November 15, 2013
Photo on front by Jason Aragon
Mark your calendars! Click here for video preview
Dreams & Silhouettes/Sueños y Silhuetas
Saturday January 25, 2014, 7p.m.
Sabado, 25 Enero, 2014, 7p.m.
Gratis/Free
Global Justice Center
225 E. 26th St., Tucson, AZ 85713
Dreams & Silhouettes is multi-disciplinary performance installation inspired by communities in Tucson and near the border that live with militarization, detention, and deportation.
Sueños y Silhuetas es la instalación actuación multidisciplinar inspirado en las comunidades en Tucson y cerca de la frontera que viven con la militarización, la detención y la deportación.
By award-winning filmmaker Jason Aragon of Pan Left Productions, performance artist Denise Uyehara and video artist Adam Cooper-Teran. Featuring stories from Las Promotoras of Derechos Humanos and members of the community, with visual artists Melo Dominguez, Lawrence Gipe and Wesley Creigh, performers Marc Pinate and Yvonne Montoya.
Made possible with generous support from the Tucson Pima Arts Council PLACE Grant and the MAP Fund
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Bus Stop Dreaming March 22 and 23, House of Neighborly Services, South Tucson
October 02, 2012
Traffic Stop. Border Patrol. Deportation.
Bus Stop Dreaming will appear as part of Safos Dance Theater’s “Vignettes”
House of Neighborly Services
243 W 33rd St, Tucson, AZ
Friday, March 22 at 7pm
Saturday, March 23 at 7pm
Admission: $14 suggested donation, $12 seniors/students
and special free matinee for community on Saturday March 23, 1pm
for more info on community matinee and accessibility call (520) 481-1656
Click here for video
Choreography by Denise Uyehara in collaboration with Yvonne Montoya, video/audio design for Bus Stop Dreaming by Adam Cooper-Terán, based on an interview with Alex by Jason Aragon. “The Dove” image used with permission © 2009 Ed Braverman. Photos by JP Westenskow. Bus Stop Dreaming is supported by the MAP Fund and the P.L.A.C.E. grant from the Tucson Pima Arts Council. Photos taken at MOCA-Tucson.
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Archipelago (2012)
December 08, 2012
ARCHIPELAGO is a new multidisciplinary work by critically-acclaimed performance artist Denise Uyehara and award-winning visualist Adam Cooper-Terán. Through video, image and movement they remix ancient myths of Okinawa with the story of Batuc, a village in the Yaqui River Valley which was flooded by the Mexican government. They weave together loss, cultural survival, wrath of the deities, spirits of past, present and the future. Premiered at Highways Performance Space, with support from the National Performance Network Creation Fund. Click here for video and details.
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Shooting Columbus
March 31, 2013
In the works:
Shooting Columbus is an evening-length, interdisciplinary performance in which a Yaqui theoretical physicist and Okinawan engineer build a time machine with plans to go back in time to the Bahamian Islands to kill Columbus in 1492. Their story is periodically interrupted by Indians and other people whose lives have been altered in powerful and bizarre ways by the assassination.
The project examines ethics and consequences of time travel, with the United State’s continual genocide of native people serving as a backdrop. It also responds to anti-immigration law SB1070 – the “papers please” clause of which was recently upheld by the Supreme Court – that has spread fear throughout the South Tucson community. Native Americans, who have lived in the region for generations before the U.S.-Mexico border was drawn, are caught in the midst of this ongoing xenophobia.
Three award-winning artists, video/audio designer Adam Cooper-Terán, performance artist/playwright Denise Uyehara and director/dramaturge Rachel Bowditch will develop and premiere this evening-length work in Phoenix in 2015, with plans to subsequently tour nationally and abroad. All three artists hail from highly collaborative, interdisciplinary backgrounds. These artists will also work with a small ensemble of performers to ready the work for its premiere.
This project marks the fourth collaboration between Uyehara and Cooper-Terán since they began working together in 2008. Major past projects include BUS STOP DREAMING, a site-specific, interdisciplinary performance, located at sites of deportation in South Tucson (MAP Fund 2012, in collaboration with Jason Aragon/Pan Left) and ARCHIPELAGO, which explores Yaqui and Okinawan creation stories, reset in contemporary times of war and occupation (National Performance Network Creation Fund).
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“Shedding Light on Memory and the Occupied Body” performative talk, Pitzer College
February 04, 2013
- I’m excited to announce I’ll be an Activist/Artist-in-Residence (AAIR) this February and March at the Claremont Colleges in Southern California. Activities include:Opening Performative Talk:
“Shedding Light and the Occupied Body”
February 13th, 2013, 7:00 p.m.
