iLAND: Interdisciplinary Laboratory for Art, Nature, and Dance

04/18/2024

04/09/2024

So inspiring to be working on Environmental Justice issues with Valle de Oro National Wildlife Refuge and Los Jardines Institute. So much generosity, knowledge and commitment. There is a great line up of events through all of April. iLAND is offering workshops in English and Spanish at the VDO on Saturday, April 20th. Come check it out.

04/09/2024

iLAND is offering workshops in Spanish and English at Valle De Oro Wildlife Refuge on April 20 and at Los Jardines Institute on April 13. Come dance with us!

Join Us for a Month of Environmental Justice Celebration Events!

April is here, and we're thrilled to invite you to our series of FREE community celebration events focused on environmental justice! Mark your calendars and join us as we come together to raise awareness, inspire action, and celebrate our planet. To learn more, please visit: https://losjardinesinstitute.org/ej-days-2024

All events are FREE and open to everyone! Bring your friends, family, and neighbors as we unite to make a positive impact on our planet. Stay tuned for more details and join us in making April a month to remember for environmental justice! 🌍💚

04/05/2024

This is our first performance of "move thing" in New Mexico. Come support us if you are around!!

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"move thing: community dance project, New Mexico"
FREE. No RSVP required.

Date: April 13, 2024, 11am – 2pm

Location: Los Jardines Institute, 803 La Vega Dr SW, Albuquerque, NM 87105

Collaborators: Los Jardines Institute, Jah Truebadoors, youth from South Valley prep, Alex Viteri Arturo, Valerie Oliveiro, and Jennifer Monson.

Conceptual formations: Valerie Oliveiro and Jennifer Monson

move thing is a community-based dance project proposing that the multi-sensory, improvisatory, and choreographic structures of dance contribute to reparative projects in communities that have historically been impacted by toxic contamination due to resource extraction (Uranium and coal mining) and industrial effluents (chemicals, particulates, carbon monoxide, and heavy metals). Resisting all forms of purity, the work proposes that we are all constantly, inherently, and unevenly making up each other and all other animate and inanimate beings. If we imagine ourselves as soluble, always dissolving and reconstituting choreographically, could we move through toxicity and be with and/or absorb toxicity and find new / alternative / old / transformative relationships to its states / tendencies / behaviors / effects / violences / shifts? Could we find intelligences within our bodies and abilities to connect more deeply with the mechanisms for survival and support in sites and systems that we are a part of?

move thing is supported, in part, by the Challenge America grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Campus Research Board’s award from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, and the Puffin Foundation.

Image description is available via alt-text.

04/03/2024

We hope you can join iLAND, Valle de Oro National Wildlife Refuge and other community collaborators for our EJ Community Celebration taking place throughout the month of April.

iLAND and Los Jardines Institute will be hosting a Move Thing workshop on Saturday, April 13 from 11 -2 pm.

We hope to see you there!

Join us for a month-long celebration of Environmental Justice Community Days happening all throughout April with the culminating event taking place on Saturday, April 20th! Hosted by the Refuge and our valued partners, this year's theme "Connecting Through Our Roots" highlights the deep ties that bind us - to each other, to our community, and to the earth beneath our feet.

From the EJ Paddle Tour to captivating dance performances by iLANDS and Sin Fronteras, and from hands-on educational workshops covering farming, plant restoration, and tile making to immersive Refuge and EJ Toxic Tours, there's something for everyone to enjoy and learn from.

Mark your calendars and spread the word!

Click the link below to learn more about the events taking place on the Refuge: https://www.fws.gov/refuge/valle-de-oro/events

Flyer description: Flyer with black and orange font and a drawing of a tree, roots fungi, skunk and a person standing beside the tree. Flyer reads: "Environmental Justice Community Celebration. Connecting Through Our Roots. April 2024- Free Event.
Fun Educational Activities for Family and Friends. Kayaking + Farming + Music + Dance
Food + EJ Toxic Tour +Wildlife Viewing
Art + More!
🌍🎉

04/03/2024

Join iLAND, Valle de Oro National Wildlife Refuge, and other community collaborators for our Environmental Justice Community Celebration, taking place throughout the month of April.

iLAND and Los Jardines Institute will be leading a Move Thing workshop on Saturday, April 13 from 11 -2 pm MT.

We will also lead two Move Thing workshops at the culminating Environmental Justice Community Celebration event at Valle de Oro National Wildlife Refuge on April 20th from 11 -2 pm.

We hope to see you there!

Join us for a month-long celebration of Environmental Justice Community Days happening all throughout April with the culminating event taking place on Saturday, April 20th! Hosted by the Refuge and our valued partners, this year's theme "Connecting Through Our Roots" highlights the deep ties that bind us - to each other, to our community, and to the earth beneath our feet.

