she who lives on the road to war

2019-2024

Minneapolis

Video without audio description

About this work

she who lives on the road to war is an immersive installation and dance performance created by Rosy Simas in response to global loss and the collective need to come together in peace and reconciliation.

she who lives on the road to war takes its title from one of the names of Haudenosaunee historical figure Jigonhsasee, whose wisdom and vision helped Hiawatha and the Peacemaker bring the Nations together as the Haudenosaunee Confederacy.

she who lives on the road to war is a place for visitors to rest, grieve, condole and meditate.

she who lives on the road to war was developed and premiered on the unceded territory of the Dakota in Mni Sota Makoce. This work was also being developed in relationship to Onöndowa’ga (Seneca) lands, other Haudenosaunee territories, and unceded Haudenosaunee lands in what is now called New York and Ontario.

Credits

Composer:

François Richomme

Performers:

Jessika Akpaka, Lelis Brito, Erin Drummond, Sam Johnson, Sam Mitchell, Valerie Oliveiro, Pedra Pepa, Sharon Picasso, Lela Pierce, Judy Shuǐ Xiān, Jeffrey Wells, and Taja Will.

Lighting Design:

Heidi Eckwall

ProductionManagement/
Community Engagement:

Sequoia Hauck

she who lives on the road to war

Images

In the foreground, Erin Drummond—a 30-something white-bodied woman with dark wavy hair and bare arms—gazes with concentration at her open palm. A thick, flat long deerskin lace hangs from her neck on her dark shirt. She wraps this lace across her palm's pinky and thumb. Blurred in the background, Sam Mitchell—an indigenous man with long hair—gazes skywards eyes closed with a calm face. Patches of cool blue light highlight both of their faces amidst a dominant warm wash of light.

Jessika Akpaka places a hand on her extended arm, looking intently as she reaches directly into the blurred foreground. A saffron-colored deerskin lace without end weaves around her shoulder and mocha brown arms, falling from her extended fingers with long, hunter green nails. Her hair is closely cropped. She wears a metallic azure blue short-sleeved dress, silver rings and ear lobe piercings. Against the black background in the distance, the deerskin traverses above a sitting witness on the wooden floor.

Wearing a V-neck metallic top, Jessika Akpaka looks up brightly with her closely cropped head thrown back. Weighing over her, Lelis Brito——a light-skinned Venezuelan-American with bare arms—looks downward. Lelis is entirely masked by a cascade of curly brown and grey hair. Lelis clutches a rumpled bundle of cream-colored deer skin fabric against Lelis's bare extended arm, cresting against Jessika's left shoulder.

Judee Holo Shuǐ Xiān leans against Sam Johnson's back. Judee basks concentrated, eyes closed. Her face, throat and chest open skywards, saturated in magenta and orange light. Her curly, shoulder-length black hair falls copiously over her brown face. She wears a bridge piercing and a dark metallic tank top revealing floral tattoos on her upper arm. Behind her shoulder in the distance, someone's arm rises holding warm-colored deerskin lace delicately between their fingers.

Lela Pierce— a black multiracial (light-skinned black/racially ambiguous presenting) woman in her mid 30's with a topknot of dark hair—drapes a pale, thin deerskin lace under her closed eyes and across the bridge of her nose. She reaches an open hand with golden yellow fingernails across her to support the deerskin's descent as it travels past her inclined head. Others move around her.

All photos by Valerie Oliveiro

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Funding Statement

Initial research for she who lives on the road to war was supported by the Weisman Art Museum Target Studio for Creative Collaboration program and the Pamela Beatty Mitchell Residency in Contemporary Dance at Colorado College Department of Theater and Dance.

The creation of she who lives on the road to war is made possible by a Native Arts and Cultures Foundation SHIFT award, The MAP Fund, and the New England Foundation for the Arts' National Dance Project, with lead funding from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and the Mellon Foundation.

Projects of Rosy Simas Danse are supported by the voters of Minnesota through a Minnesota State Arts Board Operating Support grant, thanks to a legislative appropriation from the arts and cultural heritage fund, and the McKnight Foundation.

Rosy Simas is a 2023 Doris Duke Artist, a 2022 Doris Duke USA fellow, and a 2022 McKnight Choreographer fellow.

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she who lives on the road to war

About this work

Credits

she who lives on the road to war

Funding Statement