Braiding Time, Memory and Water
The Chattahoochee River at Powers Island and Zonalite Park
both sites in the Chattahoochee Watershed
By Sue Schroeder with Jonathon Keats
and Felipe Pérez Santiago
Braiding Time, Memory and Water is a site-specific, environmental (earth) artistic creation by Sue Schroeder alongside and in collaboration with conceptual artist Jonathon Keats and composer Felipe Pérez Santiago. The performance, including an ensemble of dance artists and percussion, responds to the geography, history, and environmental concerns of two locations along the Chattahoochee River as it meanders through the Atlanta metropolitan area: Powers Island, one of the most serene sections of the Chattahoochee River National Recreation Area, and Zonalite Park, a 13-acre nature sanctuary along the Southfork of Peachtree Creek, a tributary of the Chattahoochee River.
At these performance sites (October 19 & 20, 2024 at Powers Island and April 26 & 27, 2025 at Zonalite Park) the work will follow the braiding paths of the water over the duration of approximately an hour. With the braid as central to the creative action of the performance, the work follows the naturally occurring form that is composed and performed by water as it flows. The composition is inscribed in the land through ongoing passage, which varies based on fluctuations in flow rate. The river, therefore, acts as a natural timekeeper and a collaborator in the performance(s). Ambient sound and field recordings integrated into a larger sound composition further nature’s collaboration in the work.
Braiding Time, Memory and Waters animates a rhythm, individually and collectively, of coming back to the water, of reconnecting to nature, particularly the river, as natural timekeepers. Simultaneously, the work offers opportunities and experiences to question, discuss, debate, and take action in response to long-term changes in the dynamics of rivers. A deeper understanding of the natural cycles in nature will encourage us to seek and find solutions to safeguard and nurture our environment.
Designed within the structure of a community-based residency, Braiding Time, Memory and Water aims to build community across seemingly disparate groups, specifically employing art to create a sense of shared stakes in critical issues related to the earth, its waters, and its people/us. Specific to the Chattahoochee River, the critical issues include stormwater and wastewater pollution, increased water consumption and landscape changes that interrupt natural flow patterns. Through the cross-fertilization of diverse artists, activists, experts, students and the public, the community-based residency serves as a creative catalyst and meeting place for artists with curiosity and interest in cultivating contemporary art-making for intentional community experience and inclusion. At the heart of Braiding Time, Memory and Water is advocacy for access to nature for all and support of creators of art that advocate on behalf of nature.
Braiding Time, Memory and Water is a collective performance experience built in publicly accessible locations. The hope is people feel represented and reassured nature is a place for them to experience, and in doing so, the project speaks to the artists/creators’ goal of raising awareness for environmental justice issues for all people and the planet to thrive.
Photos by Simon Gentry
.jpg)
Lead Artists
Sue Schroeder
In over 40 years of work in the arts, Sue Schroeder has created more than 110 original dance works for theaters, museums, green spaces, architectural works, and water environments. Her work has appeared throughout the United States, as well as Mexico, Israel, France, Germany, Poland, Georgia, Slovenia, Czech Republic, Iceland, United Kingdom, Sweden, Canada, Guatemala, and Hungary. Schroeder’s multidisciplinary vision has led to collaborations with major voices in dance, music, spoken word, visual arts and design.
Additionally, Schroeder is recognized as a leading Arts Activist and Mentor and the Founding Artistic Director of Core Dance. As a contemporary artist and Dance Maker, Schroeder focuses on the creative process, movement research & exploration, and dance-making as a catalyst for social change.
Under the umbrella of Core Dance, Schroeder facilitated the creation of DanceATL, a dance service organization that nurtures and promotes dance as a vibrant part of Atlanta’s arts ecosystem. DanceATL connects artists to resources, grows and engages audiences in the city, and supports the full range of the industry by cultivating an awareness and appreciation of dance that is sustainable and expansive.
Schroeder holds a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Houston and earned her Master of Fine Arts in Theater Arts with a dance and anthropology concentration from the University of Arizona at Tucson. Educated under dance greats Bill Evans, Hanya Holm, Oliver Kostock, Anna Halprin, Isa Bergsohn and John M. Wilson, she holds certifications throughout the U.S. as a Teaching Artist and is a founding member of the Teacher Training Institute (TTI), a training program established to develop best practices to teach dance and kinetic learning in community-based settings.
