RULAN TANGEN was recently noted in DANCE MAGAZINE as one of the "Top 25 to Watch" for 2007. Her lifetime passion for dance includes international experience in the US, Canada, Europe, Mexico, and South America as a choreographer, performer, and  teacher.

        Her credits include ballet and modern dance companies in New York (Michael Mao Dance and Peridance), Vancouver (Karen Jamieson Dance), Santa Fe (Moving People, Dancing One Soul) and California (Marin Ballet), and appearances with the One Railroad Circus, as well as extensive yoga training, and powwow trail experiences as a Northern Plains traditional womens dancer. In Fall 2009 her choreography will be recognized by the appointment as Visiting Distinguished Scholar at Washington University.

        With a devotion towards the development of the innovative field of Indigenous contemporary dance, she has taught extensively in Native communities throughout the Hemisphere including projects under the auspices of the Native Wellness Institute, and the National Dance Institute.

        As a performer, she has been featured in lead roles with most of the major Native productions including Raoul Trujillo's TRIBE, Daystar Dance/Dance,  Minigoowezewin at the Banff Centre for the Arts Aboriginal Dance Program, CAMA Awards, Aboriginal Achievement Awards,  Robert Mirabal's "Music from a Painted Cave" PBS television special and subsequent 80 city tour, and assistant to the Directors of BONES: Aboriginal Dance Opera.

         She believes in this form of dance as continuing the link of culture from ancient to futuristic, and this culminates in her vision for DANCING EARTH –Indigenous Contemporary Dance Creations, for which she is choreographer and director.

        Her choreography has been commissioned by venues including the Heard Museum, Santa Fe Art Institute, Society for Dance Historians, Hemispheric Institute of Performance and Politics, Teatro Nunes in Brasil, Centro Cultural de Recoleto Argentino,  Native Roots and Rhythms Festival, Santa Fe Dance Festival, Native Cinema Showcase at the Center for Contemporary Arts,  Idyllwild Arts Program, Living Rituals World Indigenous Dance Festival, Toronto Harbourfront’s Roots Remix Festival, Aqua Caliente Cultural Museum, and the International Aboriginal Choreographers Workshop.

        She is currently developing theater and film and cultural exchange projects that bring dance to serve as functional ritual for personal, social, and environmental health and harmony.

Visit Rulan’s website here at http://www.dancingearth.org