Take Root performances continue at Green Space with work by Melanie Holm and Jeeno Joseph Nadanam Collective on FEBRUARY 9 & 10 at 8PM.

Melanie Holm

Eve Song, a song cycle by American composer Jake Heggie with texts by Philip Littell, is a contemporary retelling of the creation story from Eve’s perspective. Heggie’s music blends classical, jazz, and musical theater idioms together to create a unique contemporary soundscape that highlights Eve’s emotionally charged journey. Her story is alive and well, in every being who seeks knowledge over comfort, justice over blind ignorance, and in every human being who has been shunned for seeking truth over blind ignorance. Despite continued attempts to shame her into silence, Eve’s legacy lives on, continually creating, evolving, and growing.

Melanie uses song and dance both to reframe standard opera repertory through a female-driven lens, and to collaborate with living composers on new works that challenge systemic norms within classical music. Recently, Melanie collaborated with multimedia artist ONOH as SEED Residency Artists with [nueBOX] a Phoenix-based arts organization providing resources to emerging creatives across all artistic disciplines. With support from [nueBOX] and composer Daniel Bernard Roumain, ONOH and Melanie arranged and produced the finale to Mozart’s Don Giovanni for soprano, violin, electronics, and dance, using only female identifying artists for all aspects of the production. Melanie’s 2021-2022 projects include a choreographed adaptation of Jake Heggie’s Eve Song with pianist Karey Miles, a new work premiere with composer Ashlee Busch and soprano Micaela Rebb with the Arizona Women’s Collaborative, and joining the Teaching Artist Training Program with Mark Morris Dance Group. Melanie holds degrees from Arizona State University (DMA/Voice & MM/Opera Performance), and the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (BM/Voice with a Dance Minor).

Jeeno Joseph Nadanam Collective

Bharatanatyam is an Indian classical dance from the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It is an art form which heavily utilizes various Indian languages such as Tamil from Tamil Nadu, Kannada from Karnataka, Telugu from Andhra Pradesh, and Hindi from Northern India as well as their respective musical compositions and texts. As a first generation Malayali - American born to parents who emigrated from Kerala to New York, I’ve often felt a lack of representation for the Malayalam language within the Bharatanatyam repertoire. Through this work I hope to explore the beauty of Malayalam musical compositions, poetry, culture and rhythms through the traditional Indian dance form of Bharatanatyam.