From the EJ Paddle Tour to captivating dance performances by iLANDS and Sin Fronteras, and from hands-on educational workshops covering farming, plant restoration, and tile making to immersive Refuge and EJ Toxic Tours, there's something for everyone to enjoy and learn from.

Mark your calendars and spread the word!

Click the link below to learn more about the events taking place on the Refuge: https://www.fws.gov/refuge/valle-de-oro/events

Flyer description: Flyer with black and orange font and a drawing of a tree, roots fungi, skunk and a person standing beside the tree. Flyer reads: "Environmental Justice Community Celebration. Connecting Through Our Roots. April 2024- Free Event.
Fun Educational Activities for Family and Friends. Kayaking + Farming + Music + Dance
Food + EJ Toxic Tour +Wildlife Viewing
Art + More!
🌍🎉

04/03/2024

Join us for a month-long celebration of Environmental Justice Community Days happening all throughout April with the culminating event taking place on Saturday, April 20th! Hosted by the Refuge and our valued partners, this year's theme "Connecting Through Our Roots" highlights the deep ties that bind us - to each other, to our community, and to the earth beneath our feet.

From the EJ Paddle Tour to captivating dance performances by iLANDS and Sin Fronteras, and from hands-on educational workshops covering farming, plant restoration, and tile making to immersive Refuge and EJ Toxic Tours, there's something for everyone to enjoy and learn from.

Mark your calendars and spread the word!

Click the link below to learn more about the events taking place on the Refuge: https://www.fws.gov/refuge/valle-de-oro/events

Flyer description: Flyer with black and orange font and a drawing of a tree, roots fungi, skunk and a person standing beside the tree. Flyer reads: "Environmental Justice Community Celebration. Connecting Through Our Roots. April 2024- Free Event.
Fun Educational Activities for Family and Friends. Kayaking + Farming + Music + Dance
Food + EJ Toxic Tour +Wildlife Viewing
Art + More!
🌍🎉

04/03/2024

iLAND is offering workshops and performances at this event. Come dance with us!

Join us for a month-long celebration of Environmental Justice Community Days happening all throughout April with the culminating event taking place on Saturday, April 20th! Hosted by the Refuge and our valued partners, this year's theme "Connecting Through Our Roots" highlights the deep ties that bind us - to each other, to our community, and to the earth beneath our feet.

From the EJ Paddle Tour to captivating dance performances by iLANDS and Sin Fronteras, and from hands-on educational workshops covering farming, plant restoration, and tile making to immersive Refuge and EJ Toxic Tours, there's something for everyone to enjoy and learn from.

Mark your calendars and spread the word!

Click the link below to learn more about the events taking place on the Refuge: https://www.fws.gov/refuge/valle-de-oro/events

Flyer description: Flyer with black and orange font and a drawing of a tree, roots fungi, skunk and a person standing beside the tree. Flyer reads: "Environmental Justice Community Celebration. Connecting Through Our Roots. April 2024- Free Event.
Fun Educational Activities for Family and Friends. Kayaking + Farming + Music + Dance
Food + EJ Toxic Tour +Wildlife Viewing
Art + More!
🌍🎉

12/20/2023

We at iLAND are sending warmth and light as the earth turns towards the sun, lengthening our days and welcoming winter. We hope that your year is ending with peace and fulfillment and that the new year brings even more opportunities for creative collaboration and experimentation that light up a path towards peace and justice around the globe.

Below you’ll find a score to close out this year. Please consider making a contribution by following the link in our bio. Your support will go directly to our programs and allow us to give free Guía de campo de iLANDing books to the families that take part in our workshops.

***
A score for the end of 2023 and the beginning of 2024

Held, Hold, Holding. Gravity isn’t everything

Find a bit of a plant - a leaf, a seed, a stem, a root

Find a small rock or object - a pebble, a stone, a rock, a shell, a fossil

Hold the plant in one palm, hold the rock in the other.

Sense the weight of each object in your palm. Listen to the weight through your bones, then through your blood.

Slowly close your fingers around the two objects. How does the closing shift your experience of weight? Open and close your palms as many times as you would like.

Where do you end and the plant and rock begin? Be playful in that boundary.

When you feel complete, put the two objects down and see them in the space and feel their resonance in your palms. Tune into the space between you and the two objects. Move as you wish, feeling how your hands feel both full and empty.

12/16/2023

Score for 2024: Held, Hold, Holding -

Dear Friends, We at iLAND are sending warmth and light as the earth turns towards the sun, lengthening our days and welcoming winter. We hope that your year is ending with peace and fulfillment and that the new year brings even more opportunities for creative collaboration and experimentation that l...

