Rincon Youth Storytellers Current, Ongoing and Completed Projects include:

• Ongoing Introductory Luiseño Language Program

  The RYS Introductory Language Program combines curriculum taken from two sources:  (a) ‘traditional’ Luiseño from local Elders and community members and (b) formal ‘academic’ Luiseño as offered by Dr. Eric Elliott.  RYS Director Ami Admire has studied with Dr. Elliott and regards him as a source of support as he fortifies her language goals by allowing her access to his Luiseño curriculum and texts which she uses to supplement her lessons.

• Dance Residency with UCSD PhD student, Sam Mitchell (Yaqui)
• RIEC Summer Comtemporary Dance Class Mr. Sam July 2016

• Dance Exchange with UCSD

  On July 11 and 12th and July 18th and 19th, from 9-noon, the students from the Rincon Youth Storytellers will learn the choreography from Sia’s performance on American Idol.  Sam Mitchell will also discuss the work of Contemporary Indigenous Choreographers and Directors and the ways in which they continue to foster healing, education and survivance as Native and First Nation people.
  Sia’s Cheap Thrills
  PROJECT GOALS:
  • To teach UCSD undergraduates and Native teens simultaneously through an intensive mentor-based program. The program would run on several mentor-teen partnerships that will be sustained from the inception of the project in 2016-17. This means that some teens will have had the same mentor throughout their entire high school experience.• To introduce teenagers who are undecided about attending college to UCSD students excited about knowledge and inclusion. The project operates on the premise that college education should be available to all people and that dance and theater can effectively reach those who are uncertain about college, and help them enroll, enter, and thrive at college.

  • To encourage collaborative relationships between UCSD and Rincon Band of Luiseno Indians by including teens, tribal elders, UC faculty and students and members of the community as collaborators in the making of a new dance theater piece. Through participation in rehearsals and discussions, students and faculty can have a direct impact in the direction and development of a new dance theatre piece.

  • To promote academic preparation through a unique mentorship program and weekly creative workshops that build portfolios and create opportunities to perform original dance theatre pieces. The project also exposes teen participants to cultural activities, the college admissions process, and guided campus tours. The Dance Theatre Residency at Rincon will work closely with the UCSD admissions department to help prepare the teenage participants (most of who are entering into their senior year of high school) to complete their college applications.

  • To build community and disrupt segregation. Performances will connect with audiences (mainly the Native American community in Rincon Band of Luiseno Indians) who do not normally attend university dance theater events. By including teens, tribal elders, UC faculty and students and members of the community as collaborators in the making of a new dance theater piece, this project just extends the boundary crossing of the Dance Theatre Residency at Rincon across lines not only racial, ethnic and class divides, but also those of age.

• Palomar Community College AIS Dept.: Children’s Luiseño Book Project:‘Why the Stinkbug is Black’

• FNX/ First Nation Experience Television Network: Short Film collaboration

• TDV/Tribal Digital Village: Luiseño Children’s Songs Re-Recording Project                   Southern California Tribal Chairmen’s Association (SCTCA) provides support to RYS in the form of a technical advisor, facilities, and access to media devices.  The current Media Program includes but is not limited to the re-recording of non-traditional children’s songs in Luiseño and the preservation of Storytelling events by teaching students how to record and document performances.

• Medicinal Plant Project: Ongoing study of the medicinal plants of Rincon

• Puppetry Project: with Lynne Jennings and UCSD. 

• Performance Workshops with Sam Mitchell UCSD PhD Theatre Candidate and Julie Burelle UCSD Professor of Theatre: Workshops 

• Performances by invitation: including Fiesta and VCPUSD CA Indian Days

• Valley Center Pauma School District

  Each year, the Valley Center Pauma School District recognizes the RYS by inviting the group to perform a four-day ‘tour’ at their school sites for California Indian Day.  Since 2005, RYS’s yearly performance schedule has grown from five performances a year to thirteen.  In addition, the students repeatedly ask if they could increase their commitment from one to two or more days a week.