Solostalgia: A Nature Memoir – Workshop and Performance

Have you ever witnessed the loss of a favored tree or wilderness that once was there and now is no more and felt a profound feeling of loss of what was? That is solostalgia.

This new creation is about our relationship with trees and how the effects of industrialization, deforestation, and war affect them and us. They not only provide us with beauty and oxygen to live, but they provide shade and habitat for numerous species, protect against soil erosion, provide us with raw materials for shelter and tools, and countless other benefits. They are not only essential in our fight to combat climate change, but they are also remarkable living beings. Like us, they have communities, families, communicate, nurture their injured, and when not amongst their community, they do not survive as long (Wohlleben, 2016).

Why do we feel that loss? It is because we are part of the environment too and we lose a part of ourselves when we see nature destroyed. This production will take you through a dance journey as if trees were recounting the memories of their life - the beauty, the destruction, and the hope. Through a mix of contemporary ballet and mixed media the versatile dancers of the Onium Contemporary Ballet bring these memories to life in movement.

Join us for a pre-performance workshop with artist Marissa Corwin, who will teach a one-hour class on crafting cordage. Participants in this hands-on workshop will learn the history of cordage making in Seneca communities while creating their own rope from natural plant fibers. As they twist various materials, Marissa will share traditional and contemporary objects created by Seneca people from trees indigenous to this region. Marissa is a designer and an educator who focuses on creating engaging educational experiences in nontraditional learning spaces. She currently works for the Seneca Nation at the Stanley Huff Heritage Center developing programming and educational materials. She also runs a pop-up makerspace with other Haudenosaunee educators called Dwahšönih.

Minou Lallemand is originally from Colombia. She is a graduate of the NY High School of Performing Arts and has an MFA in choreography from Wilson College. She danced professionally with companies throughout the United States such as Ballet Arizona, Garden State Ballet, American Repertory Ballet, and Sacramento Ballet. She toured nationally with The Phantom of the Opera and was a cast member of the Radio City Christmas Spectacular in Mexico City.Minou is the artistic director and founder of the Onium Ballet Project, (now the Onium Contemporary Ballet based in Buffalo, NY) and has created new original ballets to musical works such as Igor Stravinsky’s L’Histioire du Soldat and Aaron Copland’s Appalachian Spring. Onium has performed with Chamber Music Hawaii, Hawaii Opera Theater, and the Hawaii Symphony Orchestra. OCB had its Buffalo premiere performance with Minou’s choreographic piece All of Water at the Canterbury Woods Performing Arts Center.

While she lived in Hawaii, Lallemand was artistic director of Queen Emma Ballet and taught at the University of Hawaii. In addition, she was on faculty at Ballet Hawaii, Punahou School, and Nix Performing Arts Center. Upon her return to the mainland, she taught at Shenandoah University and at the City Ballet School in Maryland. She was a guest choreographer at the University at Buffalo and currently, she teaches at American Academy of Ballet, Configuration Dance Theater, Neglia Ballet, and Suzanne’s School of Dance.

Solostalgia: A Nature Memoir is made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.