Free Improvisations at the Firehouse

On Monday, March 28, 2022 at 6pm, Rashaun Mitchell + Silas Riener were joined by saxophonist Phillip Greenlief and dancer Jmy James Kidd for an evening of Improvisation performed in the open landscape and in response to HDTS’ Firehouse Outpost in the Copper Mountain Mesa neighborhood of North Joshua Tree.

We live in a world that is densely populated with repressive systems of control. Free improvisers offer an alternative - to gather from diverse cultures and create compelling and beautiful work with no plan, no pre-arranged agreements. It takes years of hard work to be prepared to live fearlessly in this manner, and Mitchell, Riener and Kidd have been living in this practice for decades. Set aside your devices and plans and witness what it’s like to free yourself.

Performance is open to all. Tickets are $15 and available for preorder and at the door. Proceeds support the artists, Copper Mountain Mesa Community Association and future HDTS programming. No one turned away for lack of funds.

In accompaniment to their performance, on Saturday, April 2 from 10am-12pm, Rashaun Mitchell and Silas Riener offered a free workshop at the HDTS Firehouse Outpost.

Drawn from the artists’ ongoing improvisational practice, “desire lines”, this workshop tuned our individual attention towards a receptive state of being, for a deeper understanding of our internal landscapes and our shared, external environment. Through simple observations, spontaneous choice-making, and layering of memories, we allowed emergent structures to create a collective subject. This process provided joy and rest, discursive pathways and non-hierarchical structures, collaboration and ways of self-organizing. How can we activate aspects of ourselves that exist at the margins, at places of possibility and discovery

Rashaun Mitchell + Silas Riener are New York-based dance artists. Their work involves the building of collaborative worlds through improvisational techniques, digital technologies, and material construction. They met as dancers in the Merce Cunningham Dance company and since 2010 they have created over 25 multidisciplinary dance works including site-responsive installations, concert dances, gallery performances and dances for film in venues such as the Brooklyn Academy of Music, Barbican Centre, REDCAT, The Walker Art Center, and MoMA/PS1. They maintain a commitment to queer culture and aesthetics. Their partnership intentionally blurs authorship and maintains a deep commitment to collaboration with a diverse community of dancers, performers, artists and cultural institutions. www.rashaunsilasdance.com