Media Contact: Cari Hatcher
Northrop, University of Minnesota
612-625-6003 (O)
763-442-1756 (C)
chatcher@umn.edu
Northrop at the University of Minnesota Presents
Emily Johnson/Catalyst’s World Premiere of SHORE,
A four-part performance project composed of dance, story, volunteerism, and feasting
Northrop Resident Academic Departments Collaborate Around SHORE
June 14–22, 2014 (Times and locations vary)
May 13, 2014 – Northrop at the University of Minnsota Presents Emily Johnson/Catalyst premiering its
newest project SHORE, an immersive, multiday installation of dance, story, volunteerism, and
feasting, in Minneapolis, June 14-22, 2014 (times and locations vary). SHORE is the final piece in a
trilogy of works spanning more than seven years that at its core has valued the complex terrain of
identity, memory, ancestry, land, and community. Throughout the trilogy, choreographer Emily
Johnson has asked: How can performance uniquely connect us to our land, our lives, and each other?
Since 1998 Johnson has been creating richly layered works that blur distinctions between
performance and daily life. The trilogy moves concentrically outward, each work expanding further
into the world, each containing what came before and spreading beyond, from personal memoir to
collective stories, from simply acknowledging the names of each audience member to offering
everyone an opportunity to participate in the sharing of story, effort, food. The first work in the
trilogy, The Thank-you Bar, inspired by Johnson’s childhood in Alaska, connects stories of
displacement, longing, and language to history, architecture, and igloo-myth. It is set within an
intimate, nest-like installation that houses both audience members and performers on stage.
The second work, Niicugni (a Yup’ik word that means “listen” or “pay attention”), questions the ways
we do and do not listen to our bodies, histories, impulses, and environments. It is performed within a
light/sound installation of hand-made fish skin lanterns that hang over the stage and audience.
SHORE moves these ideas and questions out into the world, expanding the notion of what it means to
actively engage with performance and the world. “It is celebration of the places where we meet and
merge,” says Johnson and her collaborators, “land and water, performer and audience, art and
community, past, present, and future.”
SHORE is created by Emily Johnson with longtime collaborator, composer/music director James
Everest and directed by Ain Gordon. It is performed by Johnson and Everest along with
dancer/collaborators Aretha Aoki, Krista Langberg, and Julia Bither, vocalist/ songwriter Nona Marie
Invie (of Dark Dark Dark), musician Fletcher Barnhill, the Anonymous Choir, and a cast of 20 local
dancers. Lighting design is by Heidi Eckwall and costumes are by Angie Vo, both Catalyst
collaborators for more than a decade.
Over the course of a week, SHORE will be presented in four equal parts: COMMUNITY ACTIONS
(volunteerism) in partnership with local community organizations; STORY, a curated reading by local
authors; a PERFORMANCE that begins outdoors and moves into the theater; and a festive
culminating potluck FEAST to which participants also bring the stories and recipes of the dishes they
bring to share. A schedule of events is below.
Northrop at the University of Minnesota has proudly presented all three pieces of the trilogy (in
partnership with The O’Shaughnessy at St. Catherine University for Niicugni). The presentation of
SHORE exemplifies Northrop and its resident academic departments’ missions of collaborative
interdisciplinary work merging performing arts with academics, outreach, and community building.
Emily Johnson is a current fellow at the Institute for Advanced Study. Her fellowship has corresponded
with the development of SHORE. Her position in the IAS has been focused on the development of
research strategies and writing about her integrated process of art-making and community activism.
The collaborative presentations and discussions with her fellow colleagues at IAS have been
instrumental in the development of a research model that honors artistic process and values the
generation of good energy. Emily's research is around and about the creation, presentation, and
effects of SHORE and she is working with the University Honors Program to develop a volunteer
and research team who will continue to work with her next year as she reports on her research thus
far and brings SHORE residencies to communities in Minnesota.
Emily has also partnered with the River Life Program in IAS in the development of SHORE and the
proximity of its premiere to the Mississippi. Emily led a participatory walk with the Mississippi River as
part of her work with River Life.
