Skin(s)
(2016-2018)
The Skin(s) project is multi-faceted in order to demonstrate the multitude of ways contemporary Native people view themselves in the world. Skin(s) is a visual art exhibit, a dance, a film, and a web based media project developed in three regions: the Twin Cities, San Francisco Bay Area, and Chicago metropolitan area.
The project was inspired by Simas’ visits with other Native people in cities and rural areas while on tour. Native people are mostly invisible to the wider population, yet the diversity of Native identity is vast. There are 567 federally recognized tribes, and thousands of Native people identifying in multiple ways.
The Skin(s) film, Skin Frequencies, by Elizabeth Day, Heid E. Erdrich, and Rosy Simas celebrates urban Native identity – post relocation in Chicago, San Francisco Bay Area and the Twin Cities. The film will premiere in the Skin(s) exhibit at Intermedia Arts in Minneapolis, MN.
Skin(s) the visual art exhibit at Intermedia Arts was curated by Heid E. Erdrich and included over 20 Native artists from Minnesota.
Above images of Skin(s) visual art exhibit curated by Heid E. Erdrich at Intermedia Arts, Minneapolis. Images by Uche Iroegbu, 2016
Skin Frequencies by Elizabeth Day, Heid E. Erdrich, and Rosy Simas Danse celebrates urban Native identity – post relocation in Chicago, San Francisco Bay Area and the Twin Cities. The film premiered in the Skin(s) exhibit at Intermedia Arts in Minneapolis, MN, October 2016
Above images of Skin(s) at the Culver Center, Riverside iteration presented by the UC Indigenous Choreographers at Riverside. Images by Carrie Rosema, 2016
Above images from Skin(s) Oakland iteration at Eastside Arts Alliance Presented in the LAIR program. Images by Scott Tsuchitani, 2017
I am Native, I am Seneca, I am also a dancemaker. This is what makes my work Native. This is what makes my dance about Native identity. Because just simply being a Native dancemaker is political. It is my continual embodied political act of creating more visibility of Native people. My Skin(s) dance is a multi-dimensional moving image. It is ever evolving and will shift and change in each location it travels to: Duluth, Berkeley, Oakland, Chicago, Evanston, Riverside. It will accumulate stories and emotions. It will carry those into each new iteration of the work. Skin(s) right now is a dance of sensing…sensing the visible and invisible. It is a dance literally informed by skin, what we hold in our skin, what we reveal, what we sense and how it carries us through the world. The Skin(s) project is dedicated to the memory of Roger Buffalohead (Ponca). Roger was a Native scholar, educator and a historian. Throughout his life he was dedicated to Native education and helping Native students earn higher education degrees at a time when this seemed impossible to many. He taught me many things in subtle ways that I didn’t realize until I was in my 40s. I carry in all that I do his care and love for me and for Native American people. — Rosy Simas
Skin(s)
Tour 2016–2018
Kelly Strayhorn Studios, Pittsburgh, PA, 2016
Intermedia Arts, Minneapolis, MN, 2016
Indigenous Choreographers at Riverside, Riverside, CA, 2016
La Peña, Berkley, CA, 2017
Eastside Arts Alliance, Oakland, CA, 2017
Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, 2017
City of Chicago Cultural Center, Chicago, IL, 2018
American Indian Community Housing Organization, Duluth, MN, 2018
The creation of Skin(s) is a National Performance Network (NPN) Creation Fund Project co-commissioned by Intermedia Arts, La Peña Cultural Center, and Eastside Arts Alliance. The Creation Fund is supported by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, Ford Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Arts (a federal agency).
The Skin(s) tour was supported by NEFA National Dance Project Tour Award with lead funding from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and additional funding from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation
Skin(s) was supported by a 2015 Guggenheim Creative Arts Fellowship for Choreography awarded to Rosy Simas.
Skin(s) composer François Richomme appears via a partnership with Association Artefactdanse, Montpellier, France.
Skin(s) iterations in Minneapolis, Oakland, Berkeley, Evanston, Chicago, and Duluth were supported by over 50 donors from across Minnesota and Turtle Island.