Benson Auditorium, Pitzer
Community and class workshop showing:
Saturday, March 9, 3pm, Kallick Family Gallery at Pitzer College
AAIR is the signature project of the Intercollegiate Department of Asian American Studies at the Claremont Colleges, offering public events and workshops with activists and professional artists representing diverse cultures and art forms that are usually not part of “traditional” college curricula. More…
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Bus Stop Dreaming in Casa Libre’s Edge 50 series, Jan 23
January 22, 2013
Denise Uyehara/Yvonne Montoya perform excerpts from Bus Stop Dreaming (the roving unplugged version!) as part of an evening of poetry and performance, presented by Edge 50: a Reading Series of Emerging and Younger Writers. Evening also features work by Cybele Knowles, Sueyeun Juliette Lee.
Wednesday, January 23,
7:30 p.m.
Suggested Donation: $5
Casa Libre
228 N. 4th Avenue
Tucson, AZ 85705
view video here
Bus Stop Dreaming is a series multi-disciplinary performances that appear at community sites around Tucson in response to the ongoing deportations of thousands of undocumented immigrants in the city. Bus Stop is a collaboration between documentary filmmaker Jason Aragon of Pan Left Productions and performance artist Denise Uyehara, with Yvonne Montoya of Safos Dance Theater, video/audio artist Adam Cooper-Terán. interviews and footage from residents of South Tucson. Made possible in part by the MAP Fund and the P.L.A.C.E./Open Society Fund from the Tucson Pima Arts Concil. More…
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ASU Intermedia Performance Class showing Dec. 5, 2012
November 28, 2012
This fall 2012 I was invited to teach Intermedia Performance at Arizona State University, Tempe. The Intermedia Program is part of the School of Art in the Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts. We had a great time creating performance, movement and installations, culminating in a final performance. Three cheers for ASU Intermedia students! Click on thumbnail for larger image.
Photos by David Moreno, additional photos by Mikey Estes. Featuring work by Alex Levy, Terrance Kelsy, Brandon Beren, Dave Moreno, Blake Payan, Tracy Fairfield, Mikey Estes, Yixuan Wang, Morgan Sweazy, Gabriel Lopez, Chungling Paul Liu, Edgar Noriega, Kiley Bishop.
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Bus Stop Dreaming at MOCA-Tucson, Saturday Sept. 29
September 02, 2012
- Yvonne Montoya in Bus Stop Dreaming
Saturday, September 29
Bus Stop Dreaming (excerpts) as part of INDEBTED / ENDUEDADO
Museum of Contemporary Art – Tucson
7:30 pm – 9:30 pm
265 South Church Avenue Tucson, AZ 85701
$5 for members, $8 for non-members
Bus Stop Dreaming is a series of short, multi-disciplinary performances that will appear at community sites around Tucson in response to the ongoing deportations of thousands of undocumented immigrants in the city. Bus Stop is a collaboration between documentary filmmaker Jason Aragon of Pan Left Productions and performance artist Denise Uyehara, in collaboration with Yvonne Montoya of Safos Dance Theater, video/audio artist Adam Cooper-Terán, and interviews and footage from residents of South Tucson. Made possible in part by the MAP Fund and the P.L.A.C.E./Open Society Fund from the Tucson Pima Arts Concil. More…
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Archipelago this weekend at Highways, Santa Monica. Feb. 17 & 18, 8:30pm
February 02, 2012
Archipelago by Denise Uyehara and Adam Cooper Teran
To reserve special $10 tickets call (310) 315-1459, give the code word “Denise,” and pay at the door.
Press Kit
Preview articles in Blue Fat’s Triple Echo
and The Rafu Shimpo
| Tags: Adam Cooper-Teran, Archipelago, Denise Uyehara, Highways, Okinawan, Yaqui | More: News, Performances and Activities
Prophecy and Origin Myth Contest – winning entries performed at Archipelago Feb. 17 & 18, Highways Performance Space
January 30, 2012
Denise says "Submit!"
Happy 2012!
We’re holding a Prophecy and Origin Myth Contest leading up to the show Archipelago (view video here) at Highways Performance Space. We want to hear from you!
Here are the questions:
- “What is the origin myth of your people?”
- “What is your prophecy for 2012?”
Winning submissions will be illuminated during Archipelago on FEB. 17 AND 18, 8:30pm, at HIGHWAYS PERFORMANCE SPACE.
I’ll recite the TOP TEN origin myths from an ancient compendium in the prologue for our show. And I’ll perform the WINNING PROPHECY for 2012 during the show. Hope to see you there!
All your submissions will be posted here on my website.
Deadline to submit if Feb. 16, 5pm PST.
Enter here:
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Your Prophecies and Origin Myths
January 27, 2012
Thank you everybody: we’ve had over 100 submissions to this contest! Last day to submit is Thursday, Feb. 16, 5pm PST. At the Archipelago performance I’ll READ the TOP TEN ORIGIN MYTHS OUT LOUD from an ancient compendium in the prologue for our show, and I’ll PERFORM the WINNING PROPHECY for 2012 during the show! Archipelago premieres on FEB. 17 AND 18, 8:30pm, at HIGHWAYS PERFORMANCE SPACE.
