Choreography Residency with Meryl Zaytoun Murman

MCKNIGHT FELLOWSHIP PROGRAM PLANS JUNE RESIDENCY OF THESSALONIKI-BASED CHOREOGRAPHER MERYL ZAYTOUN MURMAN

Choreography residency runs June 1—29, 2024, in Winona and the Twin Cities

The McKnight Fellowship Program is thrilled to announce the schedule of events and public engagements as part of the 2024 McKnight International Choreographer Residency. The residency will host Thessaloniki-based choreographer Meryl Zaytoun Murman in partnership with Winona-based dance/interdisciplinary artist Sharon Mansur and her creative platform, The Cedar Tree Project.

Selected earlier this year, Meryl Zaytoun Murman was named the 2024 McKnight International Choreographer for her work as a multi-disciplinary artist whose art juxtaposes choreographic, cinematic, and live art practices to create movement pieces that emphasize interactivity and intimacy. She has taught and worked deeply in several international communities including Thessaloniki and Ukraine. Her queer films and choreographies derived from experiments at the intersection of cinema and dance disrupt popular notions of spectacle, the body, virtuosity, and gender. There will be a variety of events during this residency that allow Murman to share her multiple artistic practices.

For this much-anticipated residency, the program will partner with Sharon Mansur and The Cedar Tree Project, both based in Winona. Mansur is an Arab/SWANA American experimental dance and interdisciplinary artist and a 2018 McKnight Dancer Fellow. The Cedar Tree Project, facilitated by Mansur, presents, supports, and amplifies contemporary art and artists of the Arab/SWANA (Southwest Asian and North African) heritage and regions, inviting deeper understanding, empathy, and engagement through artistic exchange.

• June 1 from 10am–Noon Murman will begin her residency by offering a workshop titled SoundBody at the 331 Space in the Northrup King Building. Participants will experience tools for landing in presence, a healing-informed approach to integrating movement and voice, and alternative pathways to accessing the deeply expressive. This laboratory is focused on researching these tools for performance, and therefore suited for people in the performing arts, or who wish to engage with movement and voice through creative processes. The workshop is free and open to performers of all levels of experience. Advanced registration is required through this form.

• June 2 from 3—5pm, an Embody Palestine workshop will be offered at the Center for Performing Arts. It will be co-facilitated by Meryl Murman and Twin Cities dance artist Leila Awadallah. Dance experience is not necessary, and participants will engage at their own range of intensity. This workshop will guide participants through embodied explorations on the range of emotions stirred by the genocide in Gaza. Facilitators will offer movement and vocal explorations, gesture, mimicry, and embodiment as a practice of awareness and communication based on a desire to process the human suffering we are witnessing with physical understanding. Practicing contemporary investigations of Arabic folk dance, and through Dabke steps in particular, participants embody rhythmic footwork to deepen solidarities in both near and distant proximity. With a recommended donation of $5-15 (cash or check on site only), interested participants should register in advance through this form.

• June 12 from 6—7pm  The residency will then move to Winona where Murman will lead a guided nature walk at Prairie Island Campground. This event connects to a series of experiences, Forest Bathing along Crooked Slough, organized by PIC Director, Anne Conway. Murman will be guest facilitating a somatic-informed walk. Shifting between inner and outer sensing to connect and attune with the processes of the natural world and our inner nature, she will guide participants through simple, mindful, embodied practices. The event is free and open to the public. Register here: https://strolling-with-the-seasons-along-crooked-slough.cheddarup.com

• June 18 at 7 – 8:30pm Wayfinding will be a creative conversation and informal dance film sharing featuring short films by Murman, Sharon Mansur and Leila Awadallah. The films will explore their shared Arab/SWANA heritage, gender and sexuality, and diasporic bodies, and a guided discussion with Professor Mary Jo Klinker will center these themes. This free event will be co-sponsored by Art of the Rural and will take place at the Winona Arts Center. Reservations are strongly encouraged through this form.

• June 25 & 26 at sunset The Winona residency culminates in the premiere of two site-specific, outdoor performances at Prairie Island Campground. The performance includes a cast of Winona-based dance and interdisciplinary artists and will embrace the beautiful natural setting along the Mississippi River banks at sunset. Additional support provided by Theatre du Mississippi. For more information about these free performances, visit: cedartreeproject.com

• Finally, Meryl Zaytoun Murman will lead an invited group in becoming-FLUID, a ritual bath experience at Watershed Spa and Baths, as part of her ongoing research of bathing rituals and the connection between water, female erotic energy and ecological repair throughout the ancient Mediterranean and SWANA cultures. This experience is guided as a collective care practice, and held as a space for relating through water to reflect in communion on contemporary concerns for the health, safety, and agency of femme-identifying people and the natural world.

For more information about Meryl Zaytoun Murman, visit her webpage.
For more about Sharon Mansur and The Cedar Tree Project, visit mansurdance.com.

About the McKnight International Choreographer Residency

The McKnight International Choreographer Residency, a program of the McKnight Choreographer Fellowships, invites one international choreographer each year to spend time in residence in Minnesota, collaborating with Minnesota dance artists and showcasing new work. Support for individual artists has been a focus of the McKnight Foundation’s Arts program since its inception. McKnight Artist Fellowships increase the exploratory opportunity, economic stability, and productive capacity of artists by providing $25,000 in unrestricted support for mid-career artists and discipline-specific artistic and professional development opportunities.

This project is supported by a Forecast Public Art Mid-Career Professional Development grant with funding from The McKnight Foundation.

The City of Winona’s Prairie Island Campground is located along the backwaters of the Mississippi River, and serves as a springboard to opportunities in the Winona area for outdoor recreation and community arts and cultural events. https://www.prairieislandcampground.com/

Image: Photo of Meryl Zaytoun Murman by Craig Mulcahy.

Sharon Mansur and the Winona Arts Center are members of the River Arts Alliance. To learn more about the benefits of membership, please visit: https://riverartsalliance.org/membership/.