Elise Beers on Healing Community and Acknowledging Land Through Dance
By Madison Huizinga, DWC Blog Editor
In the age of commercialized dance, it can be easy for many to lose sight of the true origins of dance in many communities. Before the era of dance competitions, dance mainly served as a source of expression and community building. Whether it’s to express celebration or grief, movement has the power to unite and heal people in ways that other modes of communication can’t. Indigenous dance artist Elise Beers is harnessing this idea of using dance to connect to the land and community and alleviate pain in her latest project Earth Works Dance.
Growing up with a father in the United States Air Force, Elise’s family moved around quite a bit. This prevented her from having a consistent routine for a while as a child. However, once her family landed in Washington, Elise began taking gymnastics classes at the YMCA in Tacoma and later branched out into ballet and jazz. As she began training at other studios, dance stuck with Elise tremendously and she was able to train under influential instructors, such as Miss Ally from Dance Ally in Gig Harbor, WA.
When she got older, Elise started dancing in Seattle more often, frequenting Westlake Dance Center and Velocity Dance Center. She ended up getting accepted into the dance program at Brigham Young University, where she studied contemporary dance, choreography, and performing. “While I was there, I was able to choreograph a lot and really just hone in on my skills and everything,” Elise says of her time studying dance in college. She ended up getting her BFA with a double major in filmmaking and dance. After graduating, Elise worked and danced in Utah for a while, before returning to Seattle around 2018.
Dance is an important art form for Elise because it has given her a means of expression, something she felt that she lacked as a child. “Growing up, I was a pretty shy kid, so I didn’t really have a voice,” Elise shares. “When I was able to dance, I could express myself.” Community is another major reason why she has stayed connected to dance for so long. Finding other dancers that Elise was able to mesh with was transformative.
Physically, the feeling of “building up momentum within [her] body” is a satisfying part of dancing to Elise. “Momentum building up in your body and feeling that almost ‘falling’ moment...that’s like an addicting feeling,” she stresses.
“Art is a spiritual and emotional provider that other people need to see the value in and then support...so their communities can grow and thrive, and in a sense, heal, mourn, and celebrate,”
Nevertheless, as with most dancers, Elise’s dance journey hasn’t been completely smooth sailing. “I feel like the biggest challenge I’ve had for a long time [is] my body type. I don’t have that skinny, tall, European body,” she says. She spent much of her training trying to show others that she could hold her own as a dancer, regardless of what she looks like. For others feeling overlooked because of their bodies, Elise advises them to find their niche as a dancer and lean into it. Finding what you’re good at and learning how to capitalize on it throughout your dancing can be incredibly useful.
Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, Elise was deeply saddened by the hardships occurring around the world, especially within Indigenous communities. “It’s just really hard to [feel] like you’re on the sidelines,” Elise says in regards to her capacity to make positive change. Growing up, Elise’s family favored outdoor activities, constantly camping and “roughing it” in the wilderness, so nature has a special place in her heart. “Seeing all these pipelines and oil protests just really breaks my heart,” she shares. For Elise, the tipping point was the heightened news coverage about the Canadian government discovering hundreds of Indigenous children’s bodies buried beneath residential schools. This was information that Elise’s family had known about through passed down family stories, and knowledge that the public was no longer able to ignore. At this point, she knew she needed to contribute to activism in a way of her own.
“I want to do something. I want to create something in my own expression,” she states.
Earth Works Dance is primarily inspired by the concept of giving and receiving from the earth. “We give to the earth, the earth provides, and eventually we provide for the earth when we die,” Elise shares. In a similar vein, land acknowledgment is an act that Elise values greatly. Land acknowledgment doesn’t involve knowing who the “owner” of the land is or was, but who its keeper and caretaker was. This is ultimately what got the ball rolling on Elise’s project.
“With Earth Works Dance, I want to focus on the original land caretakers and be honest about land acknowledgment and focus on ceremonial healing in dance workshops,” Elise shares. Healing the “body, spirit, emotion, and mind” is a significant goal of the project. “That’s something that I feel like, as Indigenous people, we’ve held back from because of colonization and literal genocide. [There’s] a lot of healing that needs to happen,” she says. “Finding the expression from that and then taking it to a show or dance film” will be the ultimate progression from these workshops. “As an Indigenous person, I feel very drawn to this and feel like this is what I need to do,” Elise states.
While the specific details of its format are still in the works, utilizing dance as a means of healing, community building, and connection to the land will be a predominant focus of Earth Works Dance. In tandem with this objective, Elise hopes to see funding for the arts improve moving forward. “[Art] is a spiritual and emotional provider that other people need to see the value in and then support...so their communities can grow and thrive, and in a sense, heal, mourn, and celebrate,” Elise says.
You can learn more about Elise and her work on her website and Instagram. Look out for her choreography in the next Seattle International Dance Festival, Tint Dance Festival, and Full Tilt, and see her performance in EL SUEÑO’s upcoming dance film.
