grass stains
about
Grass Stains is a site-specific initiative created by Pioneer Winter that focuses on pairing mentoring with creative process in order to perpetuate site-specific, site-adaptive, and public art works that live outside the boundaries of a traditional space or commission. Beyond the culminating performances, the desire is to facilitate a full experience that focuses on and invests in re/developing site-driven choreographic and transdisciplinary inquiry. Dance cannot ignore context; nor is it merely decorative. This means having deliberate conversations about notions of performance and productivity though race, class, access, and geography.
“Grass Stains is a site-specific project where I am not the choreographer but the facilitator. Dance cannot ignore context of place, time, or body; nor is it merely decorative. I believe in prioritizing the cultivation of artists from within our community, emphasizing a commitment to long-term investment in individuals. This ethos fosters an environment where artists can thrive and grow over time. Highly iterative, based on feedback Grass Stains has evolved into a cohort-driven, group-devised process facilitated by a mentor rather than focus on performance-product as a one-and-done spectacle. Artists are supported with stipends for spending time on themselves and their own practice. Through Grass Stains and the lens of a communal location shared by intersecting bodies, the experiences of race, class, development, gentrification, erasure and memory are able to honor South Florida while also holding it accountable for its history in public spaces.”
![2019 MAP Fund project titled 1[-1]: Materiality of Exile by choreographer Ana Sánchez-Colberg, 2020 Grass Stains mentor artist.](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54417b7fe4b0a94c7678edd2/1581814571648-NHOWYR7ANIP106ZIVCNN/IMG_9195.jpg)
IMAGE DESCRIPTION: Puerto Rican choreographer Ana Sánchez-Colberg lays on her back in the Southwest dessert of Joshua Tree, her arms out and slightly bent at the elbows creating a streak of blue sky between her forearms. Fingers relaxed but active, Ana wears a white textured shirt and her long auburn hair spreads out around her shoulders (Grass Stains mentor artist 2019, 2020 & 2022).
“Something magical happens when you take artists out of the performance halls and into people’s everyday lives. The artists become not just in, but of the community, and push people to think differently about our city.”
IMAGE DESCRIPTION: A culminating discussion among 2020 participating artists - over 25 professional artists gathered seated in an oval formation in a darkened room. Mostly made up of women and femmes, this cohort includes Black, Indigenous, and Latinx artists from the ages of 26 to 63. Everyone’s attention is on a reflection being shared between two artists sitting beside each other - one of them on the floor and the other in a wheelchair. A projection screen is centered in the image, depicting two dancers - one laying down, one sitting up with their legs stretched out in front - providing most of the light in the room.
2024: Residency with Gabri Christa (May 19-25) at Vizcaya Museum & Gardens, Coconut Grove, FL
IMAGE DESCRIPTION: A backyard gathering of over 15 artists, mostly made up of women, femmes, and nonbinary folks identifying as Black, Indigenous, and Latinx artists from the ages of 22 to 61. They’re wearing crop tops, linen and other breathable clothing with arms and hands outstretched, smiling and cheering. Photo courtesy of Alexa Caravia.
IMAGE DESCRIPTION: Nearly 20 artists gathered at the end of Grass Stains Week 2024. Artist mentor, Gabri Christa, a Brown Dutch-Caribbean woman wears a wide brimmed hat and lime green dress, is seated next to Pioneer Winter, a white genderqueer person wearing a lime green crop top with an open-mouth smile. They are surrounded by women, femmes, and nonbinary artists. The artists are exhausted but exhilarated and joyful from their week exploring site together. Photo courtesy of Morgan Stockmayer.
Gabri Christa
Pioneer Winter
Luisa Suarez
Najja Moon
Alexander Zastera
Junior Domingos
Aeon De La Cruz
Barbara Caridad Meulener
Chachi Perez
Nicole Pedraza
Carlos Realegeno
Hector Machado
Destiny Diaz
Iman Clark / Nami Flare
Stephanie Franco
Erika Loyola
Reshma Anwar
IMAGE DESCRIPTION: The image is a map illustration for Pioneer Winter Collective's Grass Stains event, featuring text and design elements in yellow, orange, purple, brown, and green colors. It represents the years 2016 to 2024 of the event and is based on images and videos from past editions. This retrospective poster was created through a series of conversations and shared images from previous Grass Stains iterations between Pioneer Winter and graphic artist Marzenka Star.
