ExpositionPark ExpositionPark
Land Acknowledgement
Heidi Duckler Dance recognizes that we occupy land originally and still inhabited and cared for by the Tongva, Tataviam, Serrano, Kizh, and Chumash Peoples. We honor and pay respect to their elders and descendants past, present, and emerging — as they continue their stewardship of these lands and waters. We acknowledge that settler colonization resulted in land seizure, disease, subjugation, slavery, relocation, broken promises, genocide, and multigenerational trauma. This acknowledgment demonstrates our responsibility and commitment to truth, healing, and reconciliation and to elevate the stories, culture, and community of the original inhabitants of Los Angeles County. We are grateful to have the opportunity to live and work on these ancestral lands. We are dedicated to growing and sustaining relationships with Native peoples and local tribal governments, including (in no particular order)
Fernandeño Tataviam Band of Mission Indians
Gabrielino Tongva Indians of California Tribal Council
Gabrieleno/Tongva San Gabriel Band of Mission Indians
Gabrieleño Band of Mission Indians – Kizh Nation
San Manuel Band of Mission Indians
San Fernando Band of Mission Indians
Exposition Park History
Within Exposition Park’s 160 acres, you can experience the fun of science, math, and technology learning at the California Science Center, explore natural and cultural worlds at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, or simply relax in the splendor of the Rose Garden. And there’s much more!
The recently renovated California African American Museum gives you a unique view into one of America’s oldest and influential cultures. The iconic Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum and the BMO Stadium offer the excitement of world-class athletic competition, while the EXPO Center is a hub of recreational activity for the neighborhood. You can also view the construction of the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art, set to open in 2025.
Enjoy your day!
A Statement From HDD’s Founder & Artistic Director, Heidi Duckler
Ebb & Flow implies there is always change and this causes us to hope that we can rise and fall, become less or more, that situations fluctuate, and when something is out of reach it will eventually return. But the healing power of ebb and flow requires our participation.
We need to refine our ability to pay attention and take care of our relationships and connections in our neighborhoods, across the continents, in our past and future, to preserve the health of our world.
Best Wishes,
HDD Founder & Artistic Director
Program Program
Cody Perkins
Pause of Man: Mountain Filled with Layer
Performers: Cody Perkins, Jordan Slaff
Music by Cody Perkins
Choreography by Jordan Slaffey
Social media: Cody | @codyofthealgos Jordan Slaff | @jayslaff
“In our performance piece, we explore the symbiotic relationship between humanity and the environment, using dance and live sound composition as our mediums of expression. Set within the confines of a car, we symbolize the enclosed nature of our modern lives and the disconnect from the natural world. Through shedding layers, our dancer embodies the environmental process of renewal and regeneration, reminding us of the necessity of letting go to preserve the essence of our world. As the soundscape evolves, echoing the rhythms of nature and human impact, we invite the audience to contemplate their role in this delicate dance of preservation and transformation."
Joey Navarrete-Medina
The Dance of Samira
Performers: Joey Navarrete-Medina
Concept and Choreography by Joey Navarrete-Medina
Social media: @joey navalo
“The Dance of Samira" is a six-minute performance that intertwines the themes of climate change with the essence of the deity Samira, guardian of the winds The dancer transitions between powerful, assertive movements and gentle, nurturing gestures, symbolizing the balance needed to address environmental crises. The dance represents the urgency of action while highlighting the importance of healing This dance captures the dual nature of Samira, leaving the audience with a profound message of sustainable harmony and environmental responsibility.
Gurmukhi Bevli & Bernice Wang
Beep Boop Boop and a Root
Concept & Choreography by Gurmukhi Bevli & Bernice Wang
Performers: Gurmukhi Bevli, Bernice Wang
Artists’ Websites: Gurmukhi ~ https://www.gurmukhibevli.com/ Bernice ~ https://bern.wang/
Social Media: Gurmukhi: @ gumyb Bernice: @littlebunnythatcould
“Beep Boop Boop, and a Root” combines improvisational practices and audience input in a gamified performance. An audience member through the provided computer interface gives a dancer audio inputs. This dancer responds to four possible directives: layer, disrupt, level, and discard. Another dancer emerges from the tree roots in response. The two hold a physical conversation, with one acting as a conduit for the audience. In doing so, the bodies are metaphorized as land and physicalize their relationship with humanity by emphasizing their engagement with (or against) individual directives. Observers are subsequently implicated in altering the contours of the moving body while having collective restrictions imposed upon their interactivity.
