Artist-in-Residence: Oogie Push

Rosy Simas Danse welcomes Oogie Push to the three thirty one space as artist in residence.

Oogie_Push is from the Meskwaki Nation near Tama Iowa. She started dancing Fancy Shawl as soon as she could walk and grew up competing on the Pow-wow Trail. She and her relatives started doing dance performances and sharing Meskwaki culture with students in schools around Iowa. She performed in these dance presentations from 4th grade all the way through undergrad teaching people about Pow-wow and Meskwaki culture plus some Native history. Oogie found herself in undergrad at Haskell Indian Nations University, studying American Indian Studies with an emphasis in Theatre. From there she then graduated from University of Missouri-Kansas City with a MFA in Theatre Design & Technology. She has alway been on a mission to educate people about Native culture and issues through dance and theatre as well as challenge stereotypes about who Native people could be on stage. Since the pandemic, the uprising after the murder of George Floyd, and everything else she has spent 2021 incorporating healing elements into all the work she does. She plans to continue doing so for the foreseeable future. She is currently developing a one woman show with Full Circle Theater that she plans to tour next year, if not sooner. She will include song, dance, storytelling, utilizing Meskwaki spirituality, personal experience, and healing techniques she has learned throughout her adult life. She is also helping to devise a slapstick comedy touring show called Arla Mae's Booyah Wagon with Sod House Theatre which will also include song and dance, with talks of including Fancy Shawl dancing.