Sand: Part 3 Community

June 22 6:00 pm

Portage Lakefront and Riverwalk - Indiana Dunes National Park, Riverwalk Drive, Portage

This event will be a site-specific promenade performance, in which the audience is invited to stand and walk from one area to another to watch performers interact with the landscape and structures around the Portage Lakefront and Pavilion.  The performance will incorporate the soundtrack of the play “Sacred Sands: A Play for Voices” written by David Hoppe, recorded by and with music by Dan Schaaf.   It will include Kristina Isabelle Dance artists: Sarah Gonsiorowski, Kristina Isabelle, Angela Luem and Cara Sabin, (who performed in Part One and Part Two of the series), dancers from South Shore Dance Alliance, body puppet by Pilgrim Heidi Kambitsch, stilters, drummers, masks and interactive summer solstice activities. This performance is free and open to the public. 

“Sand: A Migrating performance in 4 Parts,” is inspired by the book “Sacred Sands: The Struggle for Community in the Indiana Dunes,” written by J. Ronald Engel. The series explores the constant tension between nature and human activity in Northwest Indiana.  It began with a preview at Links Hall in Chicago in March, moved to the Indiana Dunes National Park in Portage in April, and to the Lubeznik Center for the Arts in Michigan City in May.  Following the performance at the Indiana Dunes National Park in Portage in June, we will culminate the series with a performance at Tryon Farm in Michigan City at 8:00 on July 20.  

About Michigan City Moves: MCM is an artist collective dedicated to promoting and sharing experimental music, dance and film in NW Indiana through performances, classes and interactive workshops. The current collective features Kristina Isabelle, Elise Kermani and Melli Hoppe.  Kristina Isabelle is the artistic director of Kristina Isabelle Dance for 16 years producing multi-media evening length works, many featuring signature long-legged stilt dances as well as site specific environmental dance-scapes.  KIDCO tours nationally and internationally. Elise Kermani is artistic director of MiShinnah Productions, a non-profit dedicated to making cross genre performance films. She received a PhD in Media Philosophy from the European Graduate School and teaches media art at State University of New York, Empire State College. Her particular interest is in creating site specific performance where architecture informs the project.  Melli Hoppe was the Artistic Director of Susurrus, an Indianapolis based not-for-profit performance group, from 1993-2013. She has collaborated on site-specific performances in Indiana, New York, L.A., Ireland and Italy and taught site-specific theatre and stage movement at Butler University for 10 years.

Sand: A Migrating Performance in Four Parts is made possible through partnerships with MiShinnah Productions, Kristina Isabelle Dance Company and the Tryon Farm Institute. For more information contact Melli Hoppe at 219-210-3619 or michigancitymoves@gmail.com.

Funding for this project was provided for in part by a grant from the mediaThe Foundation.

Mishinnah Productions

Kristina Isabelle Dance

Tryon Farm Institute