Origins (2009) was an in-process sharing of a multimedia creation directed by DANCE MONKS in collaboration with Tawera (Rodney) Bell (formerly of AXIS Dance) and Olivia Eng with live music by Laura Inserra, Pauchi Sasaki and Claudia Cuentas. The artists investigated and chose the mythology of the old world connected to their ancestral origins (Maori, Mexican, Chinese, Slavic) as a starting point.

Made possible by the East Bay Arts Center / Center for Cultural Innovation, The Open Circle Foundation and the Artists Residence Program of NOHSpace, SF.

Road (to Remembrance) (2009) was a solo created by Mirah and inspired by the process of "descansos" or "to put to rest" by Dr. Clarissa Estes, a ritual process that marks the passages of life.  She performed inside a tent she made of more than 1,000 pieces of paper with projections of her ancestors and a sound landscape by the renowned musician, Pauchi Sasaki.

​

Photo Credit: Rodrigo Esteva

Body & Sound Festival (2012) was curated by DANCE MONKS with movement/practice workshops and live music performances by internationally renowned artists Pauchi Sasaki (Peru / Japan), Laura Inserra (Italy), T-Bird Luv (Brooklyn) and Dohee Lee (Korea).

KUNST STOFF ARTS, San Francisco.

​

Photo Credit: Pauchi Sasaki

Cave (2009) was a site-specific in a man-made "cave" on the side of the mountain in Hawk Hill, choreographed by DANCE MONKS with dancers Melecio Estrella (by Joe Goode Performance Group), Christine Bonansea, Olivia Eng and guests.

Directed by Laura Inserra de Samavesha and the piece included 20 hang players who were commissioned by Green Music Network.

Montaña Que Habla/ Talking Mountain (2008) was a music and dance collaboration performed by Laura Inserra, Pauchi Sasaki, Claudia Cuentas, Mirah Moriarty and Rodrigo Esteva.

​

Samavesha Space Richmond, CA.

​

Postcards of Mexico (2007) was a multimedia contemporary performance with traditional Mexican folk music and photographs of Sebastian Belaustegui (Author of Guardianes del Tiempo / The Guardians of Time).  The piece focused on endangered ways of daily life in Mexico due to the influx of large US corporations.

Premiered at CounterPULSE, SF. Made possible by the Zellerbach Family Foundation.

GREEN: A Force of Nature (2005)  was an interdisciplinary environmental performance focused on returning Nature to cities through body memory. The piece included site-specific video projections filmed along the California coast.

Premiered at CounterPULSE, SF. Performed by Olivia Eng, Mary Starr Hope, Brit Karhoff, Mirah Moriarty and Rodrigo Esteva. Made possible by the Zellerbach Family Foundation and the Círculo Abierto Foundation.

El Otro Lado (The Other Side/of the border) (2005)  was created from a series of interviews conducted by artists (in Spanish and English) to a wide variety of folks living on the Mexican side of the border and their vision of "the other side." This piece asked the questions: How do you envision the "other side?" How do we see ourselves at the US border, along the US and Mexico? What are our experiences? What are our prejudices? What would you like to be different? The recorded interviews were the soundscape of a love duet between the artists Rodrigo (Mexican) and Mirah (born in the United States) and included firsthand experiences of racial prejudice, childhood imaginings, memories and folk wisdom.

​

Commissioned by the Summer Language Institute of Middlebury College, VT.

Tierra Imaginaria/Imagined Land (2003-04)  was a specific group piece for the site directed by DANCE MONKS at the Universidad IberoAmericana (Universidad IberoAmericana) in Mexico City. The work was carried out in and around the trees on campus and included visual installations of found objects, including mountains of jacaranda flower petals (bluish).

​

Commissioned by the Universidad Iberoamericana, Mexico City.

Lulabai (2002) was choreographed for dancers of the Ollin Yoliztli School of Arts. The work was inspired by drawings of elementary students in the Madrid School of their "ideal worlds", which were projected as part of the installation for the live presentation.

Premiered in Escuela Madrid and the UNAM (National University, Mexico City as Colores. Commissioned by Escuela Madrid, Mexico City.

​

La Casa de las Mariposas/ The Butterfly House (2000) was a series of dreamlike landscapes, inspired by living in the mountains of Xalapa, dancing along streams, rocks and in the forest for 5 to 6 hours a day. The performance included a large papier-mâché, white horse.

The Green Project (2000-present) was created from a deep and modern need for children to reconnect physically and imaginatively with nature through embodied experience. Green is a carefully constructed residency program by which young people or a multigenerational audience move in partnership with the land and each other. The project culminated in an original multimedia presentation with dance, stories and live music created in collaboration with the community, along with professional artists.

​

Previous youth projects include: The Great Dreamer (Malcolm X), Rain Dances (Highland Elementary), Wild Child and other tall tree tales (Berkeley Arts Magnet), Green Project Bike Tour (East Bay), Madrid School (City of Mexico)) and Conversaciones con árboles, Nayarit (Mexico).

​

Made possible by The Open Circle Foundation and The Zellerbach Family Foundation.