Additional details may be found at: www.coredance.org/sue-schroeder
Jonathon Keats
Acclaimed as a “poet of ideas” by The New Yorker and a “multimedia philosopher-prophet” by The Atlantic, Jonathon Keats is an artist, writer and experimental philosopher. His conceptually-driven transdisciplinary projects explore all aspects of society, adapting methods from the sciences and the humanities.
He has exhibited and lectured at dozens of institutions worldwide, from the Los Angeles County Museum of Art to Stanford University to the Triennale di Milano, and from SXSW to CERN to UNESCO. He is the author of six books on subjects ranging from science and technology to art and design – most recently You Belong to the Universe: Buckminster Fuller and the Future, published by Oxford University Press – and is the author of a weekly online art and design column for Forbes.
He has been an artist-in residence at the Fraunhofer Institute for Building Physics, UC Berkeley's Sagehen Creek Field Station, UC San Francisco’s Memory and Aging Center, and the LACMA Art + Technology Lab, a Black Mountain College Legacy Fellow at the University of North Carolina-Asheville, an Imaginary Fellow at Arizona State University’s Center for Science and the Imagination, a Seed Lab artist at the Anchorage Museum, and a Research Fellow at the Nevada Museum of Art's Center for Art + Environment.
He is currently a fellow at the Berggruen Institute, a research associate at the University of Arizona’s Desert Laboratory on Tumamoc Hill, a visiting scholar at San Jose State University’s CADRE Laboratory for New Media, an advisor in metadisciplinary studies at the University of Zurich, a research fellow at the Highland Institute and the Long Now Foundation, principal philosopher at Earth Law Center, and an artist-in-residence at Hyundai, the SETI Institute, and Flux Projects. He co-directs the Interspecies Justice Working Group at Colby College and the Consortium for Climate-Adapted Cultural Heritage.
As an artist, he is represented by Modernism Gallery in San Francisco. A monograph about his work, Thought Experiments, was recently published by Hirmer Verlag.
Photo by Jen Dessinger
Felipe Pérez Santiago
Considered by the international press as one of the most active and recognized composers of the musical scene, Felipe Perez Santiago has received several prizes, awards and recognitions in Europe, United States, Asia and Latin America including, among many others, the composition prize of the Kronos Quartet in USA, the electronic music prize in Bourges, France, the music for dance competition by the Onassis Foundation in Greece, the Betty J. Meyers grant in Washington, the National Performance Network award in Austin, a platinum album in Mexico, the Best Music Award at the Miami Film Festival, and numerous international grants.
He holds diplomas and master’s degrees from prestigious music institutions: The Center for Research and Musical Studies (CIEM) in Mexico, the Royal Schools of Music in London, and the Rotterdam Conservatory in The Netherlands.
In Mexico, he is an honorary member of the National System of Art Creators, he represented his country before the UNESCO at the International Composers Rostrum and was considered by the Mexico City cultural website as one of the 7 most recognized national artists worldwide. In 2021 he was awarded with the “Trajectory Award”, given by the Composers Society of Mexico (SACM) for 25 years of uninterrupted and successful career as a composer, and in 2023 he was appointed as Cultural Ambassador of the “Global Network of Learning Cities” also by the UNESCO as a recognition for his work with children and youth orchestras.
He is founder and artistic director of the Mal’Akh Ensemble and the Vórtice Ensemble and Orchestra, formations of flexible instrumentation where he combines chamber music with all kinds of musical genres and collaborates with composers and performers from all over the world. With both projects he has extensively toured and recorded, and has received several grants, prizes, and recognitions. He is also the musical director of the ONIX Ensemble (oldest ongoing contemporary music ensemble in Latin America), and he has recently been appointed as the musical director and conductor of the orchestra of the “Estudios Churubusco”, main film studios in Latin America, to oversee all film music projects and new music recordings at this historical institution.
His music has been commissioned and performed in more than 40 countries in some of the most important theaters, concert halls, venues, and festivals, and is included in more than 30 discographic productions worldwide including orchestral pieces, operas, chamber music, solo pieces, electronic works, and music for films, dance, video, and multimedia installations. He has been as well invited as resident composer, teacher and guest lecturer to conservatories, universities, and institutions all over the world.
