Studio Stories: Reminiscing on Twin Cities Dance with Rosy Simas Season 1 Episode 6

Rosy Simas is a transdisciplinary artist who historically has
presented work as a choreographer. 

Simas is Haudenosaunee, enrolled Seneca, Heron Clan. “The
culture, history, and identity stored in my body is the
underpinning of all my artwork. Creating is a spiritual act for
me, rooted in nature, formed through my link to my ancestors and
the land of which we are made.” 


Simas’ projects merge decolonized physical movement with media,
sound, and objects for stage and installation. She unites
cultural concepts and images with scientific and philosophical
theories to create work that is literal, abstract, and
metaphoric. Her work weaves themes of personal and collective
identity with family, matriarchy, sovereignty, equality, and
healing. She creates dance work with a team of Native artists and
artists of color, driven by movement-vocabularies developed
through deep listening.


Simas is a recipient of a Dance/USA Fellowship, Joyce Award from
The Joyce Foundation, McKnight Fellowship for Choreography,
Guggenheim Creative Arts Fellowship, First People Fund
Fellowship, and a Native Arts and Cultures Foundation
Fellowship. 


Her dance works include “Weave,” “Skin(s)” and “We Wait In The
Darkness” which have toured Turtle Island and France with the
support of NEFA National Dance Project, MAP Fund, and National
Performance Network.
  
Her dance, film and sculpture work-in-progress “she who lives on
the road to war” is currently on exhibit and being rehearsed live
at the Weisman Art Museum in Minneapolis. 


Simas recently co-edited the first Indigenous issue of the
Movement Research Performance Journal, Sovereign Movements, issue
52/53.