Rosy Simas

Rosy Simas
Rosy Simas by Tim Rummelhoff Courtesy McKnight Fellowships for Choreographers, 2016
Born	Rosy Simas (1967-04-04) April 4, 1967 (age 58) Jacksonville, Florida
Occupation(s)	transdisiplinary artist, choreographer, performer, artistic director
Years active	1992-present
Career
Current group	Rosy Simas Danse
Former groups	Shattering Feet
Dances	she 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
Website	www.rosysimas.com

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

Identity

Rosy Simas is Haudenosaunee Heron Clan 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

• We Wait In The Darkness, All My Relations Art, Minneapolis, MN. (2014) ^[12]
• All My Relations: A Seneca History, Mitchell Museum of the American Indian (2015) ^[13]
• Blood Lines: Images of Attachments, Seneca Iroquois National Museum, Salamanca, NY. (2020) ^[14]
• she who lives on the road to war, Weisman Art Museum, Minneapolis, MN. (2020) ^[15]

Group

• SKEW LINES: a residency and installations, Heid E. Erdrich and Rosy Simas. SOO Visual Arts Center, Minneapolis, MN. (2019) ^[16]
• Waasamoo-Beshizi (Power-Lines), Plains Art Museum, Fargo, ND. (2019) ^[17]
• Identity/Identify, Iroquois Indian Museum, Howes Cave, NY. (2020–2021) ^[18]

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)
• Forge Project Fellowship (2025)
• First People’s Fund Performing Arts Fellowship (2025)

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, July 3, 2014, retrieved July 3, 2014
6. "Rosy Simas delivers an intense and ritualistic 'Skin(s)' at Intermedia Arts", Star Tribune, October 24, 2016, 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, December 29, 2014, 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.

External links

• Official website