(image by Adam Cooper-Teran)
Some highlights:
In 2012 there will be an explosion of mixed-race babies and rivals the post-9/11 baby boom.
- Geo
My prediction is that the world will not end, but that it will be restarted anew. I don’t think the Maya calendar predicted the end of the world, but the beginning of a new cycle.
- Jennifer Reynolds-Kaye
Prophecy for 2012: That people will learn from each other, grow, give, receive, and give back through compassion, love, and communication.
- Lee Ann Goya
Origin Myth:
The Rana said to the arrivals in his kingdom in western India. Go back we have no space here. You cannot remain. Their emissary asked for a glass of milk filled to the brim. Then he asked for sugar. Gently he added more and more sugar into the milk and it dissolved. And the emissary said to the Rana let us stay and we will be the sugar in your milk. So we stayed.
Prophecy: We will become invisible everywhere outside our ancestral home (Pars in Iran) from which we will disappear.
- Asha Coorlawala
…
Prophecy: and things shall get lost in 2012…
- Marcel Schaap
….
Origin Myth:
before the war
[after Lawson Fusao Inada]
there was no me before the war
my people’s faces were not even a dream before the war
before the war, we had no ancestors
to imagine us into being
before the war
we didn’t exist
the war made us, shaped us like figurines
out of the mud of battlefields
out of blood spilled by enemies in enmity
out of bloods mingled in the mud
before the war
there was no me
the war was always there with us
my mother and my father were
forever in the war
they battled
over the halves of me like
starving soldiers over rations
I am not a territory
my body is a landmine
and I am always exploding
- submitted by Wei Ming Dariotis, PhD, originally published in 580 Split, Issue 12.
…
Origin Myth: According to legend, the first Vietnamese descended from the dragon lord Lạc Long Quân and the female heavenly angel Âu Cơ. They married and had one hundred eggs, from which hatched one hundred children. Their eldest son Hùng Vương ruled as the first Vietnamese king.
- Erin O’Brien
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Workshop at USC
January 21, 2012
Free Workshop at USC
Saturday, February 11, 2012
2 – 4 p.m. –Interactive Performance Workshop
“Performing the Objects of Memory” Click here for details.
Performance artists Denise Uyehara and Erin O’Brien will lead a hands-on workshop that explores the materialization of memory in everyday objects. Through embodied practice, we will explore how memory becomes embedded in or evacuated from objects. Participants are encouraged to bring an object from their daily lives that holds some meaning them. Objects will also be available at the workshop for participants to use. Space limited. To secure your spot please RSVP to: tdc@dornsife.usc.edu
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Bus Stop Dreaming awarded PLACE grant
December 14, 2011
Bus Stop Dreaming has been awarded a P.L.A.C.E. III Initiative Grant. This grant is from the Tucson Pima Arts Council with funding received from Nathan Cummings Foundation and the Open Society Institute (see side bar to the right for project details).
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Featured Performances
- Archipelago (2012)
December 8, 2012 | 12:26 pm
ARCHIPELAGO is a new multidisciplinary work by critically-acclaimed performance artist Denise Uyehara and award-winning visualist Adam Cooper-Terán. Through video, image and movement they remix ancient myths of Okinawa with the story of Batuc, a village in the Yaqui River Valley which was flooded by the Mexican government. They weave together loss, cultural survival, wrath of [...]
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- Transitions (2012)
January 20, 2012 | 2:18 pm
Transitions by Denise Uyehara and James Luna Everybody has a past. For James Luna and myself, that past began in Orange County — land of malls, surfers and the 405 Freeway. How did we evolve from being ethnic minorities in suburbia to the artists we are today? And in the sea of consumerism [...]
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- Bus Stop Dreaming (2012)
January 12, 2012 | 1:20 pm
Bus Stop Dreaming is a series of short, multi-disciplinary performances that appear at various community and art events in response to the ongoing deportations of thousands of undocumented immigrants in the city of Tucson. Bus Stop is a collaboration between two award-winning artists – documentary filmmaker Jason Aragon, and performance artist Denise Uyehara – and [...]
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- Denise in 1 minute
January 1, 2010 | 9:46 am
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- Pageantry (2008-2009)
December 3, 2009 | 3:33 pm
A collaboration by Denise Uyehara and Sri Susilowati PAGEANTRY follows the trail of young Asian women who danced for renowned Hollywood choreographer Michio Ito in the late 1930s. Under Ito’s training they learned dances from Indonesia, Thailand, China and Japan. Their plans to tour the U.S. were disrupted when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor and [...]
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- The Senkotsu (Mis)Translation Project (2006-2009)
April 26, 2009 | 9:29 am
The Senkotsu (Mis)translation Project (Highways Performance Space 2009, Barnsdall Municipal Art Gallery/COLA Awards 2006) is an interactive interdisciplinary performance installation that explores the entangled history of Okinawa and the U.S. military which has had a presence on these southern-most islands of Japan since World War II. It evokes the battle of Okinawa in which one-third [...]
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