American Crow
Latin: Corvus brachyrhynchos
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Dance and Artist Residency with Sarah Bush Dance Project and Audubon California
Photo: Sarah Bush Dance Company
Sarah Bush Dance Project is known for their award-winning intergenerational dance theater performances. Sarah and company have spent several seasons creating site-specific and site-inspired works. The company has developed a This Land creative process of using the senses to generate language and movement. They have been studying birds, bird language, and bird movement as part of this artist residence.
That’s a question that will lead us into Sarah Bush Dance Project's 14th season. We’re thrilled that our 2020 residency has been extended and we’ll be continuing our Audubon partnership in 2021. We are making a collection of dance films to bring the viewer inside the sensory experience of the birdsit. The #sixfootwingspan flock of artists gather weekly. Through birdsits, writing, movement, creative direction, research, and conversation we work together to deepen our connection with birds and to shape stories, visuals, movement, and sound to share with audiences and invite the public into these experiences
Our 2020 season clarified that we can adapt the how, what, and where we create and it’s the why and the who that are the essential heart of the project and the consistent thread.
Dancers include Frances Teves Sedayao, Joan Lazarus, Sue Li Jue, Richelle Donigan, Risa Ofelia Diaz, KJ Dahlaw, Julianna Cressman, Sarah Bush, Sarah Cabigas, Audubon bird language guide Molly Tsongas, filmmakers Lindsay Gauthier, Clare Schweitzer, Aleksey Bochkovsky, composer Miles Lassi, video effects Artist Olivia Ting, and couture designer Colleen Quen, sculpture artist Kasia Krzykawska, makeup artists Lyle Mackston, Tamiko, Ché, photographer Alex Matt, and production manager Jeanie Walsh.
Connection. Connecting matters. Connecting to YOU, to each other, to our communities, and also to the rest of the natural world and creatures around us, helps us repair our relationships to ourselves and to one another. It broadens our scope of awareness and expands our consciousness to consider other ways of living.
Enjoy these dance films that explore emerging themes around birds and conservation through movement, music, and expression.
DANCERS: Sarah Bush, Julianna Cressman, KJ Dahlaw.
COMPOSER, VIDEOGRAPHER & EDITOR: Miles Lassi
DIRECTOR: Sarah Bush
CHOREOGRAPHY: Sarah Bush and KJ Dahlaw
Thank you to Dash Weidhofer at Audubon’s Bobcat Ranch for touring the dancers through the landscape and ecosystem of the property. Thank you to Olivia Raine for sharing knowledge about fire management in grasslands. Thank you to Sonjia Shelly and the Yolo County Audubon phenology team for including Sound Designer, Miles Lassi, on one of your tours.
A contact call is a type of call used by birds for the purpose of letting other birds know their location. We listen for these calls to learn the language of the birds and to make contact with the more-than-human world.
DANCERS: Sarah Bush, Julianna Cressman, KJ Dahlaw, Risa Ofelia Diaz, courtney hope, Frances Teves Sedayao
COMPOSER, VIDEOGRAPHER & EDITOR: Miles Lassi
DIRECTOR: Sarah Bush
CHOREOGRAPHY: Sarah Bush and cast
THANK YOU: Lisa Harding, courtney hope, Drey Pax And to the land, the plants, the ladybugs, the birds.
Stunning bird drag makeup transformation by L Y L E, drag queen and Disney Prince. This look inspired by the rainbow plumage of the Painted Bunting. Follow L Y L E at @itsjustlyle on IG.
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