SANTA FE, NM, MAY 21, 2021 — The Wheelwright Museum and the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum are partnering to produce a short 10-minute film celebrating the diverse cultural connection of Santa Fe. The film, Following Enchantment’s Line, is directed by acclaimed filmmaker and artist Steven J. Yazzie (Diné/Laguna Pueblo/Anglo) and showcases nationally renowned dancers Jock Soto (Navajo/Puerto Rican) and Harrison Coll. The soundscape will feature the music of classical composer Jerod Impichchaachaaha’ Tate (Chickasaw Nation). Following Enchantment’s Line is currently in production and draws inspiration from the lines, shadows, and light seen across the northern New Mexico landscape which has influenced many artists throughout time.

The film will premiere during an online event that will include an artist panel discussion on June 24, 2021. “In convening this group of artists to produce the film, our goal is to bring a moment of art and even transcendence into people’s living rooms through the powerful beauty of dance, music, and cinematography,” said Liz Neely, Curator of Digital Experience for the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum. The Wheelwright Museum and O’Keeffe Museum are the proud recipients of a Digital Collaborative Impact grant—a new collaborative opportunity funded by the City of Santa Fe Arts and Culture Department’s Cultural Investment Funding Program. “This film, as I see it, is being created as a dedication to many things, including gesture, rhythm and pace, the poetic, unexplained symbols, history, and the Indigenous culture that is Santa Fe,” explained Wheelwright Museum Chief Curator, Andrea R. Hanley (Navajo).

Harrison Coll worked as a creative collaborator with Justin Peck for the 2018 revival of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Carousel, and performed with the ensemble for the Tony Awards show. Coll will be featured as the Jet named “Numbers” in Steven Spielberg’s upcoming, West Side Story film. He has performed ballets choreographed by George Balanchine, Jerome Robbins, Justin Peck, Peter Martins, Mauro Bigonzetti, Christopher Wheeldon, and Alexei Ratmansky. Coll’s family has deep roots in Santa Fe; his grandfather, Douglas W. Schwartz, was the Director of the School of American Research (SAR) from 1967–2001 and it was Schwartz’s fundraising efforts which helped the building of the Indian Arts Research Center among many other expansions at SAR. His grandmother, Nita Schwartz, served as a nurse at St. Vincent’s Hospital, now the Drury Hotel.

Jock Soto (Navajo/Puerto Rican) was born in Gallup, New Mexico. At the age of five, he began studying ballet and continued his studies at the School of American Ballet (SAB), the official school of New York City Ballet. While at the School, Soto danced the role of “Luke” in Peter Martins’s The Magic Flute in 1981. That same year, Georges Balanchine invited him to become a member of the Company’s corps de ballet. In 1984 he was promoted to the rank of soloist, and one year later, he was elevated to principal dancer. Soto’s extensive repertory includes many featured roles choreographed by George Balanchine, Jerome Robbins, and Peter Martins. Soto appeared as a guest artist with the Kirov Ballet, and at the Bolshoi Theatre with stars from New York City Ballet and American Ballet Theatre in 2003.

Soto’s television appearance with the New York City Ballet includes PBS’s Live from Lincoln Center and The Guggenheim Museum’s Works in Process series. He has appeared on seven episodes of Sesame Street. In addition to his performing career, Soto served as a member of SAB’s permanent faculty from 1996 to 2015 and teaches at numerous dance departments around the country. During the 2017 New Mexico State legislative session, Soto received the State’s Certificate of Appreciation from Senator John Pinto for his contribution to the arts. Water Flowing Together, a feature documentary on Soto was aired on PBS in 2006. Our Meals: Making a Home for Family and Friends, written by Soto and Heather Watts, was published by Penguin Publishing in 1998. Every Step You Take, Soto’s critically acclaimed memoir, was published by
Harper Collins in 2011. Soto currently serves on the Board of Trustees for the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum.

Jerod Impichchaachaaha’ Tate (Chickasaw Nation) is a classical composer dedicated to developing American Indian classical composition. His Washington Post review states that “Tate is rare as an American Indian composer of classical music. Rarer still is his ability to effectively infuse classical music with American Indian nationalism.” Tate earned his Bachelor of Music in Piano Performance from Northwestern University and studied with Dr. Donald Isaak and his Master of Music in Piano Performance and Composition from The Cleveland Institute
of Music, where he studied with Elizabeth Pastor and Dr. Donald Erb. He has performed as First Keyboard on the Broadway national tours of Les Misérables and Miss Saigon and has been a guest pianist and accompanist for the Colorado Ballet, Hartford Ballet, and numerous other ballet and dance companies.

Tate is a guest composer/conductor/pianist for the San Francisco Symphony Currents program Thunder Song: American Indian Musical Cultures, and was recently guest composer for Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Balcony Bar program Home with ETHEL and Friends, featuring his commissioned work Pisachi (Reveal) for String Quartet.

Recent commissions include Shell Shaker: A Chickasaw Opera for Mount Holyoke Symphony Orchestra,Ghost of the White Deer, Concerto for Bassoon, and Orchestra for Dallas Symphony Orchestra, and Hózhó (Navajo Strong) and Ithánali (I Know) for White Snake Opera Company. HBO featured Tate’s music in the series Westworld.

Steven J. Yazzie (Diné/Laguna Pueblo/Anglo) is a veteran of the Gulf War, serving honorably with the United States Marine Corps between 1988 and 1992. He received his Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Intermedia at Arizona State University and was named the 2014 outstanding graduate for the Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts. He also studied at Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in Maine.

Yazzie is a multidisciplinary artist working with painting, video, installation, and community. He is the cofounder of Digital Preserve LLC, a digital film production company collaborating with artists, filmmakers, and interdisciplinary creatives, leveraging Indigenous issues and voices. Additionally, Yazzie is a founding member of the indigenous arts collective, Postcommodity, and the co-founder of the Museum of Walking.

Yazzie’s professional career spans a long exhibition list of national and international institutions, most notably at the Museum of Modern Art, New York City, NY; National Museum of the American Indian, Smithsonian Institution, George Gustav Heye Center, New York City, NY; National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, Canada; the Museum of Contemporary Native Art, and the Wheelwright Museum of the American Indian in Santa Fe, NM, and in Arizona, the Heard Museum, Phoenix Art Museum, Arizona State University Art Museum, Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art, Tucson Museum of Art, and the Museum of Northern Arizona. Yazzie is a 2021 recipient of the Eiteljorg Contemporary Art fellowship and was recently awarded Community Scholar for the Interdisciplinary Research Institute for the Study of (in)Equality, University of Denver, Colorado.

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ABOUT THE GEORGIA O’KEEFFE MUSEUM
Since 1997, the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum has shared the art, life, and story of Georgia O’Keeffe to visitors from around the world. Located in New Mexico, where Georgia O’Keeffe lived the final decades of her life, the O’Keeffe has sites and experiences in two historic destinations, Santa Fe and Abiquiú. For more information, please visit okeeffemuseum.org.

ABOUT THE WHEELWRIGHT MUSEUM OF THE AMERICAN INDIAN
The Wheelwright Museum is New Mexico’s oldest independent non-profit museum. Founded in 1937 by Mary Cabot Wheelwright, the museum presents contemporary and iconic Native American art exhibitions. The museum is home to the Jim and Lauris Phillips Center for the Study of Southwestern Jewelry, which contains the most comprehensive collection of Navajo and Pueblo jewelry in the world. The Wheelwright Museum’s mission is to respect and support, record and present, the living traditions and creative expressions of Native American peoples. For more information, visit www.wheelwright.org.

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