He is also artist in residence at the SETI Institute (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) in California, where he founded and directed “The Earthling Project”, which consisted on a compilation of human voices from all over the world that created a sonic legacy representing the sounds of humanity and was sent into space on January 8th 2024 as part of the “Peregrine” mission by the Space Agency Astrobotic in collaboration with NASA and then landed on the moon on February 22nd with the Odysseus lander in collaboration with Space X.
Movement Artists
Alexia Jones
.jpg)
Alexia Jones celebrates 28 years in long term recovery as the founder and Executive Director of R2ISE Inc. a nonprofit RCO (Recovery Community Organization) in Atlanta Georgia, holds a BFA in Dance from Florida State University, and an MBA from Phoenix University. She is a certified addiction empowerment specialist (CARES) and certified peer specialist (CPS) trainer of trainers for trauma informed care and a certified drum circle facilitator.
She is passionate about her work with those in recovery from mental health challenges and/or drug addiction, by utilizing the arts and providing a safe place through R2ISE so that wellness can be maintained. She has performed nationally and internationally and choreographed at the university and professional level.
Alexia is a movement engineer committed to helping others walk in recovery, restoration, inspiration, support, and empowerment. Alexia is committed to sharing the message that Art+Recovery=Freedom and bringing healing and hope to many through her artistic approach called the Beracha Method; a self-directed process that empowers people to focus on their needs, stimulates recovery focused dialogue, builds collaborative relationships, and encourages connection with others to build a supportive recovery network.
Alexia has worked with individuals, families, and children in recovery for 27 years. During her recovery journey she has written several plays that illustrate the process of recovery, utilizing the unique stories and artistic gifts of the individuals she passionately serves. Her artistic work includes "Chronicles of Hope” featuring recovering artists in a collaborative effort to share stories of hope throughout the state of Georgia. Alexia helps others connect, the mind, body, soul and spirit as well as advocate, educate and raise awareness around the power of recovery. R2ISE Inc instills hope, transforms lives and highlights the strengths of participants so that wellness can be maintained.
Barbora Látalová
Barbora Látalová, Prague is a freelance dancer, performer, teacher and choreographer, co-founder and artistic director of the association Ostružina based in Prague with focus on movement and dance creation mostly for young audiences and not only. Her interactive piece Animal Carnival, also for hearing impaired audience, was selected and presented in Internationale Tanzmesse 2022. This performance got Audience Award and Best Light Design Award of Czech Dance Platform 2014. Her new collective creation Neényi is made for toddlers and adults, with premiere in December in PONEC- a venue for dance in Prague in 2022. As a lecturer Barbora is part of an international project Dance Well, which supports professional development of dance artists and dance organizations that engage living with Parkinson's, or the movement disorders, with dance. She was a long-time lecturer of the Ponec Theater Children's Studio in Prague and the Dance for Schools project Dance for Schools project of Tanec Praha.
Barbora is a graduate of the Duncan Center Conservatory who completed an internship in modern dance at Hunter College at the City University of New York and NYU in focus on Dance therapy. As a performer and creator she has participated in many Czech and international dance projects. She had experienced theater work as an actress with New International Encounter company (NO/GB) for almost 6 years. Barbora has also worked as a dance and movement lecturer at the acting faculty of HINT College in Norway between 2005 - 2008. After coming back to the Czech Republic she started to work again in the dance field with interest in her own creation for young audiences, instant composition, improvisation and scores. Barbora is a member of the board of ASSITEJ Czech Republic and Vize tance.
Photo by štěpán látal
Katarzyna Pastuszak
%2C%20phot_%20Elizav.jpg)
Katarzyna PASTUSZAK – dancer/performer, choreographer and Artistic Director of Amareya Theatre & Guests, Associate Professor and Lecturer at the Department of Performing Arts (Institute of English and American Studies - University of Gdańsk), member of Between.Pomiędzy Research Group (UG), member of CEMiPoS (Centre for Environmental and Minority Policy Studies, Sapporo). Author and translator of articles on dance and theatre and author of the book “Hijikata Tatsumi’s Ankoku butō – the theatre of body-in-crisis (Cracow: Universitas, 2014). Holder of numerous artistic scholarships granted by the City of Gdańsk, the Marshall of the Pomeranian Voivodeship and Polish Minister of Culture and National Heritage. Her performances were presented, among others, in Japan, Greenland, Norway, Turkey, Israel, Germany, France and at numerous festivals in Poland. In June 2023, together with Natalia Chylińska she presented “Anatomies” at the 10. International Theatre Olympics in Budapest.
