landscapes, inspired by living in the mountains of Xalapa, dancing along streams, and rocks in the forest for 5 to 6 hours a day. The performance included a large papier-mâché, white horse.
Performed at La Casa de Cultura Coatepec, MX and The Flynn Center for the Performing Arts
THE GREEN PROJECT (2000)
Directed by: Mirah Moriarty and Rodrigo Esteva
Performers: Elementary Students and guest artists
The Green Project (2000-present) was created from a deep and modern need for children to reconnect physically and imaginatively with nature through embodied experience. Green is a carefully constructed residency program by which young people or a multigenerational audience move in partnership with the land and each other. The project culminated in an original multimedia presentation with dance, stories, and live music created in collaboration with the community, along with professional artists.
Previous youth projects include The Great Dreamer (Malcolm X), Rain Dances (Highland Elementary), Wild Child and other tall tree tales (Berkeley Arts Magnet), Green Project Bike Tour (East Bay), Madrid School (City of Mexico), and Conversaciones con árboles, Nayarit (Mexico).