SHORE premieres June 14–22 as part of Northrop at the University of Minnesota’s Grand Reopening.
Following the premiere in Minneapolis, Johnson will conduct residencies and performances in New
York City (New York Live Arts, April 2015), Homer, Alaska (Bunnell St. Arts Center, June 2015), San
Francisco (ODC, August 2015), and Seattle (On the Boards, Fall 2015). The project takes a new shape
in each city, in partnership with the presenter and many community partners.
Artist Statement about the Trilogy from Emily Johnson:
“This trilogy is a response to displacement, to feeling disconnected from place, people, ceremony, and
tradition. It began with a personal work, The Thank-you Bar, which I created in the midst of a deep
longing for my home in Alaska. The truth is, I miss more than my home. I miss the large family
gatherings where we come together to harvest and put up our salmon, to butcher the moose my dad
hunted. These gatherings include intense work, but in that work there is tradition: knowledge (how to
smoke your salmon strips just right); the passing of knowledge (my young nephew learning to do what
I did at his age); food, of course, because we always eat together; stories; jokes; drama. We share the
work, our time together, and then through the year we share the bounty. This is the kind of tradition I
miss. I need to connect with people, with communities and place. My work is the way I do this.
The second part of our trilogy, Niicugni moves beyond the personal, beyond the stage, to include
stories from other performers and participation by local members of each community (in sewing fish-
skin lanterns, eating salmon, and in the performance). Niicugni tunes our attention and asks us to
recognize one another, to acknowledge our ancestors, and the land and communities we all come
from. How do we listen to one another? To the land? Can this listening be a way to actively engage
and connect not only with the present (where we are and who we are with), but also the past and
future?
SHORE moves these questions out into the world, expanding the notion of what it means to actively
engage with performance and the world. The equal parts of SHORE place the emphasis on gathering
and on each other and remind us of the possibilities, of the joys, of the histories ― known and
unknown ― embedded in each of us and in each place. Know where you are and who you are with.
This is ceremony. This is tradition. This is why I made this trilogy of work.”
SHORE’s Schedule of Events and Gatherings in Minneapolis
SHORE: STORY (curated reading)
Tuesday June 17, 7pm
In partnership with The Loft Literary Center and Emily Johnson/Catalyst
Featuring works by authors Jayal Chung, Paula Cisweski, Heid Erdrich, Brett Elizabeth Jenkins, R.
Vincent Moniz, Jr., Marcie Rendon, Ben Weaver, and Dwayne Williams. Curated by Emily Johnson.
Local writers, their perspectives, stories, and poems have a prominent place within SHORE in this
curated reading featuring original work relating to home, place, and land. Infinite associations,
connections, and disconnections people have with, to, and from these sites are conjured in the
moment of the reading and create a shifting, localized context for SHORE.
The Loft Literary Center, 1011 Washington Avenue South, Minneapolis, MN 55415
Free, registration requested
SHORE: COMMUNITY ACTION (volunteerism)
Saturday June 21, 10am to 12pm
In partnership with Native American Community Development Institute, Minneapolis Parks, Dream of
Wild Health, and Emily Johnson/Catalyst
A month of weekly community work sessions at parks around Minneapolis culminates in a celebration
and caretaking of the defining river, the Mississippi. Actions: soil amendment, mulching, planting in
the rain garden, trash pick up, and care of the land and river. This day of Community Action includes
the participants work together, stories and information from and about the Mississippi River and the
riparian zone between the water and the park.
Guided talking tours led by Anishinaabe elder and activist Sharon Day; historian/storyteller and
National Parks Service ranger David Wiggins, and Dream of Wild Health.
East River Flats Park, 360 East River Road, Minneapolis, MN 55414
Free, registration required
SHORE: PERFORMANCE (outdoor and indoor installation)
Friday, June 20, and Saturday June 21, 8pm
Performances begin outdoors on Northrop Mall and move into the theater.