2022: Residency with Ana Sánchez-colberg (March 21-26) at the glenn H. Curtiss Mansion, miami springs, fl
IMAGE DESCRIPTION: Over 20 artists gathered at the end of Grass Stains Week 2022. Mostly made up of women, femmes, and nonbinary folks identifying as Black, Indigenous, and Latinx artists from the ages of 25 to 65, they pose together smiling under a Banyan tree. Photo courtesy of Mitchell Zachs.
IMAGE DESCRIPTION: A backyard fellowship of over 20 artists, mostly made up of women, femmes, and nonbinary folks identifying as Black, Indigenous, and Latinx artists from the ages of 25 to 65. They’re wearing colorful florals, linen and other breathable clothing, smiling and gathered on a wooden deck. Photo courtesy of Karloz Torres.
Ana Sánchez-Colberg
Pioneer Winter
Hans Lau
Aeon De La Cruz
Hector Machado
Frank Campisano
Christopher Caldwell
Stephanie Franco
Maya Nadine Billig
Carla Forte
Niurca Marquez
Cecilia Benitez
Barbara Meulener
Jenna Balfe
Najja Moon
Maria Barbist
Brigette Cormier
Maria "Mercy" Lopez
Chachi Perez
Iman Clark
Laura Prada
Gabrielle Sheerer
Agua Dulce
Reshma Anwar
2020: Residency With Ana Sánchez-Colberg (February 23-29) at Miami Dade College - Wolfson Campus, Building 1
Over 25 professional artists gathered during the week of Grass Stains 2020 on an escalator. Scaffolded and staggered along the length of the escalator, they are smiling with arms outstretched. Mostly made up of women and femmes, this cohort includes Black, Indigenous, and Latinx artists from the ages of 26 to 63. Mentor Ana Sanchez-Colberg is wearing a long sleeve black top and is smiling with her elbows resting on the handrail.
Check out the artists’ processes - read their creative musings, see photos of what they’ve experienced, and become a participant yourself in the act of investigating site-specific art at the edge: http://grassstains2020.blogspot.com
Performance and exhibition of 1[-1]: Materiality of Exile (February 22, 2020)
Ana Sánchez-Colberg
Pioneer Winter
Christopher Scott Caldwell
Rosee Camafreita
Hector Machado
Belaxis Buil
Susan Caraballo
Niurca Márquez
Monica Lopez De Victoria
Jenna Balfe
Liz Ferrer
Bow Ty Enterprises Venture Capital
Lize-Lotte Pitlo
Amber Ortega
Carla Forte
Justice Rodriguez
Maya Nadine Billig
Clinton Harris
Lisa Nalven
Aeon De La Cruz
Reshma Anwar
Lily Ockwell
IMAGE DESCRIPTION: A backyard fellowship of over 25 artists, mostly made up of women, femmes, and nonbinary folks identifying as Black, Indigenous, and Latinx artists from the ages of 26 to 63. They’re wearing colorful clothing in hues of blue and purple, linen and other breathable clothing, smiling and gathered on a wooden deck. Photo courtesy of Karloz Torres.
Performance and exhibition of 1[-1]: Materiality of Exile by internationally recognized artist Ana Sánchez-Colberg, as part of the Grass Stains 2020 Residency.
In 1[-1] Materiality of Exile, the number eleven serves as the rule to explore the relationship between notions of terrain (space) and material (time) at the site of Joshua Tree. 1[-1] exposes a dialectic between a series of oppositions (reflected in the title, the integer 11 graphed as the relationship between 1 and its absolute). Two seemingly opposites are brought together: the terrain of the desert, a place of time immemorial that exceeds human scale, and the materiality of the Latinx artist’s female ‘ageing’ body, a material bounded by time and grounded on the memorial archive contained within the layers of experience.
Learn more about 1[-1]: Materiality of Exile, Ana Sánchez-Colberg and the voices of the eleven Latinx women with whom Ana developed this incredibly beautiful work: MaterialityOfExile.Blogspot.com.
artist Mentor Bios
Artist Mentor & Project Collaborator (2024)
Gabri Christa
IMAGE DESCRIPTION: Gabri Christa, a Brown Dutch-Caribbean woman, is seated on the floor smiling softly and holding a camera mounted with light. Gabri’s dark hair is pulled back and she’s wearing a red-purple top and leaf patterned cotton pants. Photo courtesy of Gabri Christa.