Zhihan Yang Underground
Concept and Choreography by Zhihan Yang
Dancer: Zhihan Yang
Musician: Zoë Keating
Music: Escape Artist
Costumes: Yi-Lun Chien
Website: zhihanyangdance.com
Social Media: @ zhihanyang
“Underground” is a dynamic dance piece that intertwines unique movable installation, body, dynamic, and the surrounding space. The performance aims to redefine our perception of everyday material, utilizing them as mediums to convey deeper meanings and connections to nature and life. Through the exploration of materials and their relationship to nature, the performance will underscore the importance of conservation and sustainability and provide the audience with an opportunity to approach things from multiple perspectives.
Heidi Duckler
Silent Beasts
Performers: Maija Knapp, Alejandro Perez, Pauline Lay
Choreography by Heidi Duckler
Social media: Heidi:@heidi.duckler Maija: @maijaknapp Alejandro: @alekss.perez Pauline: @paulinelay
On the hottest week of the world, two silent creatures scream up to the treetops, while fire lies in wait, hunting them below.
Ashton Phillips Nest
Dancer: Colleen Loverde
Musician: Dylan Ricards
Social Media: Ashton: @ashtonphillips Colleen: @colleenloverde Dylan: @dylsmack
A nest is an action and a place. Something we build together out of the scraps of the world. Woven sticks from a diseased tree, weathered pieces of an abandoned playground structure, found chain link fence, flowering vines, and ringing bells. We gather these humble materials to build an improvised sanctuary for shelter, curiosity, play, and care. We do this nesting, even though we know that this provisional structure cannot last. It will face storms that will rattle its walls and test its strength, and it will fail to protect us and those we care for from powerful forces outside our control. But, even when the storm comes and the nest is broken, the idea of the Nest and the more-than-human drive to build sites of safety, care, and play survives, planting seeds of itself in our bodies and this ground, which can sprout and bear fruit after the storm has passed.
Working with sonified, site-specific materials and embodying bird-human hybrid forms under the canopy of these ancient banyan trees, NEST is an exploration of the poetics of living, playing, working, and dancing together in a world that is literally and figuratively on fire and a call to find and hold our resiliency, adaptability, strength, and interconnectedness in the face of all these storms.
Production Team
Production Manager: Jessica Emmanuel
Crew: Jamie Gallo & Wiley Barker, David Calderon
Heidi
Duckler Dance Board
Nefer Fernandez - President
Ken Bernstein - Vice President
Jamarah Hayner - Treasurer
Fiammetta Piazza - Secretary
Heidi Duckler
Deannette Brewer
Tori Daniels
Raymond Ejiofor
Drexel Heard II
Victor Jones
Fernando Ramirez
Patti Rhee
Julie Stephens
Deborah Weintraub
Anthea Young
Heidi Duckler Dance Staff
Heidi Duckler, Founder & Artistic Director
Raymond Ejiofor, Associate Artistic Director
Raphaelle Ziemba, Managing Director
Raven Richard, Director of Development and Communications
Jessica Emmanuel, Engagement Director
Belize Wilheim, Education Director
Sharice Bryant, Marketing Director
Arthur Salazar, Development & Marketing Intern
Cathie Arteaga, Production & Festival Intern
UPCOMING EVENTS
Heidi Duckler Dance 39th Anniversary Celebration
Saturday, September 21, 2024 5:00 pm - 9:00 pm Loyola Law School 919 Albany Street, Los Angeles, CA, 90015
Heidi Duckler Dance invites you to join us on Saturday, September 21, 2024, as we Dance in the Light of the Harvest Moon to celebrate 39 years of innovative site-specific work. Click here to RSVP