Harlan Rosen

ONE NIGHT ONLY!! 🎭 ZARA THRUSTER makes her triumphant return in THE ZARA THRUSTER NO SHOW. Part of: PLUMBING THE DEPTHS: An Evening of Performance Art Feat: Lichen Bouboushian, Wannapa P-Eubanks, Erika Órdosgoitti, Harlan Rosen 🗓️ Friday, May 8 🕰️ 7:30pm 📌 Hairpin Arts Center 💰 $10 (tixx at door) 😷 Masks required/provided Engage thrusters 🚀

Harlan Rosen moves floorward, awkward, wayward ... Reveling in the tension between flamboyance and secrecy, routine and hysteria, their body haunts lineages of butoh, salsa, and contemporary dance. They have presented original performance work in venues throughout Chicago both extant and extinct, and have appeared in ensemble works by Carole McCurdy, Ginger Krebs, Mitsu Salmon, Iván-Daniel Espinosa, Helen Lee, and Christopher Knowlton, in addition to being a regular guest at improvised performance series including Cristal Sabbagh’s Freedom From And Freedom To and Sharkey Zalek’s Hot Mess. Come see Harlan and our other amazing artists next Friday May 8 at Hairpin Arts!

Art of depth matters in these times. Art by queer and trans folks, art by immigrants, art by those whose lives or family members’ lives are under siege, matters in this moment. Art that is accessible and safe for chronically ill folks, and those with disabilities, matters too. Won’t you join us? For…Plumbing the Depths: An Evening of Performance Art Friday May 8, 7:30-9:30pm at Hairpin Arts in Logan Square Four artists whose work spans dance, poetry, Butoh, drag, theater, and experimental sound explore selfhood through the depth and breadth of the solo form. Featuring Lichen Bouboushian, Érika Ordos, Wannapa Pimtong Eubanks, and Harlan Rosen.

Introducing Harlan Rosen for Curiosities of Wellness in Bodies of Grief and Joy @mcachicago 9/20. Link in bio for more info. @hoolinz “Hello! I’m Harlan (they/them), a Chicagoland-native artist and performer. By the age of 12, I had lost my mother and all four grandparents, whose deaths I continue to grieve in addition to many more, several former selves, humanity, and the Earth. Grief is often presented as only retrospective, lachrymose, and obstructive. Not to discount those qualities, which can even offer pleasure and power, but I am curious about what else might become possible when we allow ourselves to grieve for the past, present, and future as part of daily life. Will it become easier to bear when we all bear it together? Can grief clear the way for change and renewal? (This last question has been coming up a lot for me on either side of my recent 30th birthday.) My early confrontations with death may have drawn me toward Japanese Butoh dance, which I have been studying and performing since 2015. For me, Butoh enlivens the concept of death through dis-integrating egoic human constructs and communally imagining non-human cycles of life and rebirth. I frequently find joy here, like the ecstatic joy of dancing together, or the insightful joy of slowing down enough to drink in my surroundings in sharper detail. My version of rest replicates this somatic mindfulness with a loose grip on objectives and expectations. When I’m not out in the art world, you can find me gazing wistfully at the lake, or strolling/biking with earphones in, singing along to renegade divas of the late 20th century like Björk, Tori Amos, and Kate Bush. It would bring me great joy for my ashes to be scattered in a body of water. I look forward to meeting you and diving in together!” Photo Credit 1-Lise Haller Baggesen and Kirsten Leenaars 2- @ricardoeadame 3- @williamfrederkingphotography

I'm sharing today another batch of gorgeous photos of ARBORING: SPRING, captured by the perceptive eyes of Sarah-Ji aka @loveandstrugglephotos ... Her shots remind me of the wildness, tenderness, humor, and joy that I felt from these dancers at Ping Tom Park on 5/25/25. There was also stillness, wonder, wackiness, a hundred baby geese (who kindly wandered out of harm's way) and much more! Endless gratitude to all the performers of ARBORING: SPRING ... Michelle Kranicke @zephyrdance Helen Lee @momentumsensorium Zachary Nicol @zxnicl Elaine Lemieux @elainevictoriavivre Iván-Daniel Espinosa @ivan.daniel.espinosa Johanna Brock @johanna__brock Aja Singletary @ajasingletary Geoff Guy @geoff.guy.12 Christina Chammas @chammmmas and musician extraordinaire Rob Frye @flux_bikes Thank you also to everyone who has come out to support in winter and/or spring, to those who have donated creative labor or money to the project, and to those who have talked with me about the work and offered suggestions and feedback. Next month I turn 30 😳 and I don't think I could have spent my twenties better as an emerging artist than in the Chicago performance art scene, in this ecosystem defined most of all by possibility, which has runneth my cup over with amazing people and inspiration to last a lifetime. 🌺🌺🌺🌺🌺 ARBORING is a cyclical, experimental dance work performed by and for human and tree beings, which follows a year in the lives of Chicago's urban trees. Each season is a unique, site-specific work focused on a different location in Chicago and featuring a rotating ensemble of dancers and musicians. There are still two more chances to catch this project in summer and fall! DM me to get on my email list 😜