12/13/2023

Join Us This Weekend! -

Hello Friends! Please join us this weekend as we continue to develop the performance research of move thing, a community-based dance project proposing that the multi-sensory, improvisatory, and choreographic structures of dance contribute to reparative projects in communities that have historically...

06/14/2023

“Guía de campo de iLANDing” is here!!! Online sale will begin soon. Come join us for Entre Munchos Mudos (June 15-16) and pick up your physical copies!!

The book launch party takes place this Friday at the Good Life Garden (50 Goodwin Pl, Brooklyn, NY 11221),celebrating the Spanish translation of the “Field Guide to iLANDing,” a compilation of over 70 scores from a decade of collaborative research and symposia published by 53rd State Press and translated by Alejandra Martorell and Alex Viteri Arturo.

06/07/2023

Entres Muchos Mundos: poetic translation for researching urban environments
FREE
No RSVP Required

Interlocutors: Martita Abril, Rafael Cañals, Alex Viteri Arturo, Catalina Hernandez, Jennifer Monson, Daniela Castillo, Alejandra Martorell, Magdalena Novoa

Workshops and Book Launch Location: Good Life Garden (50 Goodwin Pl, Brooklyn, NY 11221)

Meeting point for Environmental Justice Walk: La Guardia Playground (252 S 4th St, Brooklyn, NY 11211)

Occuring on June 15-16 in Good Life Garden and public spaces around South Williamsburg/Bushwick, Entre Muchos Mundos: poetic translation for researching urban environments is a two-day gathering of Latin American artists-scholars and local community leaders to share embodiment-based and grassroot-driven methods for engaging with environmental justice issues. With a particular focus on translation, mapping, and moving boundaries, Entre Muchos Mundos builds upon three years of Spanish iLANDing workshops, organized in collaboration with El Puente, a community human and environmental rights organization. Entre Muchos Mundos is part of iLAND in Dialogue, a series of informal gathering initiated in 2021 to discuss themes and concepts emerging from the iLANDing methodology.

Entre Muchos Mundos begins at the LaGuardia Playground with an Environmental Justice Walk, led by young community leaders from El Puente, followed by two embodied research workshops at the Good Life Garden in Bushwick. The event culminates in the celebration of the Spanish translation of the “Field Guide to iLANDing,” a compilation of over 70 scores from a decade of collaborative research and symposia published by 53rd State Press and translated by Alejandra Martorell and Alex Viteri Arturo.

See flyers attached for the full schedule of the event. The workshops will be conducted in both Spanish and English. For more information, contact: [email protected].

Entre Muchos Mundos is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, in partnership with the City Council.

04/07/2023

Excited to announce the fourth research performance of 'move thing,' our multi-year project investigating the movement of toxicities! See you all this weekend!

***

move thing
Research Performance IV
FREE. No RSVP required.

Dates: Saturday, April 8, 11am - 2pm 
Sunday, April 9, 2pm - 5pm

Location: Interstitial Park between the BQE and the Williamsburg Bus Depot

Performers: Jennifer Monson, Carolyn Hall, K.J. Holmes, Elisabeth Ochoa, Leslie Cuyjet, Courtney Cooke, Madeline Mellinger, Jessica Ziegler, Jennifer Miller, Iki Nakagawa, Valeria Oliveiro, Martita Abril, Rafael Cañal

Conceptual formations: Valerie Oliveiro and Jennifer Monson

move thing is a community-based dance project proposing that the multi-sensory, improvisatory, and choreographic structures of dance contribute to reparative projects in communities that have historically been impacted by toxic contamination due to resource extraction (Uranium and coal mining) and industrial effluents (chemicals, particulates, carbon monoxide, and heavy metals). Resisting all forms of purity, the work proposes that we are all constantly, inherently, and unevenly making up each other and all other animate and inanimate beings. If we imagine ourselves as soluble, always dissolving and reconstituting choreographically, could we move through toxicity and be with and/or absorb toxicity and find new / alternative / old / transformative relationships to its states / tendencies / behaviors / effects / violences / shifts? Could we find intelligences within our bodies and abilities to connect more deeply with the mechanisms for survival and support in sites and systems that we are a part of?

move thing is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, in partnership with the City Council

12/30/2022

Collecting + Discarding Score: 2022 Variation -

Dear Friends, We hope you are sensing the energy of the lengthening days and the possibilities of the New Year. We are sending you our annual end of year score. This one is a variation of a score in the Field Guide from 2015. We are happy to report that the Spanish translation is coming along and we...

