A reading, demonstration and discussion

12-2 p.m.
Location: TBD

Join Rosy Simas (Seneca), a Distinguished Visiting Scholar with the Department of Theatre and Dance, and Dr. Sam Aros-Mitchell (Yaqui) in this three-part event, which will include a reading from Simas' chapter titled "The Body is an Archive: Collective memory, ancestral knowledge," culture and history in the book "Music, Dance and the Archive." Following the reading, Aros-Mitchell and Simas will share a short informal demonstration from Simas' "she who lives on the road to war." The piece is an immersive installation responding to global loss and the collective need to unite in peace and reconciliation. Finally, Simas and Aros-Mitchell will discuss Simas' installation and publication, and Indigenous cosmologies, and performance as ceremony. 

Rosy Simas (enrolled member of the Seneca Nation) is a transdisciplinary and dance artist. Simas' work weaves personal and collective identity themes with family, sovereignty, and healing. Simas creates dance work with a team of Native and BIQTPOC artists, driven by movement vocabularies developed through deep listening. She is carried through her life and work by the many generations of family who were and are Seneca, Stockbridge-Munsee, Oneida, Mohawk, Cayuga, Onondaga, Neutral, and of European descent. This extensive knowledge of her family and lineage underpins her relationship to culture and history – stored in her body – which is expressed through her work – of moving people, moving images, and moving objects that she makes for stage and installation. Simas' dance works include "She who lives on the road to war, Weave, Skin(s) and We Wait In The Darkness," which have toured throughout Turtle Island. Simas' installations have been exhibited at the Seneca Iroquois National Museum, Weisman Art Museum, Colorado College, All My Relations Arts, and Soo Visual Art Center. Simas is a Doris Duke Artist (2023), a Native Arts and Cultures Foundation SHIFT awardee (2022), a USA Doris Duke Fellow (2022), McKnight Foundation Choreography Fellow (2022 & 2016), Dance/USA Fellow (2019), a recipient of a Joyce Award from The Joyce Foundation (2018), Guggenheim Creative Arts Fellow (2015), Native Arts and Cultures Foundation Choreography Fellow (2013), as well as multiple awards from NEFA National Dance Project, the MAP Fund, and National Performance Network. Simas is a 2023 University at Buffalo Distinguished Visiting Scholar and the Artistic Director of Rosy Simas Danse. 

Sam Aros-Mitchell (he/him/his) is an enrolled member of the Texas Band of Yaqui Indians. As an art-maker, dancer, and scholar, his work spans the disciplines of performance, sound/light/scenic design, choreography, and embodied writing. Since 2017, he has worked with Rosy Simas Danse as a performer, teacher, and community engagement organizer. Aros-Mitchell's chapter, "José Limón, The Unsung: Yoeme Syncretism As A Means Of Survivance," is currently in review for publication in a book that celebrates Yaqui choreographer José Limón, titled "Transcending Amerincaness." In 2019, Aros-Mitchell founded Aros and Son Publishing, which is dedicated to publishing the work of Native writers. Aros-Mitchell holds a Ph.D. in Drama and Theater from the joint doctoral program at UC San Diego/UC Irvine, an MFA in Dance Theatre from UC San Diego, and a BFA in Dance from UC Santa Barbara. Aros-Mitchell is a 2023 McKnight Dance Fellow.