Sea Change Within Us Program
Sixty Minutes ~ No Intermission
World Premiere 2019
Revival & Recreation 2025
OCEAN INTRO
music by Jessi Harvey
BUILDING THE EARTH
music by Kaley Lane Eaton w/ Sam Strawbridge
poem by Jourdan Imani Keith
TIDES
music by Jessi Harvey w/ Sam Strawbridge
DIVIDING THE WORLD
music by Jessi Harvey w/ Sam Strawbridge
RIVERS, SALMON, DAMS, ORCA
music by Kaley Lane Eaton w/ Sam Strawbridge
ICE
music by Jessi Harvey w/ Sam Strawbridge
SEA LEVEL RISE
music by Jessi Harvey w/ Sam Strawbridge
DIVIDING WALL
music by Kaley Lane Eaton
DESCENDING PRESSURE
music by Kaley Lane Eaton
RE-BUILDING THE EARTH
music by Kaley Lane Eaton
FINALE
music by Kaley Lane Eaton w/ Sam Strawbridge
Conceived, Directed and Choreographed by Karin Stevens*
Original Music by Jessi Harvey** and Kaley Lane Eaton, with Sam Strawbridge
Installation by Roger Feldman
Original Poem, IN THE MIDNIGHT OF SURVIVAL: Nocturne for J,K, and L pod, by Jourdan Imani Keith
Dancers: Sara Caplan, Madeleine Gregor, Annabel Kaplan, Anja Kellner-Rogers, Ben Swenson-Klatt, Ellie van Bever, Janae Walla, & Michael Walton
*Collaborative choreographic contributions from the dancers: ”Dam Duets” in Rivers, Salmon, Dams, Orca—ensemble; Ice—ensemble; “Migration” in Dividing Wall—Ellie van Bever; “Ignorance, Greed & Consumption Solos” in Dividing Wall—Ben Swenson-Klatt; Finale—ensemble
**String Quartet Recorded and edited by Greg Dixon, 2019: Alina To - Violin, Rafael Howell - Violin, Heather Bentley - Viola, Rose Bellini - Cello
***
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 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.