10/28/2022

Join Us Next Weekend! -

Hello Friends! Please join us for two exciting events next weekend! We continue to develop the performance research of move thing, a community-based dance project proposing that the multi-sensory, improvisatory, and choreographic structures of dance contribute to reparative projects in communities ...

10/26/2022

Excited to announce the third research performance of 'move thing,' our multi-year project investigating the movement of toxicities! See you all next weekend!

***

move thing
Research Performance III
FREE. No RSVP required.

Dates: Saturday, November 5, 11am - 2pm 
Sunday, November 6, 2pm - 5pm

Location: Interstitial Park between the BQE and the Williamsburg Bus Depot

Performers: Jennifer Monson, Sean Meehan, Carolyn Hall, K.J. Holmes, Elisabeth Ochoa, Courtney Cooke, Madeline Mellinger, Jessica Ziegler, Jennifer Miller, Iki Nakagawa, David Watson, Anh Vo, Valeria Oliveiro, Martita Abril, Rafael Cañal

Conceptual formations: Valerie Oliveiro and Jennifer Monson

move thing is a community-based dance project proposing that the multi-sensory, improvisatory, and choreographic structures of dance contribute to reparative projects in communities that have historically been impacted by toxic contamination due to resource extraction (Uranium and coal mining) and industrial effluents (chemicals, particulates, carbon monoxide, and heavy metals). Resisting all forms of purity, the work proposes that we are all constantly, inherently, and unevenly making up each other and all other animate and inanimate beings. If we imagine ourselves as soluble, always dissolving and reconstituting choreographically, could we move through toxicity and be with and/or absorb toxicity and find new / alternative / old / transformative relationships to its states / tendencies / behaviors / effects / violences / shifts? Could we find intelligences within our bodies and abilities to connect more deeply with the mechanisms for survival and support in sites and systems that we are a part of?

move thing is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, in partnership with the City Council

***
Alt-text description is available

05/27/2022

iLAND in Dialogue - https://mailchi.mp/2b969ba4e970/field-guide-pdf-july-9035069

Hello Friends, We are wrapping up our busy Spring season with iLAND in Dialogue, a series of informal talks with an amazing group of people. We really hope to see you there—either on Zoom or in-person at the Movement Research Courtyard Studio. sending love and spring warmth, Jennifer and the iLAN...

04/23/2022

On Site is written for artists and students at all levels wishing to explore the artistic and production processes of making sited works. The book covers several issues to consider: selecting a site, researching and exploring a site for inspiration and content, considering differences in urban and n...

04/06/2022

Spring Activities - https://mailchi.mp/446d3331e0a1/field-guide-pdf-july-8867533

Hello Friends! Please check out our Spring activities! We continue to develop the performance research of move thing, a community-based dance project proposing that the multi-sensory, improvisatory, and choreographic structures of dance contribute to reparative projects in communities that have his...

12/21/2021

Solstice Score 2021 - https://mailchi.mp/1109f931e053/field-guide-pdf-july-8650489

iLAND programming is supported by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council and was made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo and the New York State Legislature.

12/01/2021

Get your tickets now! Only a few seats are available. This is stunning group of old dogs with new tricks!

Photos from L-R: Jennifer Miller and Jennifer Monson performing at Judson Church; Patrick Gallagher, Cathy Weis, and Emily Climer rehearsing at WeisAcres; Scott Heron in performance.

10/22/2021

move thing — toxicities, contamination, remediation, and reconstitution. - https://mailchi.mp/d8eb8ac1d1d2/field-guide-pdf-july-5221373

Fall greetings, Sniff the cool air and shake your spirit up. On November 6-7, we are doing the first public research event of move thing — a new multi-year migrational project following the movements of toxicities with Jennifer Monson and Valerie Oliveiro. Featuring 10 performers/interlocutors,...

09/17/2021

Tomorrow, Saturday 4pm at Weis Acres - https://mailchi.mp/91e2ad0b4b37/field-guide-pdf-july-5166897

Greetings, Thank you so much for such a rich and transformative Spanish workshop this past weekend. Much gratitude to our facilitators, to folks joining us on Zoom, as well as to the support we received from afar. Gracias!   Just a reminder that another exciting event, Partitura / Particular...

09/09/2021

CORRECTED: Partitura / Particular / Participar, Saturday September 18, 4pm - https://mailchi.mp/41cbec5b9e3e/field-guide-pdf-july-5155433

Dear Friends We are so excited for our two upcoming programs in September! If you haven't already, there's one day left to register for our free Spanish workshop tomorrow—En movimiento con la ciudad / Moving with the city. Scroll below for more details!   Our second event—Partitura, Particula...