︎ CONTACT:
erykadellenbach@gmail.com
CONTENTS-
PBS
photos by Jono Melamed
photos by Whitney Browne
E r y k a D e l l e n b a c h
is a filmmaker, performance artist, educator and Emmy-winning videojournalist based in the Sonoran Southwest. Their embodied films and performances are rites of passage for themself and their collaborators, navigated by consent rituals, mutual unearthing, haptic coding and a belief in transformation through co-creation. Their work explores relationships to power, the malleability of consciousness, and the thresholds psychophysical experience.
Their process and technique have been informed by studies in dances of resistance including Butoh, flamenco and martial arts. They are grateful to the teachers who have offered potent dances and knowledges influencing their path: Wendy Clinard & Sonia Sanchez (flamenco), Atsushi Takenouchi, Yumiko Yoshioka and Vangeline (Butoh), Chen Huixian (Chen Taiji) & Yunuen Rhi (Baguazhang), and Mestre Besouro Preto Manganga (capoeira). They have worked with artists across mediums including Yunuen Rhi, Martin Toloku, Atsushi Takenouchi, Tino Sehgal, Amanda Gutierrez, Tori Wrånes, Éva Mag, Matty Davis, Nola Sporn Smith, Amelia de Rudder/La Casa de Satanas and the band HOGG.
Eryka has presented work at venues such as Alliance Française Kumasi (Ghana), crazinisT artisT studio (Ghana), Communitism (Greece), Movement Research at the Judson Memorial Church, Coaxial Arts (LA), Casa Moloch (MX), Lausanne Underground Music & Film Festival (Switzerland), Ann Arbor Film Festival, Anthology Film Archives, Roulette Intermedium, Green River Cemetery, Virginia Commonwealth University, Intuit Outsider Art Museum, Links Hall, No Nation Gallery, and at the Shiryaevo Bienalle of Contemporary Art (Russia). They have been a resident artist at perfocraZe International Artist Residency (Ghana), eX...it! international butoh dance exchange and performance festival (Germany), Earthdance (MA), Echo Luna (Ukraine) and Cucalorus (NC).
They earned a bachelor’s degree in Cultural Anthropology from the University of Illinois at Chicago, and a master’s degree in Film, Video, New Media, Animation and Sound from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
Eryka currently works as a film instructor at the Tohono O’odham Community College, and continue to work independently as a freelance filmmaker, performance artist, choreographer, educator and interviewer. During their time as a Senior Videographer and Editor at Arizona Public Media they were awarded an Emmy for their videography and nominated for three. They have been a celluloid filmmaking instructor at MONO NO AWARE, a collaborator of the transnational group HEKLER and an advocate with California Coalition for Women Prisoners (CCWP).
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image by Raven JacksonHome
NEWS
NEWS
2025
Excited for this program of student work from my first semester teaching Video 1 at Tohono O’odham Community College ! This program is the culmination of a semester-long exploration of story, soundscapes, and how these can provide the foundation for films and videos. It was developed in collaboration with Berlin-based sound artist Mad Kate (aka Roi), who guest-taught two class sessions and is hosting (and editing) the international radio premiere.
The broadcast features four distinct student works - each entirely self-produced, recorded, and edited by the students.
Each piece will air with a brief student introduction and be broadcast across both Hewel Ñi’ok, the community radio network of the Tohono O’odham Nation, and Colaboradio via Freie Radios Berlin - Brandenburg, an open-access radio platform in Germany. The program will also feature commentary from our host Roi / Mad Kate and Video 1 instructor, Eryka Dellenbach, offering insight into the Video 1 class and its projects.
Featuring sounds by local Native sound artists Gertie & the T.O. Boyz, Maiiuwak (audio from live performance in collaboration with Eryka Dellenbach) and Lorenzo Pablo of Canyon Records.
L i n k
URL: https://fr-bb.org/programm/sendung/65973.html
Performance with Maiiuwak for Sine & Symbol Festival at Museum of Contemporary Art Tucson
Rocky Mountain Emmy for work at Arizona Public Media
2022
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Nola, Apt. (2020) has been selected to screen at TEASR Short Film Festival. The festival is organized by Tucson Erotica and will take place at The Screening Room on Saturday, March 19 at 7:30 pm. 
2021
Honored to share new ritual film made in collaboration with Yunuen Rhi K’i’ik I’inaj: Blood Seeds for the Next Planting in the context of Ron Athey’s and Hermes Spittako’s world premiere of their new film Pasiphäe, Witch Queen of Crete: A Gloryhole Origin Story along with other incredible artists working in performance and film and discussion with Suzy Halajian + Maria F Dolores at Communitism in Athens, Greece.
