The Project

Several workshops were held in Albuquerque and Silver City with native, indigenous, and pueblo military veterans and their families through partnerships with Western New Mexico State University and the Native Health Initiative.  Each workshop attracted over 30 participants.  The workshops lasted for an hour and a half, and participants spent the time creating movement individually, in pairs, and in groups.  After each workshop there was a brief reflection period where workshop participants could reflect on the experience and its connection to military service.

These workshops were then distilled into cohesive movement phrases.  For further research into the movement and the work a cacophony of other elements was added to the development phase: contemporary self-taught flute player and proud member of the Navajo Nation, Andrew Thomas, provided an album his flute music, a selection of poetry by native military veterans, and a native American parable Arrow to the Sun.  Along with the movement, this material allowed the piece to start to take shape. 

The final element was a conversation with former Marine, Special Operations solider, and Chaplain Rick Iannouci, who told of a healing ritual within indigenous communities that take place when the warrior returns from battle.  The community takes the warrior into a circle and along with music and dancing, strips the warrior of all of his warrior garments and implements.  Then the cleanse the warrior and redress the warrior in new native clothing as a way to remove the identity and experiences, share them with the whole community, and pack them away until they are needed again.

A five-movement choreographic work called Kiva was created with the dancers.  The first movement (Kiva, 0:00), The Warrior, crafted the picture of the warrior for the spectator, and took inspiration from a native parable about a warrior traveling to the sun to collect both weapons and traits to use to defend his people.  The second movement (Kiva, 0:55), The Three Sisters, situated the choreography in a place and time.  They also provided a spiritual, ritual, and ancient connection.  The Three Sisters are a range of volcanoes in New Mexico.  “Pueblo Indians of the Rio Grande Valley regard this place as one of the last remaining undestroyed sacred sites in the area. The Pueblo people believe the volcanoes and the petroglyphs pecked into the volcanic boulders provide a direct spiritual connection to both their ancestors and to the Spirit World, the place where time began.  Western Pueblos, Navajos, and Apaches believe these landforms were created by spiritual beings who lived in the ancient past. These prominent landforms were also used as landmarks that helped guide people who traveled long distances to trade or perform religious pilgrimages, (The National Park Service, 2018).”  The Three Sisters connect the warrior directly to the people and the land.  It is the place where the warrior returns and settles themself for the ceremony.  The third movement, Father It Is I, (Kiva, 7:18), is the introduction of the warrior back into the community.  Crafted to reflect childhood exuberance and innocence, the warrior’s exposure to children reminds them of the innocence they lost in war, and of the qualities of the child they strive to rediscover – innocence, curiosity, openness, and imagination.  The fourth movement, The Dance of Life, (Kiva, 12:20), is the first time all of the people dance together.  It is the beginning of the ritual of reintegration back into the community.  The warrior joins and dances with all of their people.  However, they are not completely back, and segment off, from time to time, in solo movement to demonstrate the difficulty of returning.  The final movement, The Blessing, (Kiva, 16:45), is the final ritual of healing, transformation, and reintegration where the community is made whole again, through the reintroduction of the warrior.  With the warrior’s experiences passed onto the community in the Dance of Life, now the shared trauma needs release and healing.  Rather than ending with a work wherein the individual is healed through the journey, this movement illustrates the need to reintegrate and heal the whole community.

This work was filmed live in New York City and edited for distribution in New Mexico through a special event partnering with the local New Mexico Public Broadcasting Station (NMPBS).  The event was presented in three parts, the company was introduced through a short documentary, a short video was shown of the workshops with veterans and their families, the work Kiva was shown, and then a dialogue was held with the main artists, Rick Ianoucci, and the audience.  During the dialogue the audience was encouraged to contribute either verbally through their computer microphone, or by typing dialogue into the chat box during the event.  The progression of events was designed to make the art (Kiva) the object of the dialogue.  The three-tiered approach that we have to arts engages individuals in telling their story creatively, finding a way to translate that to audiences, and then to talk about it in an open forum.