imperfect future (S) is a night event of performance and dance. I am excited to present a platform where Memory, Body, and Protest are explored through the lens of performance art. This event brings together a diverse group of talented artists, each contributing their unique perspective and voice.
The works of Kara Roseborough, Sreyashi Dey, Leah Crosby, Emerson Granillo, and Ginny Jiang transcend norms, creating an intricate tapestry of emotion, intuition, and action. Their performances are more than mere expressions; they are conversations, challenges, and revelations.
The evening is not only about artistic expression but also about fostering a community of thinkers, believers, and change-makers. We aim to provoke thoughtful dialogue, stimulate collective empathy, and empower change through the art of performance.
The works of Kara Roseborough, Sreyashi Dey, Leah Crosby, Emerson Granillo, and Ginny Jiang transcend norms, creating an intricate tapestry of emotion, intuition, and action. Their performances are more than mere expressions; they are conversations, challenges, and revelations.
The evening is not only about artistic expression but also about fostering a community of thinkers, believers, and change-makers. We aim to provoke thoughtful dialogue, stimulate collective empathy, and empower change through the art of performance.
- curated by Emerson Granillo
Squishy Squashy
by Leah Crobsy
Squishy Squashy uses and plaque projector and found images to tell a story about a body.
Bio
Leah Crosby is an art maker, musician, and podcaster whose makes work about care, pleasure, and power. They like riding bikes and hanging out with cats. Crosby is an MFA candidate at the university of Michigan.
Title: Indeterminate Wind Power
by Ginny Jiang
Indeterminate Wind Power (IWP) draws inspiration from the personal oppression experiences, the journey through the intertwined cultural influences, allowing individuals from diverse backgrounds to navigate within a shared cultural impact. Represented a complex exploration incorporating elements from aura and rhythm, slow movement patterns, improvisation, partnering, modern dance techniques, and experimental props. This performance insists on the relationship between the dancers, the images and the integration with the specific site, guiding the audience into the performance, restraint, slowness and circular dynamics. This seamless integration presents a compelling force, showcasing the power of dance and the culturally dynamic nature of its evolution.
Bio
Ginny Jiang (she/they/them) is an interdisciplinary artist, teacher, choreographer, dancer pursuing an MFA in dance at the University of Michigan. Jiang’s work focuses on Interdisciplinary collaboration, site-specific performance, environment, social belonging, gender, bias and performance, dance and democracy, audience engagement and dialogue-building. Their research integrates Taoism, feminist theory, psychology, neurophysiology, and visual arts. Jiang has been creating live performances, site-specific performances, and experimental video and has been shown in a number of galleries, conferences, and performance venues both nationally and internationally.
Title: Naba Durga (in the Odissi style of Indian classical dance)
by Sreyashi Dey
Naba Durga is an invocation to Goddess Durga, an embodiment of female strength in Hindu mythology. Durga’s eyes are like the sun and the moon, and her body glows like fire. She fights fiercely with the buffalo demon Mahisasura and destroys him. She represents sakti or strength, and she is also the benevolent the mother. She is nine forms all in one, “Naba Durga.”
Durga of the Forest
The great goddess
Durga of the Mountains
The victorious one
The one who destroys evil
The slayer of the demon Mahisasura
The embodiment of power
Durga of darkness
The one who loves and one who fights
The dancer says through her dance, “I invoke you into my body.”
Durga of the Forest
The great goddess
Durga of the Mountains
The victorious one
The one who destroys evil
The slayer of the demon Mahisasura
The embodiment of power
Durga of darkness
The one who loves and one who fights
The dancer says through her dance, “I invoke you into my body.”
Bio
Sreyashi Dey is one of the foremost exponents of Odissi in the US, and the Founder and Artistic Director of Srishti Dances of India and Akshara, an Ann Arbor based multi-arts organization. Sreyashi was previously also an exponent of Bharatanayam. As a thoughtful artist, Sreyashi constantly expands her creative horizons with new choreographies and collaborations across artistic genres.
She regularly tours the US and has performed all over the world – in Europe, Asia and India. Her work has been critically acclaimed by well-known critics in leading newspapers and magazines in the US, such as the New York Times, as well as in leading media in India. Sreyashi has been the recipient of several awards, notably the Harry Schwalb Excellence in the Arts award, and has been awarded grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and several premier foundations in the US.
In addition to Akshara, Sreyashi also founded SPARSH, a non-profit that established and supported a pediatric heart surgery program at a community hospital in India for disadvantaged children.
Sreyashi’s educational background includes an MS in Economics and an MBA, with parallel careers in marketing, University of Michigan administration and non-profit. She has just completed another Masters in Clinical Social Work from the University of Michigan.
She regularly tours the US and has performed all over the world – in Europe, Asia and India. Her work has been critically acclaimed by well-known critics in leading newspapers and magazines in the US, such as the New York Times, as well as in leading media in India. Sreyashi has been the recipient of several awards, notably the Harry Schwalb Excellence in the Arts award, and has been awarded grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and several premier foundations in the US.
In addition to Akshara, Sreyashi also founded SPARSH, a non-profit that established and supported a pediatric heart surgery program at a community hospital in India for disadvantaged children.
Sreyashi’s educational background includes an MS in Economics and an MBA, with parallel careers in marketing, University of Michigan administration and non-profit. She has just completed another Masters in Clinical Social Work from the University of Michigan.
Title: Br’er
by Kara Roseborugh
“Br’er” is a solo performance that dives into the emergence and evolution of the folk character Br’er Rabbit within the culture and oral traditions of enslaved Black Americans in the antebellum American south. Choreographer/Dancer Kara Roseborough conveys Br’er’s journey through self-awareness and reclamation of power and identity.
Bio
Kara Roseborough, originally from Evanston, IL, is a second-year Dance MFA Candidate and Rackham Merit Awardee at the University of Michigan. Previously, Kara was the Artistic Director of the Evanston Dance Ensemble 2 (ede2). She is certified to teach Cecchetti Grades I-V and holds a Bachelor of Arts in English from the University of Utah. Her performance credits include work with Charleston City Ballet, The Ruth Page Civic Ballet of Chicago, South Chicago Dance Theatre, Studio5 and the New Dances Festival, Pittsburgh Public Theatre and Fleetwood-Jourdain Theatre. Her current research includes the decolonization of ballet and the incorporation of Afrocentric narratives in ballet and dance theatre. She has presented choreography across the United States and recently choreographed for the Dutch National Ballet.
Title: Not Here, Ni hay
By Emerson Granillo
Not here, Ni hay reflects the complex and emotional experience of feeling of not belonging, both in the United States and Guatemala. It captures the essence of a migrant's life, torn between two worlds and the internal struggle of identity and belonging.
Bio
Emerson Granillo, an independent artist and curator with an MFA from U-M's Stamps School and a BFA from SAIC, weaves their first-generation immigrant and queer identity into impactful art and curatorial practices. Their work explores identity and displacement, promoting communal healing. Emerson's commitment extends to empowering diverse voices in art and education, fostering empathetic, inclusive environments for creative expression and cultural dialogue.