Damp Edges by WEdances

Damp Edges by WEdances is a durational dance performance guiding the public into an exploratory relationship with wetlands as ecosystems of vitality, resilience and change. With the loss of more than half of Wisconsin’s wetlands in the last century, Damp Edges aims to highlight the importance of this habitat and our collective reciprocity with the abundance of life forms within. WEdances is a site-based, body-informed experimental dance collaborative based in Viroqua, WI exploring ideas of body and place. Members include Mandy Herrick, AnnaJo Doerr, and Rufus Buho Jupiter.

AnnaJo Doerr has been using dance in collaboration with WeDances partners as a self-regulating, somatic inquiry practice since 2020. AnnaJo is inspired by coordination and dissonance of phenomenon and impulse in their artistic work. AnnaJo is trained in Spacial Dynamics® and has explored site specific, improvisational, creative performance experiences for over 20 years. In 2024, AnnaJo is a partnered, landed, mother of three, grown up grown-up residing on rural land of the upper Seas Branch Creek with a day job as a teacher.

Mandy Herrick is a dance/movement artist and a Somatic Movement Educator with a BA in Theatre/Dance from Luther College and a certified Global Somatics Practitioner®. She has performed and choreographed around the Midwest for over 20 years now calling rural driftless Wisconsin her home. She currently teaches dance and movement for all ages, is the founder of Bodies of Water Movement Arts and co-founder of WEdances Movement Collaborative. She believes movement is a pathway to re-wilding the mind, body, the collective more-than-human realms, the forgotten and the unknown. Learn more: Instagram @mandyherrickdance, @wedancesmovementcollaborative and www.mandyherrick.com

Rufus Jupiter is a queer- trans multidisciplinary artist living in the rural midwest. Their creative practice is a confluence of ecological inquiry, improvisational movement, visual imagery, collaborative partnerships, & play. A 2022- 24 Springboard For The Arts Rural Regenerator fellow, Rufus wonders how to enhance dynamism of rural spaces while challenging problematic narratives therein. Aside from dancing with WEdances Movement Collaborative, they instigate local queerspace dance parties and host a community radio show under the moniker of Titmouse. Learn more about their work at https://www.rufusjupiter.com/ and on Instagram at @tttitmouse.