Being Future Being

by Emily Johnson / Catalyst

PREMIERING SPRING 2022

Award-winning choreographer Emily Johnson has created a distinguished body of dance works and social choreographies that unite audiences in a shared experience of movement, place, history, collective action, and the continuance of Indigenous cultural practices and perspectives. Her newest work, currently in the research phase, delves into the power of creation. Being Future Being examines the way the stories we tell ourselves about how we came to be set the potentials for who we will become.

Envisioned as an evening-length performance for the stage, featuring Johnson and a cast of more-than-human creatures, this new work seeks to (re)build new visions of the forces that brought this world into being. In doing so, it brings into focus new futures with the potential to reshape the way we relate to ourselves, and to the human and more-than-human cohabitants of our worlds.

“I view our bodies as everything: our bodies are culture, history, present and future, all at once. Out of respect for, and trust in, our bodies and collective memories, I give equal weight to story and image, to movement and stillness, to what I imagine and what I do not know.”

—Emily Johnson

BODY OF MAKING

Emily Johnson (Yup’ik), Creator / Artistic Director
Raven Chacon (Diné), Composer
Drew Michael (Yup’ik and Inupiaq), Mask Maker
Joseph Silovsky, Scenic Design
Jasmine Shorty (Diné), Performer
George Lugg, Producer

BODY OF SCHOLARSHIP

Karyn Recollet (Urban Cree)
Dylan Robinson (Stó:lō)
Camille Usher (Coast Salish)

BODY OF KNOWLEDGE

Joe Whittle (Lenape)
Nataneh River (Lenape)

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Being Future Being is commissioned by The Broad Stage, Santa Monica, and is a National Performance Network (NPN) Creation Fund Project supported by Bunnell Street Arts Center (AK); New York Live Arts (NY); Portland Institute for Contemporary Arts (OR) and NPN, with contributions from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, Ford Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts. Additional commissioning and development support is provided by Portland Ovations, the Live Feed creative residency program at New York Live Arts, Jacob’s Pillow’s Pillow Lab residency, and Abrons Arts Center.

Being Future Being is made possible in part with support from the New England Foundation for the Arts' National Dance Project, with lead funding from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.