Work

Programme Note

Original programme note from the premiere:

For co-choreographer Anandha Ray, this dance is a very personal introspection. Ms. Ray dedicates this dance to Dan Meeks, the seventh son of a seventh son, medicine man for his tribe, her late great-grandfather. Though her family’s American Indian heritage was kept secret to avoid the severe prejudices of the South, Ms. Ray was privileged to learn from him a few of the traditions for planting and using sacred tobacco as a healing tool. The dance was inspired in honor of this ancestry. Anandha Ray and Charles Anderson, with widely varying backgrounds and styles of dance, collaborated with Thomas Goss in each section of the choreographic process to co-create the sections and movements of the dance and music. Loran Watkins’ costume design augments the abstract representation of Ray’s memories of her American Indian culture intertwined with her family’s need to hide this heritage. The lyrics in Goss’s score were adapted and translated by Native American healer Fred Jack Miles Manitoumahwhingon from a traditional Chippewa Indian prayer for times of journey, whether physical or spiritual.

Text Note:

Fred Jack Miles Manitoumahwingon - Gitchee Whingezee Giyah

Commissioned:

Commissioned by Moving Arts Dance Collective

Difficulty:

Advanced

Influences:

• Language and Literature

Dedication:

in memory of Dan Meeks

Performance History

	04 Aug 2000	Performed by Moving Arts Dance Collective at the Dean Lesher Regional Center for the Arts, Hofmann Theater, in Concord, California, USA
	19 Aug 2000	Performed by Moving Arts Dance Collective at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, Main Theater, in San Francisco, California, USA