Sam Aros-Mitchell

Reminiscing on our week with artist-in-residence Sam Aros-Mitchell! Last month @artsresearchctr & @berkeleytdps welcomed dancer & choreographer Sam Aros-Mitchell (@samarosmitchell ) as the fourth artist-in-residence of the Indigenous Performing Arts Residency (IPAR) program. Sam led students through an energetic master class and offered a lecture-performance for the general public. Here are photos and videos from both events, held in Bancroft Dance Studio. Playing with light and breath work, Sam graced us with thought-provoking movement and generous teachings during this memorable week! ABOUT IPAR: The Indigenous Performing Arts Residency is a multi-year collaboration between the Dept of Theater, Dance, & Performance Studies and the Arts Research Center to strengthen relationships with Indigenous community partners and create ongoing support for Indigenous performing artists, so that Native stories can be told on our campus now and into the future. Images: © Laurie Macfee, Arts Research Center 2026

With the incomparable Douglas R. Ewart, celebrating the work of Lela Pierce!

When I was in high school, I used architectural pens to make drawings. Oddly enough, I would listen to Stravinsky while I made those drawings. I haven’t tried to do this for a long time, but today I made this drawing, listening to George Moustaki’s version of Jobin’s classic, Águas De Março or in French; ”Les Eaux De Mars”. I call this one “The Professor and His Familiar” /us/album/les-eaux-de-mars/1621120132?i=1621120433

Celebrating Rosy Simas’ Walker exhibition at French Meadow with Ruben Roquel, Josie Hoffman, Andrea Carlson and Raven Chacon as our esteemed guests

A few photos from our piece Ash/Mother/Fire/Sister (copyright) Center for Performing Arts Minneapolis Photo Credit: Amasa Media Productions CFPA New Works Festival 2026

Photo credit: Matt Curtis

Sam Aros-Mitchell has arrived at UC Berkeley for the Indigenous Performing Arts Residency! Yesterday the Yaqui dancer & choreographer led @berkeleytdps Professor & Chair SanSan Kwan's Choreographies of Space course in a masterclass diving into Muscle/Bone technique. Aros-Mitchell led students across the dance floor stepping, reaching, crawling, and jumping in a river of movement. Tomorrow at 4pm, @samarosmitchell will present a free & public lecture-performance, aligned with his ongoing work in Performance as Ceremony. He will dance two short José Limón solos—El Indio (from Danzas Mexicanas) and the Deer Dance (from The Unsung)—in a hybrid format that weaves together movement passages and commentary on Indigenous futurisms, embodied archives, and the resonances between José Limón’s choreography and Native epistemologies. You don't want to miss this this! Taking place at UC Berkeley's Bancroft Studio, it rounds out the 2026 Indigenous Performing Arts Residency and is the last of ARC's events for the academic year! How wonderful to close out with dance and connection to the body.

Learn more about artist-in-residence Sam Aros-Mitchell! During the week of April 20th, @artsresearchctr & @berkeleytdps will welcome dancer & choreographer Aros-Mitchell (@samarosmitchell ) as the fourth artist-in-residence of the Indigenous Performing Arts Residency (IPAR) program! Read more about and watch performances of Aros-Mitchell’s work at his website, / Videos featured: The Unsung, Performed by Sam Aros-Mitchell, Choreographed by José Limón, O’Shaughnessy Theater, St. Paul, Minnesota SOLO Concert, McKnight Foundation Juya Nokakameao, Performed by Sam Aros-Mitchell, March 2024, RSD Studios, Minneapolis, MN ABOUT IPAR: The Indigenous Performing Arts Residency is a multi-year collaboration between the Dept of Theater, Dance, & Performance Studies and the Arts Research Center to strengthen relationships with Indigenous community partners and create ongoing support for Indigenous performing artists, so that Native stories can be told on our campus now and into the future. 🔗click the link in bio for more info!

Get your tickets at /e/identified-coalescing-our-world-new-works-festival-tickets-1983794575979?utm_experiment=test_share_listing&aff=ebdsshios&sg=d63385843dc7d4128ed4137fca313aa4065462aeb91bde145f34132d3ccf0913e7eccbf4c056a80bb5f2f4e59e40696261dc241dfb4939dd30d20f7e72558dc2ddd3b569e30e77098015730050

Announcing artist-in-residence Sam Aros-Mitchell! During the week of April 20th, @artsresearchctr & @berkeleytdps will welcome dancer & choreographer Aros-Mitchell (@samarosmitchell ) as the fourth artist-in-residence of the Indigenous Performing Arts Residency (IPAR) program! SCHEDULE: Masterclass: Choreographies of Space 📅Tues April 21 at 3:30pm 🎟️closed to the public, open to UC Berkeley dance students Lecture-Performance Hybrid: Performance as Ceremony 📅Thurs April 23 at 4pm 📍Bancroft Dance Studio 🎟️free & open to the public 🪢Sam Aros-Mitchell will weave together short movement passages, video from recent works, and commentary on Indigenous futurisms, embodied archives, and the resonances between José Limón’s choreography and Native epistemologies ABOUT THE ARTIST: Sam Aros-Mitchell is a Yaqui choreographer, cultural producer, scholar, and performer based in Minneapolis. His work moves between Indigenous cosmologies, experimental dance, and performance installation, activating space as a site of ceremony, resistance, and collective witnessing. He is a Jerome Hill Artist Fellow, a McKnight Dance Fellow, and the founder of SAROS field/works, a platform for Indigenous and BIPOC-led performance. For over eight years, he has been a core collaborator with Rosy Simas Danse. Aros-Mitchell’s choreography dissolves the boundaries between dance, theatre, and visual art. He is among the first Yaqui artists to reconstruct and perform José Limón’s The Unsung (Deer Solo) and Danzas Mexicanas (Indio Solo), infusing these historic works with Indigenous embodiment and recontextualization. Recent original works include Juya Nokakamea, a multi-sensory performance drawn from Yaqui creation stories, and Entering Aniam, an immersive sound and movement installation. ABOUT IPAR: The Indigenous Performing Arts Residency is a multi-year collaboration between the Dept of Theater, Dance, & Performance Studies and the Arts Research Center to strengthen relationships with Indigenous community partners and create ongoing support for Indigenous performing artists, so that Native stories can be told on our campus now and into the future. 🔗click the link in bio for more info!

Don’t miss our new work, ash/mother/fire/sister. I’m so grateful to have collaborated with Masa. April 3 and 4!

Come join us in the rotunda TOMORROW or Saturday for the Native Joy Play Festival produced by Saros field/works @samarosmitchell /festivals-1/project-one-h346n-5rzdg