PANEL DISCUSSION
Suzy Halajian (USA)
Maria F Dolores (Greece)
Ron Athey (USA)
PERFORMANCE by
Niko Rupllem (BERLIN)
Grigoria Vryttia (Greece)
NERISISTY (Greece)
Carnival Queen (Greece)
VIDEO SCREENINGS by
Anh Vo (USA)
Al/ice/ex with Fung Neo,Mis Saigo & Vit Trojanovsky (London)
Angelos Charalambous (Cyprus)
Angel Torticollis (Greece)
Avi Krispin + Peter Vandrie
Bianca Lyla Clifford (Australia)
Nicole Oike (Italy)
Dylan Meade (Greece)
Federica Dauri (Italy)
Hermes Pittakos (Cyprus)
ReveRso (Berlin)
Eggs and Legs (Greece)
Yunuen Rhi y Eryka Dellenbach (Mexico USA)
Vasiliki Lazaridou (Greece)
Lechedevirgen Trimegisto (Mexico)
INSTALLATION by Saint Profanus (USA)
Click for facebook event
New ritual film in collaboration with Yunuen Rhi premieres at Coaxial Arts in LA with simultaneous in-the-flesh screening and Q&A with Yunuen at Casa Moloch in YucatánK’i’ik I’inaj:
Blood Seeds for the Next Planting
Sunday October 24th, 7PM PST
This event will be live-streamed on Coaxial Arts website
Curated by Yunuen Rhi
The night of video performance streaming will feature ‘Cuir’ performance videos from Xicanx, Mexican, Colombian, Chilean and Bolivian artists.
The intention is to create a collective transnational offering to permeate the viewers’ imaginaries and call upon them to contest the gaze of hegemonic power play that results in violence and mass exodus of people especially from Latin America to the US and their subsequent detention in cages and/or disappearance.
The call to action is for accountability in our everyday actions—to breathe consciousness amidst the white washing we are complicit with and to forge radically tender ties as ways to transmute the roles we have been placed in.
Click here for the event page to learn more about the artists
We are excited for Schroon Lake to screen at the Lausanne Underground Film & Music Festival in Switzerland in the company of so many powerful artists!
Click here for event page
Ghanian multimedia artist and collaborator Martin Toloku and I presented film and material relics from our performance and installation piece Hedge Subs[tan]titute made during my residency at perfocraZe at the Alliance Française in Kumasi, Ghana in the show or.ga.nis.mus
HEKLER Assembly (Fall 2021): Infrastructures of Care is an online study program that will explore the relationship between civic engagement and collectivity through art practice and pedagogy.
Over the course of 12 weeks we will critically consider the histories, ethics, and aesthetics of community-engaged art practices that emphasize collaboration, situated knowledge, and collective action. We will do this through participatory workshops, presentations, study groups, peer-to-peer work, and on-site interventions. Participants will gain knowledge and experience in collaborative and collective work methodologies, organizing tools, and resources that will be made into a printed and digital twin publication.
Infrastructures of Care has been developed by our mighty group of organizers through months of convening, collective thinking and creating the syllabus. At this time, we have the capacity for 15 participants in a cohort. The cohort will attend 12 sessions in total, 6 private and 6 public programs.
LINK TO REGISTER, DONATE & LEARN MORE
RASTRUCTURES OF CARE INFRASTRUCTURES OF CARE
PREMIERE: The Long Way Home
(now available in Embodied Filmmaker page on this website)
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The Long Way Home, a film made in collaboration with Christopher-Rasheem McMillan commisioned by the Black Mountain College Museum + Arts Center will premiere on Aug 19, 7pm ***EST @bmcmuseum, link
N E W S
2020
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SCHROON LAKE selected to screen at Ann Arbor academy award qualifying, experimental and avante garde film festival on March 24
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Participating Artist for in Perfocraze Artist Residency for two months 2021 !!
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AntiFear session zines are available for download via HEKLER. You can click on the images above to view that particular session zine.
SCHROON LAKE selected to screen at Ann Arbor academy award qualifying, experimental and avante garde film festival on March 24
You
Hekler’s ANTI FEAR series are initiated in collaboration with New York-based artist and neurologist Sonja Blum. It is an evolving collective practice aiming in this time of crisis and change for a space decidedly between cultural/theoretical dialogue and therapeutic discourse. It is envisioned as a space in which we bring privately held fears into community with others' fears to embrace vulnerability and open collective experiments in community-building, trust, and reimagining the commons. This work is explored through poetry, movement/body work, breathing exercises and meditations, readings, lectures and other practices that untie repressive knots and make us feel empowered, imaginative and hopeful.
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Online screening premiere of NOLA, apt. and Q&A with filmmakers Muyassar Kurdi, Art Jones, MV Carbon and myself
RSVP here
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Schroon Lake online screening premiere at Cucalorus Film Festival (NC) November 21-24
Ticket Link
Q&A (November 23, 7pm EST) RSVP link
2019
Aftermath & Intimacy will open on Feb. 20 with a private performance event on Feb. 20th at 7pm featuring readings by visceral poet and filmmaker Raven Jackson and Make the Brutal Tender with Chicago-based, embodied sound artist Hanna Elliott present and dancer Nola Sporn Smith. Inquire within, capacity is limited to 35.
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US premiere of Mother Sparrow film with live performance of Make the Brutal Tender with Nola Sporn Smith and Eryka Dellenbach and Dacha ensemble @ Roulette Intermedium Jan. 28, 8pm (doors 7pm) Buy Tickets
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Visible Poetry Project 2020 filmmaker, paired with first choice poet Homa Zarghamee. Film to premiere in 2020, based on Homa’s poem entitled When Falling Asleep and Dreaming the Room from her published work A Long Drawn Face
Visiting Film Artist of Grant Wood Fellow Tony Orrico alongside Matty Davis
(Above: 35mm site-specific process photograph of Tony Orrico & Matty Davis)
(35mm