Shannon Stewart
performance, work in process
river, river, river is a solo dance text being developed for premiere at the Contemporary Arts Center in New Orleans in 2023/24. Interweaving essay with looping choreographic references to iconic dance works, the piece deals with personal, political, familial and historical contents.
A very hard conversation takes place between father and daughter in a fast food restaurant. Near death over cheaply made sandwiches. Isn’t this how it always is?
In this sharing as a solo performance, river, river, river parallels the tumultuous arc of the creative process while simultaneously excavating my family’s history in of moving around the US, the nature of my parents’ work at a nuclear waste cleanup site on indigenous land, and the circuitous ways these things are woven into the experience of being a contemporary dance artist. The work includes visitors’ movements and stories as they are also actively contained in the space with everything else.
– Shannon Stewart
Link to the piece’s booklet (PDF)
CHOREOGRAPHY / TEXT / PERFORMANCE: Shannon Stewart
DRAMATURGY / DIRECTION: Iris McCloughan
READER / EDITOR: Amy Lawless
PHOTOGRAPHS: Ian Douglas
Shannon Stewart is a multidisciplinary dance artist based in New Orleans and Detroit. A 2023 USA Artist nominee, she makes work for stage, screen, and galleries that has been presented throughout the US and Europe, including Tulane University and DOCK 11 Berlin, and was slated to appear in 2020 at the Kennedy Center.