Gabri Christa makes original works for stage and screen and hails from Curaçao, Dutch Caribbean and lives in New York City. Her work aims to create understanding for humanity through the Arts. Awards include a Guggenheim for Choreography, an ABC television award for creative excellence for “High School”, the Jerome Foundation, Pangea Day (A TED project) Festival’s “one of the World’s 100 most promising Filmmakers” distinctions. She is a senior Atlantic Fellow for Equity in Brain Health.
Her award winning films have screened worldwide. Both the documentary “Un Dia Kada Momentu” and film“Kasita” can be seen on: Kweli.TV a platform for Global Black content.
Her acclaimed Another Building is a series of short experimental films that places dance/narrative in and around buildings and sites connected to Dutch Colonial History. Her newest film Kankantri premiered in March 2024 at the Eye Film Museum during Cinedance Fest in Amsterdam.
As a dancer she performs in her Burnt Sugar/ Danz Conduction. She was a dancer with Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company and with Danza Contemporanea de Cuba and DanzAbierta de Cuba of which she was a cofounder.
Gabri Christa is also the founding director of the Moving Body - Moving Image a gathering around social issues in Screendance. A dedicated educator, she is an Associate Professor of Professional Practice at Barnard College of Columbia University where she teaches dance and film and is the founding director of the Movement Lab at Barnard. She is on the advisory commission for Culture for NYC. Visit Gabri’s website: https://www.gabrichrista.com.
artist Mentor & Project Collaborator (2019, 2020, 2022)
Ana Sánchez-Colberg
IMAGE DESCRIPTION: Ana Sanchez-Colberg, a Latinx woman born in Puerto Rico, stands in the Southwest desert of Joshua Tree, eyes closed with the sun warming her face - Ana’s arms are up, framing her head, with one hand rested on her forehead. Ana’s white shirt is streaked with sand from the desert floor. Photo courtesy of Dawn Schultz.
Ana Sánchez-Colberg trained in classical ballet in her native Puerto Rico before turning to contemporary dance. Under the tutelage of Hellmut Gottschild (assistant to Mary Wigman until 1969) she trained in Wigman technique. During this time she was a member of the Terry Beck Troupe, a Philadelphia-based dance company, as well as movement director for Intuitions, a physical theatre company. During this time, Sanchez-Colberg began to produce work and gained immediate critical attention. She was a finalist in the prestigious American College Dance Association Festival, performing the duet Lullabyes at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC. The Washington Post described the work as "the gem of the festival […] demonstrating a creative spark of a higher order.” In 1986, under the auspices of a fellowship from the Institute of Culture of Puerto Rico, she relocated to England to pursue further dance training. During this time, she worked with Isa Partsch-Bergson, former member of Ballets Jooss, on the embodiment of Jooss technique. She completed a PhD at the Laban Centre in 1992.
Sánchez-Colberg established Theatre enCorps in 1989. Since then, and over thirty years of non-stop activity, she has produced dance and performance work in over 40 cities, with a particular focus on collaborative practices including award winning commissioned works for Ballet Concierto de Puerto Rico, Ballets des Staattheater Cottbus (DE), Andanza (Puerto Rico), Foreign Bodies (UK), and Compania Danza 21 (Puerto Rico). She has been a regular teacher in many dance schools and festivals including Tanzwochen/Impulstanz Wien, International Festival of Theatre in Bogota, Colombia, Festival Barranquilla Nueva Danza, Helsinki Theatre Academy, and Jacksonville University’s graduate MFA Choreography program at White Oak.
