Sea Change Within Us - Information
Sea Change Within Us
Catch our next performance on May 28th, 4pm
at the University of Washington, Gould Hall
Hosted by EarthLab & Washington Sea Grant
Sea Change Within Us, a recreated 2019 project by Karin Stevens Dance, is a sixty-minute performance that addresses local Washington State water issues and the consequences of climate change, using the voices of real people we interviewed, combined with moving rigid structures of water images by dancing human bodies.
Eight dancers move four large panels into dynamic configurations to explore themes such as rivers and dams, endangered wild Pacific salmon and Southern Resident Orca, melting ice, sea-level rise, flooding, migration, injustices to Indigenous fishing rights, divisive politics, and the complexities of human dis/re/connection. Amid these turbulent thematic layers, grief is embodied in the “Rivers, Dams, Salmon, Orca” section through the actual cries of mother orca Tahlequah. A call to collective awareness emerges in the section “Descending Pressure,” echoing the repeated phrase of a climate activist-artist: “Our bodies are a source of wisdom.”
The performance encourages a deepening of our relationship with ecosystems, offering moments of contemplation and beauty throughout—even as it confronts difficult content—to support the felt urgency of our ecological and social crises.
As a message to disrupt a myopic, singular view point, the audience is invited to view the work from all sides and participate in a simple, guided movement practice to re/connect to a whole-bodied relationship with water and the ensuing performance. (The work can also be performed on a proscenium or thrust stage.)
Photo by Michelle Smith-Lewis from Sea Change Within Us in partnership with the Seattle Art Museum at the Olympic Sculpture Park PACCAR Pavilion
The 2019 project was conceived, directed and choreographed by Karin Stevens*, with original sound compositions by Kaley Lane Eaton and Jessi Harvey, and large-scale installation by Roger Feldman.
For the 2025 project, we commissioned former Seattle Civic Poet 2019-2022 Jourdan Imani Keith to write an original poem for part of the recreated 2025 sound score.
The sound score includes electronic, acoustic and interview recordings: an original score with string quartet by Harvey**; electronics and sounds from Eaton’s great-great-great-grandparent’s piano that traveled by raft up the Missouri River woven with voices from 2019 interviews conducted through our collaboration with journalist Devi Lockwood’s 1,001 Stories on Water and Climate Change; with new 2025 interviews conducted by Karin Stevens; and with the newly commissioned poem by Keith. Recreated sections of the 2025 music were directed by Eaton along with assistance from composer and audio engineer, Sam Strawbridge.
Visit HERE to read and listen to the poem by Jourdan Imani Keith.
Visit HERE to listen to new 2025 interviews from all over Washington State.
Visit HERE to learn about our 2018-19 collaboration with journalist Devi Lockwood, the original interviewees, and the interactive map of 1,001 Stories on Water and Climate Change to hear interviews from the 2018/19 Seattle voices.
Visit HERE to learn about our 2025 Dance Performers: Sara Caplan, Madeleine Gregor, Annabel Kaplan, Anja Kellner-Rogers, Ben Swenson-Klatt, Ellie van Bever, Janae Walla, & Michael Walton
***
Special thanks to the Seattle International Dance Festival James Ray Residency & Touring grant and Gonzaga University for the impetus to revive this work by inviting us to bring it to the University’s campus for a residency September 14-19, 2025. We culminated the residency with two performances on September 19th, 2025 for 500 Spokane K-8 students, and 300 campus community and general public at the Myrtle Woldson Performing Arts Center. We were thrilled about this partnership and collaboration with the Dance Department, Humanities professors and the Institute for Climate, Water and the Environment!
And Special thanks to Hope Corps of the Seattle Office of Arts & Culture! As part of former Mayor Harrell's 2025 Downtown Activation Plan, we were awarded support to partner-present two free performances with the Seattle Art Museum in the PACCAR Pavilion at the SAM Olympic Sculpture on October 19, 2025.
Photo by Michelle Smith-Lewis from Sea Change Within Us in partnership with the Seattle Art Museum at the Olympic Sculpture Park PACCAR Pavilion
The recreation of this 2019 project is funded by ArtsWA, National Endowment for the Arts, Seattle Office of Arts & Culture/Hope Corps, Earth Creative, and 4Culture. And always with support from the Kawasaki Foundation, Abundant Blessing Foundation and our KSD donors!
“I am really happy that I get to interact with people who are not writing for other scholars, but with people who are using different ways of communicating rather than peer reviewed journal articles; who are willing to listen; who are willing to use that information to convey it to people in a way that is not going to put those ideological blinders on and stop the conversation. Thank you for using art. Thank you for narratives for getting the message out. The more ways we use to get the message out the more likely we’ll have an impact…thank you for giving me the opportunity.” -Nives Dolsak, Professor at UW, specializing in Sustainability Science, Climate Change, and Environmental Law; 2019 Interviewee with our 1,001 Stories/Collaboration with journalist Devi Lockwood
It is vital that dance is a resource for re/imagining and re/creating life-affirming relationships with water in us and around us; even when we must move through the concerns and human-caused consequences related to our water bodies of rain, cloud, river, urban creek, ocean, ice, glacier, endangered marine life. Can a work of dance re-narrate the story of the human-as-separate and begin new rhythms back toward interconnected structures of well-being and becoming?
“Sea Change Within Us, by Karin Stevens Dance, is a powerful performance that fearlessly engages threats to Pacific Northwest waters and people through the voices and bodies of real people. Art such as this helps audiences of all ages to understand the breadth and depth of what is at stake in the climate crisis. Dance helps us remember that climate change is not just an intellectual, scientific concern but a fully embodied human concern.” — Brian Henning, Director, Gonzaga Institute for climate, Water, and the Environment
Photo by Scott Martinez from Sea Change Within Us performed at Gonzaga University, in partnership with Gonzaga Institute for Climate, Water, and the Environment
“The audience forms a shoreline of sorts, surrounding the performance area on four sides. We see each other just beyond the dancers and thus become part of the conversation. I feel accountable to my fellow viewers in a way I wouldn’t in a dark theater.” — Kari Tai, Seattle Dances Review
In the Press
Sea Change Within Us was featured on a list of dance performances you don’t want to miss by the Seattle Times
Read writer Kari Tai’s beautiful review of Sea Change Within Us performed in partnership with the Seattle Art Museum on SeattleDances
Listen to Karin Stevens speak about Sea Change Within Us, and KSD’s residency at Gonzaga University on Spokane Public Radio