Rosy Simas

Rosy Simas
Rosy Simas by Tim Rummelhoff Courtesy McKnight Fellowships for Choreographers, 2016
Born
Rosy Marie Simas

(1967-04-04) April 4, 1967 (age 57)
Jacksonville, Florida
Occupation(s)transdisiplinary artist, choreographer, performer, artistic director
Years active1992-present
Career
Current groupRosy Simas Danse
Former groupsShattering Feet
Dancesshe who lives on the road to war, yödoishëndahgwa’geh (a place for rest), WEave:Here, Weave, Within Our Skin, Transfuse, Skin(s), We Wait In The Darkness, Bloodlines, Threshold, i want it to be raining and the window to be open, Birds, Have Gun Will Shoot, Moments In Between, Four Years Later
Websitewww.rosysimas.com

Rosy Marie Simas is a Seneca multidisciplinary artist and choreographer in the United States.

Identity

Rosy Marie Simas is a Haudenosaunee Heron Clan woman and an enrolled member of the Seneca Nation of Indians.[1]

Career

Simas is a dance and transdisciplinary artist[2] and the founder and artistic director of Rosy Simas Danse.[3]

As a choreographer, Simas creates work for stage and installation that unifies movement, time-based media, sound, and sculpture. Since 2012 she has collaborated with French composer François Richomme.[4] Their collaborative works include: We Wait In The Darkness (2014);[5] Skin(s) (2012);[6] Weave (2019);[7] Threshold, a film with photographer Douglas Beasley (2013);[8] and WEave:HERE with Heid E. Erdrich (2019).[9]

In addition, Simas has collaborated with Deborah Jinza Thayer. In 2016, Simas and Jinza Thayer performed together in 14 U.S. cities, and finished their tour with a performance at Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota.[10][11]

Exhibitions

Solo

Group

Honors and awards

  • Native Arts and Cultures Foundation Artist Fellowship (2013)[19]
  • Twin Cities City Pages Artist of the Year (2014)[20]
  • Sage Award for Film and Set Design (2014)[21]
  • Guggenheim Creative Arts Fellowship for Choreography (2015)[22]
  • McKnight Fellowship for Choreography (2016)[23]
  • First People's Fund Artists in Business Leadership Fellow (2016)[24]
  • Joyce Award from the Joyce Foundation with the Ordway Center of the Performing Arts (2018)[25]
  • Dance/USA Artist Fellowships (2019)[26]
  • Twin Cities City Pages Best Choreographer (2020)[27]
  • McKnight Fellowship for Choreography (2022)[28]
  • United States Artists Artist Fellowship (2022)[29]
  • Doris Duke Artist Award (2023)

Publications

  • Simas, Rosy (2016). "My Making of We Wait in the Darkness". Dance Research Journal. 48 (1): 29–32. doi:10.1017/S0149767716000073. S2CID 192540281. Project MUSE 617347.
  • Simas, Rosy and Bodhrán, Ahimsa Timoteo (2019) Sovereign Movements Building and Sustaining Native Dance And Performance Communities A Dialogue, Movement Research Performance Journal, Sovereign Movements: Native Dance and Performance, Issue 52/53, Fall 2019.[30]
  • Simas, Rosy and Morgan, Christopher K. (2019) Longer Scores: Native Choreographic Turns, Curatorial Visions, and Community Engagement[31]
  • Simas, Rosy; Mitchell, Sam Aros (October 2019). "Playing Indian, between Idealization and Vilification: Seems You have to Play Indian to be Indian". American Indian Culture and Research Journal. 43 (4): 133–140. doi:10.17953/aicrj.43.4.simas-mitchell. S2CID 242885536.
  • Simas, Rosy (2022) "The body is an archive: Collective memory; ancestral knowledge, culture and history". in Music, Dance and the Archive. Edited by Amanda Harris, Linda Barwick, and Jakelin Troy[32]