Ana Sánchez-Colberg was course leader of the BA (Hons) Dance Theatre at Laban Centre (1993-1998) and course leader of the MA Dance Theatre at Laban (2002-2005). She coordinated the MA Performance Practices and Research degree at Royal Central School of Speech and Drama in London (2005-2008) and was course leader of the PhD degrees (2006-2008). In 2009, she relocated to Athens, Greece, where she now has a base. She was Professor of Choreography and Composition at the University of Dance and Circus, Stockholm (2005-2013), where she still contributes to the MA Contemporary Circus Practices. She is also a visiting professor at the Estonia Academy of Music and Theatre in Tallinn. Most recently, Ana led the global site and technology project Seven to the Seventh that synchronically connected artists and their communities across seven time zones over seven days; and the MAP Fund supported project 1[-1]: Materiality of Exile that arranged contrasting notions of space and time, desert and aging, through an interrogation of lived experiences of Latinx women, while in residency at Joshua Tree in the southwest desert. To see Ana’s work, visit: theatreencorpscollectif.com or check out recent project pages: seventotheseventh.com & materialityofexile.blogspot.com.
artist Mentor & Project Collaborator (2016, 2018)
Stephan Koplowitz
IMAGE DESCRIPTION: Stephan Koplowitz, a white man wearing a black sweatshirt, smiles at the camera. Photo courtesy of Stephan Koplowitz.
Stephan Koplowitz is an award winning director/choreographer/media artist known for his work on stage, film, and site. His site work aims to alter people’s perspectives of place, site, and scale - all infused with a sense of the human condition and is concerned with the intersection of natural, social and cultural ecologies within urban and natural environments. Since 1984, he has created 87 works and has been awarded 60 commissions performed in the United States, Europe, and Asia. He is the recipient of an Alpert Award in the Arts, a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Bessie Award for “Sustained Achievement” in Choreography, six NEA Choreography Fellowships (1988-97), and two distinguished alumni awards from his alma maters Wesleyan University (BA Music Composition) and the University of Utah (MFA Choreography). Recent works have premiered in San Diego, Spoleto, Italy and Columbus, Ohio. In December, 2016, he worked as co-director of Diavolo Dance’s Veterans Project featuring military veteran performers and members of the Diavolo Company. In the summer of 2017, he will premiere Occupy (a site-specific journey through an urban garden) commissioned by the mixed ability AXIS Dance Company for the Yerba Buena Gardens, San Francisco. In August, a large scale media/performance installation for the Bates Dance Festival in Lewiston, Maine will premiere. In May 2018, he will premiere one of his largest site-based projects to date, an immersive performance event throughout the town of Northfield, Minnesota, commissioned by St. Olaf and Carleton Colleges. The work will incorporate artists from the College and greater Northfield community in dance, theater, music, and media/visual arts. Koplowitz is a contributor to the first book published on site-specific choreography, Site Dance, published by Florida University Press. After living in New York City for 23 years, he was appointed dean and faculty of Dance at the California Institute of the Arts (Los Angeles) and served in that capacity for ten years (2006-2016). His online course, “Creating Site-Specific Dance and Performance Works” launched in September 2013, was the first dance-related course on Coursera and the MOOC platform, and was re-launched 2014-16. Over 20,000 people from 151 countries have registered for this course. To see examples of his site-specific and media works, visit: www.stephankoplowitz.com and www.youtube.com/c/StephanKoplowitz.
Grass Stains OVER the years (Before the cohorts)
2019
2018
2016
click the project image to be taken to a separate project page with more information, photos, and video documentation.