Northrop, 84 Church Street, SE, Minneapolis, MN 55455
$20 general; $10 students, artists, and low income
www.northrop.umn.edu
SHORE: FEAST (potluck celebration)
Sunday, June 22, 3pm to 7pm
In partnership with Foxtail Farm, Red Stag Supper Club, and Emily Johnson/Catalyst
Free
Registration required
The intention of this potluck feast is to celebrate the act of gathering; to view it as a relevant and vital
aspect of performance, life, and food. Participants bring a dish to share that has a special meaning or
story behind it as well as the recipe. The stories, recipes, and photographs of the day will be compiled
in the ongoing SHORE zine series and mailed to all participants. This potluck feast includes a guided
tour of the farm, live music by Ben Weaver, curated activities, and is designed for all ages.
A guided bike tour to the farm is provided for interested parties. (Registration necessary)
Foxtail Farm, 124 280th Street, Osceola, WI 54020
About Emily Johnson/Catalyst
Emily Johnson is an artist who makes body-based work. Originally from Alaska, she is currently based
in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Since 1998 she has created work that considers the experience of sensing
and seeing performance. Her dances function as installations, engaging audiences within and through
a space and environment—interacting with a place's architecture, history, and role in community.
Johnson is a recipient of a 2014 Doris Duke Artist Award. Her work is currently supported by Creative
Capital, MAP-Fund, a Joyce Award, the McKnight Foundation, and The Doris Duke Residency to Build
Demand for the Arts. Johnson is a current Fellow at the Institute for Advanced Study at the University
of Minnesota, a 2014 Fellow at the Robert Rauschenberg Residency, a 2012 Headlands Center for the
Arts and MacDowell Artist in Residence, a Native Arts and Cultures Fellow for 2011, a MANCC
Choreographer Fellow (2009/2010/2012/2014), a MAP-Fund grant recipient (2009/2010/2012/2013)
and a 2009 McKnight Fellow. She received a 2012 New York Dance and Performance “Bessie” Award
for Outstanding Performance for her work, The Thank-you Bar, at New York Live Arts. More info at:
www.catalystdance.com
About Northrop at the University of Minnesota
Northrop is an epicenter of discovery and transformation that connects the University of
Minnesota and communities beyond by celebrating innovation in the arts, performance, and
academics. Northrop is home to the following resident partners: Northrop Presents, The Institute for
Advanced Study, The University Honors Program, The College of Design’s Travelers Innovation Lab,
and U of M Tickets and Events.
Funding Credits for SHORE
SHORE is a project of Creative Capital, and is made with support from The McKnight Foundation, a Joyce Award, Carolyn
Foundation, and MAP-Fund, a program of Creative Capital supported by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and the
Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. This work was supported by a grant from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation to
University of Minnesota Foundation with a focus on Building Demand for the Performing Arts through work with a
Resident Artist. SHORE is supported by a National Dance Project Touring Award from the New England Foundation for the
Arts. This activity is made possible by the voters of Minnesota through a Minnesota State Arts Board Operating Support
grant, thanks to legislative appropriation from the arts and cultural heritage fund, and a grant from the Wells Fargo
Foundation Minnesota. SHORE has been supported by residencies at the Maggie Allesee National Center for
Choreography and the Robert Rauchenberg Residency.
SHORE in Minneapolis is made possible in partnership with the Native American Community Development Institute,
Minneapolis Parks, River Life, Park Siding Park, Friends of Loring Park, Grand Marais Park Board, Grand Marais Garden
Club, Grand Marais Art Colony, Young Dance, The Loft Literary Center, Allies Media, Foxtail Farm, Kim Bartmann and The
Red Stag Supper Club, The CornerStone Group, Dream of Wild Health, Institute for Advanced Study at the University of
Minnesota, University Honors Program at the University of Minnesota, and Northrop Presents.
Press photos at: http://www.northrop.umn.edu/press/eventphotoshttp://www.northrop.umn.edu/press/event-photos
More information at: http://www.northrop.umn.edu/events/shore-performance
# # #