the NETWORK project addresses human survival and what we truly need– from sustainable living practices to communal engagement and empathy, as we recognize and build our resilience. Considering climate change, and other immediate crises, the project is inspired by systems of communication, resource-sharing and survival employed in tree communities, as a lens to consider human community building. How can we see and feel connectedness, to our own roots, families (blood or chosen) and communities? And how might working directly with tree communities help us see, feel and recognize our interdependence—with one another and responsibility toward all life? Trees and fungi have elaborate root systems under the earth, largely unseen by the naked eye. These same kind of root systems are required for the building of communities and societies. The unseen roots of communities are the energetic centers (social, cultural and artistic meeting sites) where people gather and bond through shared experience, empathy and exchange. Recognizing the resources and survival strategies that we have (and don’t have) in our communities, we can begin to develop both practical and otherwise networks and shared resourcing within our communities.
Directed by Krista DeNio and co-created and performed by an all female team of performers, scientists, and designers, the NETWORK project creates performance experiences works together with the trees and land, utilizing dance, theater, and installation design, to create a multi-dimensional, embodied experiences, connecting audience participants with the site, themselves and one another. Together we create communal systems and strategies toward our own survival.
Working together with a team of artists, scientists, and land stewards we are devising research methods and a creative model based on horizontal exchange, trust-worthiness and healing our scarcity model thinking, in the effort toward a more sustainable and resilient way of living and exchanging. the NETWORK project has existed in many phases of research and development since 2017 and will continue developing models that can serve people and nature in both urban communities and nature sites.
Find the NETWORK project featured in the SF Chronicle here: https://datebook.sfchronicle.com/dance/a-summer-of-classical-experimental-and-aerial-dance-performances-in-the-bay-area-inside-and-out
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Djerassi Program PROJECT PREMIERE: July 2 & 3, 2022 @ Djerassi Resident Artists Program
Based on experiential research in the environs of the Djerassi land and trees our team of performers, scientists, urban foresters, community tree stewards and designers will create a multi-dimensional, participatory, tactile experience–working with the trees, land, and site; dance, theater and media design; and material installation. In addition to an experiential, live, tactile, embodied (and we hope transformative) experience, that connects participants directly with trees, nature and their own bodies—there is a larger social impact goal of the project, which is to share research and resources with our audience participants in ways that may support their local communities.
CURRENT ENGAGEMENTS:
*Find more information about these upcoming events in our Calendar
Djerassi Art Immersion Hikes: March 12, April 30th, and May 21, 2022
Witness art unfold in nature at the Djerassi Program! This is a special opportunity in which small groups will meet & converse with multidisciplinary artists-in-residence in their studios. Witness art inspired by nature including The NETWORK Project, directed by alumni choreographer Krista DeNio, Artistic Director of MovingGround alumni poet and installation artist Cintia Santana. Hike to explore 30+ sculptures and installations led by Djerassi artist board members painter Shara Mays, writer Yalitza Ferreras, and painter Anna Sidana. Join us in challenging your creativity and fitness! These hikes span 3.5 miles with an elevation change of 300 feet over 4 hours.
Costa Rica Residency: April 1-10 2022
Working in a local home and studio, and with the land, ocean, and forests—NETWORK collaborators will further research the biological processes that tree communities use to survive and thrive, to apply to a working design for the NETWORK experience that will be created in the Summer 2022 LEONARDO residency at Djerassi Resident Artist Program.
Tenderloin Tree Planting: Spring 2022
The NETWORK Project will be in creative exchange with the Tenderloin District of San Francisco, in collaboration with CounterPulse, the Tenderloin Community Benefit District, Larkin Street Youth Services’ Art Program, and other community members, in supporting Tree plantings in the neighborhood.
Many thanks to partners and collaborators: CounterPulse, the young people at Larkin Street’s Art Program for doing the Tree Counting, La Cocina for providing meals to Larkin Street Youth Services Tree Counters. Mid-Market Business Association for underwriting the Tree Counter’s Stipends. And Rick Darnell for your ongoing coordination and support of the project and neighborhood.
PAST ENGAGEMENTS:
Djerassi Resident Artists Program: Day-use Residency, Summer 2021 Artistic Director, Krista DeNio and Chloe Crotzer (biologist) worked together with an interdisciplinary team of collaborators (performers, scientists, designers, musicians, technologist), to begin research and development of the project, for a 2022 production at Djerassi, co-produced by KDMG, CounterPulse and the Djerassi Program. This residency culminated in a work-in-progress.
WORK IN PROGRESS EXPERIENCE @ Djerassi Resident Artists Program [NOVEMBER 2021]
KD>>MovingGround shared the NETWORK project research and process developed during our day-use residency at the Djerassi Resident Artists Program during Summer 2021.
This work in progress, workshop experience, invited audience to participate and observe, as active choice makers in the experience. The NETWORK project experience featured movement, improvisation, dialogue, and interaction designed by creator/performers Amy Cranch, Chloe Crotzer, Krista DeNio, Heidi Erickson, Diana Lara, and Paige Sorvillo with installation design by Tanja London and lighting by Ashley Munday. Watch the video of the expereince taken by Chani Bockwinkel here: https://vimeo.com/690381966
KDMG Residency July 2020: Krista DeNio and Chloe Crotzer embarked on interdisciplinary research, bringing together performative and somatic work with biology, for the NETWORK project–in the trees of the Santa Cruz Mountains. They worked in Boulder Creek, Henry Cowell State park, Big Basin, and Wilder Ranch.
Laboratorio Condensacion July 2019; Krista DeNio worked in research residency and workshop, Mexico City, with Arely Landeros and Martin Lanz Landazuri and led experiments with workshop participants (performers, scientists, community workers) at Centro Nacional de Las Artes (CENART).
Other research workshops and residencies have included: BIONEERS Conference October 2017; KDMG & Dance Monks collaborate at Bioneers in an immersive experience on the grounds of the festival. The heart of this research was at the intersection of two long-term projects: NETWORK (Krista DeNio>>Moving Ground) and Tree of Life (Dance Monks), International Interdisciplinary Artist Consortium and Moving Arts Lab @ Earthdance, July 2017; Krista presented several workshops to colleagues and students, and collaborated in idea sharing with collaborators. Krista choreographed a student work that was a part of BDP @ U.C. Berkeley April 2017.