On 5/25, we gathered at Ping Tom Park in Chinatown to present ARBORING: SPRING to an audience of photosynthesizers, inspirators, liths, avians, and river skippers. Deep thanks to all who converged to witness and to those who have supported with donations. Also to the ensemble of amazing artists who brought so much trust, curiosity and depth to our process and performance. And to the trees for teaching us about slooooow transformation. 📸 photos by Sarah-Ji of @loveandstrugglephotos 🎷 live musical soundscape by Rob Frye @flux_bikes 🎭 performed by Michelle Kranicke @zephyrdance Helen Lee @momentumsensorium Zachary Nicol @zxnicl Elaine Lemieux @elainevictoriavivre Iván-Daniel Espinosa @ivan.daniel.espinosa Johanna Brock @johanna__brock Aja Singletary @ajasingletary Geoff Guy @geoff.guy.12 Christina Chammas @chammmmas ... and the trees, geese, river, and other non-human communities intersecting Ping Tom Park. and you. whispers in the leaves of ARBORING: SUMMER coming soon ... 🍃 🌸🌼🌸🌼🌸 ARBORING is a cyclical, experimental dance work, performed by and for human and tree beings, which follows a year in the lives of Chicago's urban trees. Each season is a unique, site-specific work focused on a different location in Chicago and featuring a rotating ensemble of dancers and musicians.

(*strobe warning*) IYKYK Thank you LEGENDARY Miss Grace Jones for showing us your joy and "flexxxxibility" at 77. And still writing bangers!

See you at the park! It's going to be a gorgeous afternoon! 🌻🌷🌸🥀🌺🌼🍄 (Please be aware there are no restrooms open in the park. The nearest public restroom is located at Chinatown Branch Library.)

it's finally here! 🌸arboring: spring🌸 sunday, may 25th 3:33 p.m. Ping Tom Memorial Park, Chicago (south end) (FREE / pay what you can) :a butoh vigil dedicated to and danced with our tree neighbors: 🕸️🕸️🕸️🕸️🕸️🕸️ Performed by: Michelle Kranicke Helen Lee Zachary Nicol Elaine Lemieux Iván-Daniel Espinosa Johanna Brock Aja Singletary Geoff Guy Christina Chammas With live sound by special guest: Rob Frye Conceived and directed by Harlan Rosen 🌷🐛🌷🐛🌷🐛 FREE // donations toward the project gratefully received 🙏🏻 (see bio)

BOWELS OF THE EARTH Butoh performance. Directed and Choreographed by Iván-Daniel Espinosa. Premiered in Chicago on April 12th, 2025. Photography by Phillip Tawanchaya. Dancers: Harlan Rosen @hoolinz Corin Wiggins @corinwiggins Wannapa P-Eubanks @wannapapeubanks Arlo Sage King @arlosageking Stefan Bach @matchpoinsettia Commissioned music soundscape composed by: Christopher Arnett @christopher_arnett_piano Costume Design by Hannah Compton @hannahrammah THANK YOU so much to Sara Zalek @01saratonin of @butohcuriouschi for inviting me to premiere BOWELS OF THE EARTH at the 2025 NexGen Butoh Lovers Showcase in Chicago. My choreography is inspired by Butoh founder Tatsumi Hijikata's legendary speech, “Suijakutai no saishū” and engages thematically with Hijikata’s concepts of death and decomposition in the context of 21st-century ecological crises. A BIG THANK YOU to all of my artistic collaborators, and I am especially GRATEFUL to my ENSEMBLE OF DANCERS from Chicago+Seattle for bringing my choreography to life. ** NEXT SHOWING of BOWELS OF THE EARTH: A shared bill at the MainStage performance weekend of the 2025 Salish Sea Butoh Festival in Port Townsend, Washington!! Come out to @salishseabutoh in August to experience this live new artwork **

🌳🌳🌳 Please join me in giving one last round of applause for the cast of ARBORING: WINTER and checking out the last batch of enchanting photos captured by the awesome @ricardoeadame By many metrics, this is the largest scale work I have yet undertaken (and there are still 3 chapters to come). The learning curve is steep and invigorating. Ultimately, though, the work is about community, and only exists because of the community of weirdo butoh artists I've been lucky enough to be part of here in Chicago. And the involvement and tremendous talent of the following people–many of whom have been my mentors and role models for years–made ALL the difference. Thank you: Cristal Sabbagh @cristalsabbagh Sara Zalek @01saratonin Carole McCurdy oraclemccurdy Wannapa P-Eubanks @wannapapeubanks Aurora Tabar @auroratabar Amanda Maraist @amandaplsplspls Keiko Johnson @keikojo Nirmesh 'Dragon' Gollamandala @dragon.moves Mars Bedard @marsy.lou David Hurlin @davidhurlin 🌱🌱🌱 ARBORING is a cyclical, experimental dance work, performed by and for human and tree beings, which follows a year in the lives of Chicago's urban trees, starting with WINTER. Each season is a unique, site-specific work focused on a different location in Chicago and featuring a rotating ensemble of dancers and musicians. (ARBORING: SPRING TBA SOON!!!)