Brenna Mosser | College of Biological Sciences

October 26

Stewards: Work in progress dance performance (performance 4-5 p.m., recommend arriving to walk to location at 3:30 p.m.)

Come see what Brenna has been up to this summer! On October 26, she and her dancers will present a first look at her residency project, Stewards. This work looks philosophically at scientists’ role in environmental stewardship, a key tool in mitigating climate change. This performance shares the beginning movement research based on several conversations with scientists, employees, and community members associated with Cedar Creek. Plan for about an hour, including 25-30 minutes of dancing, bookended by conversation and discussion with Brenna Mosser about the project!

Click for more information and to get your free ticket!

NOTE: This performance takes place in Cedar Creek's oak savannas and requires a 0.5-mile walk on packed dirt and sand roads from the Fish Lake Nature Trail parking lot. Please bring a camping or folding chair, or (recommended by the choreographer) plan to stand and move around to view the performance from different angles.

During her residency, Brenna plans to create an evening-length dance performance that will be produced by Analog Dance Works. She will build on past experience working with scientists to connect and collaborate with research professionals at both Cedar Creek and the CBS Conservatory in St. Paul. In outlining her project, Stewards, Brenna writes:

Stewards is a choreographic work that will examine the idea of ownership. It will focus on two extremes: consumerism and stewardship. Consumerism is the large and wide base on which capitalism stands where people act transactionally, or more aptly ‘consume’. It assumes that a) people can own things and b) there is an unlimited supply of resources. The concept of stewardship suggests that we don’t own things but are rather entrusted to care for them. However, the idea of ownership is implied - ‘steward’ is defined as someone who is employed to take care of something for someone else, the most common example being a caretaker for a person’s estate. It also can be used in a religious sense where a higher being owns everything, even our lives, and we are gifted the task of stewarding their property. This term is also used for environmental stewardship where one cares for the planet for everyone’s benefit. Environmental stewardship is a more modern use of the term and does not appear to imply ownership.

These concepts are uplifted by the dominant white culture of which I am a part. To me, consumerism is the antithesis of stewardship and the epitome of Suburbia. Stewards will explore these opposing ideas to dissect the concept of ownership that we hold so dear.

You can follow Brenna's work on the Analog Dance Works website (https://www.analogdanceworks.org/) and instagram (@analogdanceworks, @brenna.mosser), as well as here on this page.