This collection explores our relationship with wolves through the lens of our unconscious or shadow. Using film, dance, workshops, and advocacy, we examine our unconscious thoughts, habits, and programmed reactions in an effort to bring into consciousness creative ways to be in a more symbiotic relationship with wolves. Wolves may be some of our greatest teachers if we can transcend dualistic thinking and open up to the vast nuance that comprises true wild.
Abstract
This piece explores our present-day relationship with wolves and the wilderness of our psyche. According to Jungian thought, we as humans have a tendency to project what we're not willing to address within ourselves. This piece pushes us to embrace all the corners of ourselves, including the untouched parts of our unconscious—our shadow. With wolves as our guide, we explore our bodies in relation to the earth and the wild within ourselves.
It also asks: have wolves become a scapegoat for our suppressed nature? Might we withdraw the projection of our shadow and bring the dark wilderness of our psyche into a healthy balance? Through this dance, we explore our potential to relate to all forms of life—within and without—with humility and grace.
We attempt to do this through the practice of dreamwork. By bringing our dreams into our bodies through movement and choreography, we enter a dialog with our individual and collective shadow.
This piece is inspired by the work of Clarissa Pinkola Estés, author of Women Who Run With the Wolves: Myths and Stories of the Wild Woman Archetype.
The music is from a compilation by Elena Colombi of Osàre! Editions and is inspired by the same book.
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Choreographed by
Sara Mannheimer and Mariah Palmer with mentorship by Blair Bodie
Filmed by
Nathan Norby
Dancers
Blair Bodie, Dorothy Burns, Sara Mannheimer, Ellie Oakley, Mariah Palmer, Cathy Werner
*with a special thanks to Anna Allen who wasn’t able to perform due to an injury but was integral in developing the piece
Costumes
Shauna White Bear, Sara Mannheimer, Mariah Palmer, Meghan Purcell
Music
“Liikaa Liimaa” by Cucina Povera
“Miyabi Noburo” by Mayurashka
from a compilation by Elena Colombi of Osàre! Editions
Location
Tinworks
The Film
costumes
Shauna is a self taught moccasin maker based in Bozeman, MT. She also enjoys creating belts and other custom leather goods. She is from the Arikara and Hidatsa Nation out of North Dakota. She creates custom made to order moccasins for all walks of life. She likes to work with Bison, Tanáhà in Arikara, as it is five times stronger than cowhide. Tanáhà was important to the Plains Natives for shelter, clothing, tools, and food.
Through the ancient technique of wool felting, Meghan Purcell explores ideas of genuine connection, sustainability, and the integrity of the human hand in an industrialized society. From sourcing wool locally, to assisting with sheep shearing and felting each piece entirely by hand, every step of the process is highly intentional. She lives and creates in Livingston, Montana.
music
The music is from a compilation by Elena Colombi of Osàre! Editions…
“Inspired by Clarissa Pinkola Estés canonical text, Women Who Run with the Wolves (1992), the eponymously titled Donne che corrono coi lupi is a dedication to feral feminine energy, connection and sisterhood. In the book, Estés – a psychoanalyst, poet and cantadora, or “keeper of old stories” – draws on Jungian theory to weave an alternative mythology of The Wild Woman archetype. She conjures images of the underworld, rivulets of menstrual blood; a lumpen mass of placenta splattering onto a cave floor. In a mirrored gesture, for Donne che corrono coi lupi, more than twenty artists and producers have come together, giving rise to a primal, mystical compilation destined to entrance and ensnare.” - Elena Colombi
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Online Dance Workshop
with our mentor Blair Bodie
// Photo: Lauren L Photography //
Workshops
For this quarter, we will gather to reflect on our relationship with wild animals through conversation, nature-craft, and movement.
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Join animal communicator Kristen Houser and Naturalist Cedar Mathers-Winn for a fun exploration into our relationship with wolves and the greater animal family.
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An online introductory level modern dance workshop with a focus on connecting to your body from an internal perspective and moving in response to nature.
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Local artist Meghan Purcell invites you to an immersive full-day workshop where you will learn the ancient technique of wool wet-felting while you deepen your connection to the people, lands, and animal agriculture of Montana.
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Animal Communication: The Practical and the Mystical
with Cedar Mathers-Winn and Kristen Houser
Together Cedar and Kristen will lead us through an exploration and discussion covering a broad scope of ideas and perspectives around animal communication ranging from the mystical to the practical. Whether you are fully immersed in the language of energy and more subtle forms of communication, or your lens of understanding comes from a purely scientific lens, this workshop is designed to explore both ends of the spectrum and everything in between. All that it requires is an open mind and a desire to explore new possibilities of connection between species.
Dancing In: A Meditative Dance Workshop
with Blair Bodie
Inspired by the Local Earth Collective’s latest dance film, “In the Shadows.” This workshop breaks down some of the movements you see in this piece and offers inspiration for further exploration.
Using nature as your partner, Blair leads you through specific examples of how to interact with your natural surroundings; how to respond to uneven ground, how to partner with a tree, and how to respond to the different shapes, textures, and sounds, waking up all your senses.
Predator Friendly: Fiber Art Workshop
with Meghan Purcell
Meghan will share the basic techniques of felting and guide you in the making of your own felted wool art tapestry. For this exclusive workshop opportunity, we will spend a portion of the day visiting North Bridger Bison Ranch where we will discuss wildlife and land conservation efforts by our local ranchers and source Bison fiber directly, to incorporate into your own work.
This quarter we are proud to support the work of the Earthfire Institute — a wildlife sanctuary and retreat center with a mission to reawaken our connection to wildlife and nature and protect habitats for all.
Coming to the sanctuary from a variety of circumstances, Earthfire cares for domesticated wildlife that cannot survive in the wild. Some were kept as pets, some came from fur or meat farms, and others were surrendered to Earthfire. All of them are cared for throughout their lifetimes. These resident animals serve as vibrant, evocative emissaries for their species and for species individuality, opening the door for all of us to see ourselves and nature through different eyes–eyes that recognize and embrace our interconnectedness with all of Earth’s ecosystems.
Visitors to Earthfire—whether through story-sharing newsletters, onsite retreats, private visits, or social media—are given the opportunity to connect with these wild beings heart-to-heart, reawakening an expanded understanding of community and our place within the web of all Life.
We chose to focus our attention on Earthfire because we have personally experienced the amazing work they do. Read more about Mariah’s visit to Earthfire here.
Visit Earthfireinstitute.org to learn more →