2024 Artists
Artists Participating in local residency & shared, cohort-devised performance
Najja Moon
Alexander Zastera
Junior Domingos
Aeon De La Cruz
Barbara Caridad Meulener
Chachi Perez
Nicole Pedraza
Carlos Realegeno
Hector Machado
Destiny Diaz
Iman Clark / Nami Flare
Stephanie Franco
Erika Loyola
Reshma Anwar
Gabri Christa
Pioneer Winter
2022 Artists
Artists Participating in Local Residency & shared, cohort-devised performance
Aeon De La Cruz
Hector Machado
Frank Campisano
Christopher Caldwell
Stephanie Franco
Maya Nadine Billig
Carla Forte
Niurca Marquez
Cecilia Benitez
Barbara Meulener
Jenna Balfe
Najja Moon
Maria Barbist
Brigette Cormier
Maria "Mercy" Lopez
Chachi Perez
Iman Clark
Laura Prada
Gabrielle Sheerer
Agua Dulce
Reshma Anwar
Hans Lau
Ana Sánchez-Colberg
Pioneer Winter
2020 Artists
Artists Participating in Local Residency & Shared, Cohort-Devised Performance
Lize-Lotte Pitlo
Niurca Marquez
Hector Machado
Amber Ortega
Liz Ferrer
Bow Ty Enterprises Venture Capital
Kayla Castellon
Susan Caraballo
Justice Rodriguez
Jenna Balfe
Carla Forte
Aeon De La Cruz
Lisa Nalven
Belaxis Buil
Maya Billig
Monica Lopez De Victoria
Rosee Camafreita
Christopher Caldwell
Clinton Harris
Reshma Anwar
Lily Ockwell
Ana Sánchez-Colberg
Pioneer Winter
2018 Artists
Artists commissioned for project development
Liony Garcia
Sandra Portal-Andreu
Artists invited for Local Residency
Liony Garcia
Sandra Portal-Andreu
Alexandra Lucia Vidich
Brigette Cormier
Juraj Kojs
Charo Oquet
Claudio Marcotulli
Katie Stirman
Ivonne Batanero
Jenna Balfe
Samantha Pazos
Katie Brennan
Rosee Camafreita
2016 inaugural artists
artists commissioned for project development
Ana Mendez
Niurca Márquez
Jenny Larsson
Marissa Alma Nick
artists invited for local residency
Ana Mendez
Niurca Márquez
Jenny Larsson
Marissa Alma Nick
Agustina Woodgate
Monica Lopez de Victoria
Hattie Mae Williams
press
Preview - WLRN - Miami Choreographer’s New Work Tackles Gentrification in Allapattah
Preview - miamiartzine - grass stains choreography one-of-a-kind: site-specific creations are very personal works
preview - artburst - pioneer winter collective's grass stains returns with new choreographers and public sites
preview - miamiartzine - grass stains finds its choreographers: program meant to inspire dance in unexpected places
review - miami rail - transplants
preview - artburst - ana mendez at the kampong
Preview - Miami Chronicles - Transplants Blooms at the Kampong: Final Performance of Pioneer Winter’s Grass Stains
preview - miamiartzine - transplants blooms at the kampong: final performance of pioneer winter collective's grass stains
review - miami rail - marissa alma nick's mira el mar
preview - miami herald - dancing through king tides and sea level rise
preview - artburst - mira el mar: a look to miami's future
preview - knight arts blog - CHOREOGRAPHER MARISSA ALMA NICK EXPLORES LIFE IN SOUTH FLORIDA POST-CLIMATE CHANGE
feature - miami herald - transforming the miami landscape one dance at a time
feature - knight arts blog - How Grass stains grants foster diversity in south florida art world
feature - miami new times - Pioneer Winter Unveils Latest Site-Specific Initiative With Agustina Woodgate and Hattie Mae Williams
feature - artburst - SITE-SPECIFIC INITIATIVE GRASS STAINS UP AND RUNNING
feature - miamiartzine - grass stains puts artists in the field
feature - artburst - GRASS STAINS INAUGURATES SITE-SPECIFIC, MENTORSHIP DANCE PROGRAM
Feature - knight arts blog - pioneer winter and grass stains set to transform miami's cultural landscape
Support
2024 cycle was supported by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and the Miami-Dade County Department of Cultural Affairs and the Cultural Affairs Council, the Miami-Dade County Mayor and Board of County Commissioners.
2022 cycle was supported by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and the Miami-Dade County Department of Cultural Affairs and the Cultural Affairs Council, the Miami-Dade County Mayor and Board of County Commissioners.
2020 cycle was supported by the the John and James L. Knight Foundation, the State of Florida Division of Cultural Affairs, and the Miami-Dade County Department of Cultural Affairs and the Cultural Affairs Council, the Miami-Dade County Mayor and Board of County Commissioners.
2018-2019 cycles were supported by the John and James L. Knight Foundation, and the Miami-Dade County Department of Cultural Affairs and the Cultural Affairs Council, the Miami-Dade County Mayor and Board of County Commissioners.
2016 cycle was supported by the John and James L. Knight Foundation, and the Miami-Dade County Department of Cultural Affairs and the Cultural Affairs Council, the Miami-Dade County Mayor and Board of County Commissioners, and the State of Florida Division of Cultural Affairs.