References

  1. ^ "Award-winning Seneca choreographer Rosy Simas creating dance performance "Weave"". Indian Country Today. Archived from the original on October 24, 2020. Retrieved June 7, 2018.
  2. ^ "Studio Stories: Reminiscing on Twin Cities Dance with Rosy Simas". Arena Dances on Buzzsprout. Retrieved June 10, 2020.
  3. ^ "MNIBA Business Directory". MNIBA Website. Retrieved September 30, 2020.
  4. ^ "Rosy Simas | Maggie Allesee National Center for Choreography".
  5. ^ "Tragic history informs dance by Rosy Simas", Star Tribune, retrieved July 3, 2014
  6. ^ "Rosy Simas delivers an intense and ritualistic 'Skin(s)' at Intermedia Arts", Star Tribune, retrieved October 24, 2016
  7. ^ "Rosy Simas, Seneca Choreographer, developing dancer performance, "Weave," to honor the Native world". First American Art Magazine. Retrieved June 12, 2018.
  8. ^ "Dance spotlight: Rosy Simas", Star Tribune, retrieved September 8, 2012
  9. ^ "With a theme of 'resilience,' Northern Spark flies into Rondo and Franklin Av. neighborhoods". Star Tribune. Retrieved October 3, 2020.
  10. ^ Carleton presents A Shared Evening Of Dance: This special performance features acclaimed Twin Cities dancers Rosy Simas and Deborah Jinza Thayer. News. Carleton College. May 22, 2016. https://www.carleton.edu/news/stories/carleton-presents-a-shared-evening-of-dance/
  11. ^ ArtZany!-Radio for the Imagination | Dance Artist Deborah Jinza Thayer. KYMN Radio. May 20, 2016. https://kymnradio.net/2016/05/20/artzany-radio-imagination-dance-artist-deborah-jinza-thayer-05202016/
  12. ^ "Movers & makers, 17 more bright spots in the Twin cities arts scene", Star Tribune, retrieved December 29, 2014
  13. ^ "Final Weeks of 'All My Relations: A Seneca History' Exhibit at Mitchell Museum of the American Indian", Patch, August 20, 2015, retrieved August 20, 2015
  14. ^ "Rosy Simas' Exhibition Opening at the SINM", Enchanted Mountains Cattaraugus County, retrieved December 5, 2019
  15. ^ "She Who Lives on the Road to War", Weisman Art Museum Website, retrieved October 4, 2019
  16. ^ "SKEW LINES - a residency and installations by Heid E. Erdrich and Rosy Simas", Soo Visual Arts Center Website, retrieved May 4, 2019
  17. ^ "Waasamoo-Beshizi", Plains Art Museum Website, retrieved February 5, 2019
  18. ^ "2021 FEATURE EXHIBITION Identity/Identify", Iroquois Indian Museum Website, retrieved September 30, 2020
  19. ^ Native Arts and Cultures Foundation 2013 Fellows, December 4, 2012, retrieved December 4, 2012
  20. ^ "Artists of the Year: The Best Visual Artists, Performers, and More from 2014", City Pages, retrieved December 23, 2014
  21. ^ "Nine artists honored with SAGE Awards for Dance". Star Tribune. Retrieved October 14, 2014.
  22. ^ "Native artist Rosy Simas pulls various threads to build a bold new dance work, 'Weave'". Star Tribune. Retrieved January 11, 2019.
  23. ^ "2016 McKnight Fellows in Visual and Performing Arts Announced", Philanthropy Digest, retrieved June 8, 2016
  24. ^ "Beyond The Dance", First Peoples Fund Fellows Stories, March 2016, retrieved March 1, 2016
  25. ^ "2018 Joyce Awards Winners", The Joyce Foundation, retrieved January 17, 2018
  26. ^ "Dance/USA's New Fellowship Awards Over $1 Million to Socially Conscious Artists", Dance Magazine, August 2019, retrieved August 1, 2019
  27. ^ "Best Choreographer", City Pages, retrieved July 29, 2020
  28. ^ "2022 McKnight Fellows", McKnight Fellowhips in Dance, June 2022, retrieved February 7, 2023
  29. ^ 2022 United States Artists Unbound, retrieved February 7, 2023
  30. ^ "Sovereign Movements: Building and Sustaining Native Dance And Performance Communities — A Dialogue". Movement Research Performance Journal, Sovereign Movements: Native Dance and Performance,Issue 52/53. Retrieved October 30, 2019.
  31. ^ "Sovereign Movements: Building and Sustaining Native Dance And Performance Communities — A Dialogue". Movement Research Performance Journal, Sovereign Movements: Native Dance and Performance,Issue 52/53. Retrieved October 30, 2019.
  32. ^ "Music, Dance and the Archive". Sydney University Press. Retrieved August 6, 2024.