
Amelia Nommensen
Choreographer. Filmmaker. Naturalist.

~ An ocean-inspired dance show with a deep sea soundtrack. ~

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Upwelling is a multimedia performance, in theater and film, dedicated to connecting audience to the ocean. Performed by four women, the story is weaved with modern dance, a cappella singing, blue/green lighting, and an original underwater sound score.
The performance is an immersive experience with sensations and mysteries of the ocean. The visual and auditory journey leaves audiences with the desire to sit by the sea, their hearts full of wonder, and an impulse to save our seas.








who we are
Contributors of Past and Present:
Artistic Director and Founder: Amelia Nommensen
Performers:
Cathy Asmus, Chelsea Boyd Brown, Annalise Constantz, Abigail Hinson, Varsha Iyengar, Audrey Johnson, Erica Stivison, and Wednesday Manners
Sound Designer: Joe Krempetz
Videographers: Aaron Hsia-Coron, Elena Nommensen
Photographers: Ashlee Burton, Douglas Calalo Berry, Morgan McMahon, Lea Salanon
(and many more who contribute their time, thoughts & creative juices)
~ Land Acknowledgement ~
While the artists included in this work are spread across many areas of land, we wish to acknowledge and thank the land where this idea seeded and grew, Ohlone Land. We are so grateful for our original premiere, 2019 at Vetiver Oakland, and all the meetings/dancing/dreamings/writings that have taken place on this land since. Stewarded by the Chochenyo peoples for thousands of years, we thank the ancestors and current caretakers for continuing to support this rich and fertile soil. We thank all those who look to the sky for rain, sink their hands in the soil, and continue grounding our communities. We all play a part. This land continues to nourish Upwelling in all its growth.
Thank you.
Insights

Inspiration ~ Blue Mind
November 2022
This book came into my life nearly 10 years ago. When I was a student at UC Santa Cruz, the author came and gave a guest lecture about sea turtle restoration and nesting habitat protection followed by his signature gift of a blue marble. I received my first inkling into this blue planet society.
This book shares so much insight, but what I keep coming back to is the many ways we can find blue mind in our lives. So much of our day is chaos, so much is stress, so much of living in society is a hardening, overstimulated, frantic world we just get through. And this moment of pausing, finding a body of water, taking a moment to connect with your own body of water and with the others around you. Change is possible.
I find that I use this as my choreographic lens. I want to make soothing, peaceful art that encourages those watching to connect with themselves and lean into this blue mind space. “A restful involuntary attention” that which Nichols speaks of when taking about the repetition and novel patterns in water. It both keeps your attention and allows your mind to find a restorative space of calm and peace. It is a feeling, to create movement that feels like sitting by water. To use my dance composition knowledge, to engage the viewer, and also to fall into this intuitive space of what feels good, for both dancer and viewer. Blue Mind continues to find new pathways in my knowing, I hope it does for you too. Find out more here.