Artist in Residence Alumna, Erin Reynolds
During her residency at Grand Canyon, Erin Reynolds created a dance film, "The Sum of One's Parts," that premiered live at McKee Amphitheater at Grand Canyon National Park on Saturday, October 30, 2021, and on GCC's Facebook and YouTube channels. The film summarizes her experience as a Grand Canyon Artist in Residence and depicts the seemingly vast, endless, unbounded landscape of the canyon in comparison to the vital yet ostensibly minute role of the human body as tender of the land.
Public Programs
To engage visitors during her residency, Reynolds hosted two in-person body and mind dance workshops near the rim of Grand Canyon. It gave participants a chance to personally embody their relationship between body and land, actively creating place with each kinesthetic experience. Accessible to all, participants were guided through various techniques that enlivened their senses to the natural landscapes that surrounded them. The goal of the workshops was an embodied understanding of Grand Canyon National Park’s natural environment and creating a connection to the surrounding landscape.
Workshops were held on Sunday, October 17, and Tuesday, October 19, 2021, at Bright Angel Trailhead.
About the Artist
Erin Reynolds
Erin Reynolds grew up dancing in a small town in rural California. She has an AA in Dance and an AS in Chemistry from Cabrillo College, a BA in Dance and Performance Studies from UC Berkeley, and an MFA in Dance from California State University, Long Beach.
She is a recipient of the Tandy Beal Award, the 2020 CSULB Graduate Dean’s List and Distinguished Achievement in Creative Activity Awards, KAZU’s Emerging Choreographer, and Insight’s Artstreet: Artist to Watch.
Reynolds is currently the co-artistic director of the collaborative dance performance groups E&C and Bare Outlines, the artistic director of Erin Reynolds Performances, and an ongoing collaborator with Heather Barker and the Immersive Design Research Lab. Highlighted works have been shown in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Berlin, and Vienna. She is a lecturer for the Department of Dance at California State University, Long Beach, and researches the intersections between performance, new media, and public space.
"Dance is a format in which every single person already exists and thrives but that is often lost in subtlety; we move more than we speak, yet we often miss the importance of simple movement. While in residence at Grand Canyon National Park I hoped to witness and showcase how human movement is integral to people's relationship to land and imagine a world where people have a better understanding of movement and thereby better control over the outcomes it creates,” said Reynolds.
During her time at Grand Canyon, Reynolds sat down with the Grand Canyon Conservancy team to talk about her residency. Watch the full interview on YouTube below.
Erin Reynolds leading a dance workshop on the South Rim of Grand Canyon.
Erin Reynolds dancing near the rim of Grand Canyon.