Since 2019 she cooperates with Sue Schroeder and CORE Dance (“Poland Project” 2019; “NTTL” Roza 2022; dance/art film “Home” (dir. Sue Schroeder, Adam Larsen) 2022; artistic residency at CORE Dance 2023.
She also has a long history of cooperation with Japanese artists. Her most prominent projects in this field are: “Pol(s)ka in Japan 2022” (Amareya Theatre & Guests) including the premiere of “Reverberations” created in cooperation with Ainu artists from Menoko Mosmos Sapporo; “ANATOMIES” performance at Yokohama Performing Arts Meeting 2022 (Chylińska/Pastuszak); project “Independent without borders: Pol(s)ka in Japan 2021” (Amareya Theatre & Guests); performance “家-逃亡-家 Home-Run-Home (2020).
Her recent artistic and practice-as-research activities grow from her interest in posthumanism, ecology and sustainable development and explore the potential of performing arts to develop new ways of living on the damaged earth. Project realised in this field are: “Instabilités naturelles” (created with Sonnets Trois Fois – France and Natalia Chylińska – PL, 2023), “Mapping Bodies, Landscapes, Relations” (2023), “Re:fungia – fungi score” (2022).
Braiding Percussionists
Will Flinner
Will Flinner is a percussionist, recording engineer, and arranger/composer based out of Atlanta, Georgia. He has performed in many ensembles over the years including classical chamber percussion groups, musical theater pit percussion, marching band front ensemble, and technology ensembles.
He is known for his avid interest in electronic music, specifically with combining acoustic percussion and electronic instruments. He is always looking for new ways to bring these two worlds together, be it through performing pieces by others, or through his own works.
Will holds a degree from Western Carolina University (BM) in Commercial Music and Audio production and is currently pursuing a Masters in Percussion Performance at Georgia State University.
Stuart Gerber
Lauded as having “consummate virtuosity” by The New York Times, percussionist Stuart Gerber has worked with many important composers including George Lewis, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Kaija Saariaho, and Steve Reich, and has recorded for Innova and Mode records, among others. Recent appearances include: KLEX Fest (Kuala Lumpur), the Montreal New Music Festival, Electronic Music Malta, the Cervantino Festival (Guanajuato, Mexico), the Now Festival (Tallinn, Estonia), he Spoleto Festival (Charleston), and the Savannah Music Festival. Stuart is Professor of Percussion at Georgia State University and is the Co-Artistic Director of the contemporary ensemble Bent Frequency in Atlanta.
Kellen King
Dr. Kellen King is currently an Artist Affiliate at Georgia State University and Reinhardt University. Prior to his appointment at GSU and RU, he was Assistant Professor of Music and Director of Percussion Studies at Western Oregon University. He is currently a member of the Percussive Arts Society Music Technology Committee and has previously served as the Oregon PAS Chapter Secretary. Kellen clinics, performs, and arranges music at an array of music organizations across the United States.
Kellen is an artist and clinician for Innovative Percussion, Black Swamp Percussion, Zildjian Cymbals, and Remo Inc.
Jeremy Muller
Jeremy Muller (jeremymuller.com) is a percussionist and composer. He’s been described as “highly creative” by Take Effect and has performed throughout the United States, Canada, and Australia including International Computer Music Conference, Banff Centre for the Arts, Transplanted Roots, MoxSonic, NYCEMF, Web Audio conference, Art ATL BeltLine, and PASIC. He has given world premieres of works by many composers including Matthew Burtner, Alexandre Lunsqui, and Stuart Saunders Smith. Jeremy released his debut solo album on Albany records, his music can be heard on Arcomusical’s album “Emigre & Exile.” He is currently a Professor of Music at Georgia Institute of Technology.
