This blog will document the creative process of the development of KINesphere, a dance/dance-theatre piece exploring the connections between humans and the world around them.
Summary of the Project
The concept for this project is the development of a dance piece like a moveable feast.
This performance would include professional dancers in outdoor settings,
with the audiences moving between locations.
In each new place, audiences would be confronted by the dancer’s relationship to nature-
as a backdrop, as a partner, as an obstacle or an inspiration, etc.
The purpose of this piece is to encourage audiences to reflect on
how they encounter their natural world.
Is it something to be subdued? Tolerated? Enjoyed? Protected?
The title of KINesphere emphasizes our “personal space” or “bubble”,
something we are all very aware of with COVID-19 social distancing measures,
as well as the idea of relating as kin, rather than simply “other”.
This idea of kinship comes from my readings of Robin Wall-Kimmerer & Donna J. Haraway.
Both of these scientists/writers/teachers/activists encourage us to encounter
the natural world as kinfolk, rather than species removed from ourselves.
After all, we do all share the same kinesphere of the Earth.
This idea also came from personal explorations in the arboretum at the University of Miami
while teaching there in the Spring Semester of 2021.
I found the outdoor setting to inspire new movement choices for me,
as well as new ways of seeing the plants, lizards, rocks I encountered every day.
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