Multispecies dance movements through endangered worlds

Seventh Symposium of the ICTM Study Group on Music and Dance in Southeastern Europe: Place, space, resistance, 2022

Similar to ecomusicology, “ecochoreology” may contain various subfields. One of them is ecological activism, in other words catching the attention of people for environmental problems by using dance. Another would be the ecochoerographies where the landscape is considered as a container for choreography on the stage. On the other hand, the already existing choreographies can be analysed by looking at the “ecokinemes” they contain. In other words, the third one is the constructed dances imitating the “ecokinemes” of living and non-living nature. In this paper, the last field will be discussed by using some examples in terms of dance as an ecosystem itself and within the ecosystem in order to seek a methodological approach for dance studies.

10138/318064, 2020

This research aims to examine methods of an artistic-pedagogical process and their potential for working with a diverse group. The theoretical reference point is EcoJustice education, a framework for ecologically and socially just pedagogy. The two research questions are: (1) How can my artistic-pedagogical methods as a dance pedagogue open a dialogue about climate crises, fostering more ecologically and socially just awareness in diverse groups? Moreover, (2) how do my pedagogical methods utilised in the given process of ILMA relate to the EcoJustice framework? The basis of this research is the artistic process of the devised dance performance ILMA (Finnish for "air") which is the artistic part of my artistic-pedagogical thesis. ILMA is a dance performance about climate emotions and nature relationships in today's world, and it premiered at the Zodiak New Dance Centre in Helsinki, Finland on 7th of March 2020. The working group of ILMA consisted of a diverse group of people from various backgrounds and aged between 14-84 years, a scenographer, light designer and musician and myself as the facilitator and director. The 13 performers of ILMA were found through an open call and workshop that handled the emotions related to climate change through dialogue, autobiographical writing and dance improvisation. The pedagogical dance practices turned out to foster connection and a sense of belonging in the group, that allowed the participants to reflect on their narratives concerning the bigger picture of our society and the ecosystem in a supportive atmosphere. Through dance improvisation, sensing exercises and embodiment practices, the participants found possibilities to express climate emotions in creative ways of working creating movement material and scenes for the ILMA performance. The analysis of the movement-based methods was framed by three main elements of my pedagogy; diversity, connection, and belonging. From the EcoJustice point of view, dance performance projects like ILMA can also foster the connectedness and feeling of hope due to the practices of recognition and connection. EcoJustice education can also work as a framework for ecologically and socially aware dance pedagogy offering space for imagination, feeling of interconnectedness, and questioning the modern destructive behaviour. To further develop the methods utilised in ILMA, an initial framework of a Pedagogy of (Be)longing was created. The pedagogy is based on the bodily practices that foster diverse ways of knowing. With open dialogue and autobiographical practises it also advances the connection to one's own body, the others and the more-than-human world-and that way a sense of belonging. The Pedagogy of (Be)longing will be further developed in my future studies and practices.

Endangered Human Movements Vol.4 Danza y Frontera, 2022

Endangered Human Movements1 Volume 4 – Danza y Frontera is an artistic research project rooted in ancient pre-Hispanic dance forms that survived the historical meeting with dances used by the Spanish Crown, (Casa Austria / Habsburg) to develop the conquest of Mexico during the 16th century. As Danzas de Conquista, (Conquest Dances), featuring reenactments of the battles in Europe between Moors and Christians, this dances were used to expand imperial difference2 already existing in Europe, toward the creation of colonial difference as it developed in the American continent under settler colonialism. The ‘Indians’ (native population) are assigned the role of the Moors (Arabic Muslims) and must perform their own defeat in a staged dancing combat with the Spaniards. To embody this difference through dance becomes a form of propaganda giving way to racialization and the reinforcement of the assumed inferiority of the natives in relation to the settlers. In this ‘new’ world, these dances survived till today with different names and under ever changing narratives. This multiply-handed-down dances are still practiced and actualized today such as the Danza de Matamoros or M20. This dance is practiced today by a group of young men from Matamoros, Tamaulipas (Mexico), at the border between Mexico and the United States in a context where extreme violence, narcotraffic, militarization, and cheap labor industries meet and interweave. If race is a mark carried on a body of a certain position in History (with a capital H), then to unsettle the hegemony of that History is central to the development of this work which looks at ‘traditional’ dance as a repertoire of inscriptions where many narrations intertwine, encoding a continuous movement of resistance. The topic of the artistic research is to trace the origin of colonial difference in dance practices as constituted by movements of exclusion and inclusion which imply liquid and invisible borders as well as material ones. Dance practices have been sites for colonial indoctrination but also for the creative reversal of colonial relations in performance and the continuity of ancestral experiences within colonial contexts, strengthening communities and creating common sense through shared experience. The research questions are which forms of understanding (cosmopolitics) are reflected in this intertwining between Amerindian and settler colonial performance practices? How to practice decolonial thought in dance by tracing back the memories stored in bodies as cultural archives?3 How can a decolonial form of art making become a practice of political action through performance? The current volume explores the topic from a wide variety of angles and in a polyphony of voices gathered during four years of artistic and dance historical research conducted by Nicole Haitzinger, Juan Carlos Palma, Amanda Piña and the performers of the various sister pieces, in Vienna and Mexico City.

Re-Storying the World for Multispecies Survival , 2022

Performance can provide far-reaching and meaningful tools to re-think the ways humans construct knowledge to integrate more-than-human worlds. This is the case of the techno-shamanistic ritual performance Altamira 2042, directed by Gabriela Carneiro da Cunha. This performance is a starting point to address the critical situation of several endangered species in the Brazilian Amazon. Focusing on how the artist deconstructs the ‘metaphorization of nature’ (Chaudhuri, 1994) and the ‘modern constitution’ (Latour, 1993), this article argues that Da Cunha’s innovative performative work rests on a decolonised ethnographic practice and a non-anthropo-centered perspective where active listening and ritual become not only aesthetic but also political acts. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0.

7 th Symposium of the ICTM Study Group on Music and Dance in Southeastern Europe, 2021

Ecochoreology; ecokineme; choreoscape

Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences, 2018

In September 2015, Ananya Dance Theatre premiered Roktim: Nature Incarnadine, an evening-length dance about women of color, seeds, food systems, and soil. Roktim weaves dancers_ biographies with myth, history, and science to form an epic narrative intersecting environment and social difference-an environmental justice biomythography. This work is an unconventional example of an environmental dance in both aesthetic and content. Through a year of ethnographic fieldwork and participation with the company, I explore aspects of Roktim and how my own body becomes implicated in the work. Using literature from eco-dramaturgy, eco-criticism, dance studies, and environmental justice, I consider how the performance and a reading of it contributes a corporeal perspective to critical sustainability.

This article discusses ways that Indigenous dance is an ontological praxis that is embodied and telluric, meaning “of the earth.” It looks at how dancing bodies perform in relationship to ecosystems and entities within them, producing ontological distinctions and hierarchies that are often imbued with power. This makes dance a site of ontological struggle that potentially challenges the delusional ontological universality undergirding imperialism, genocide, and ecocide. The author explores these theoretical propositions through her participation in Oxlaval Q'anil, an emerging Ixil Maya dance project in Guatemala, and Dancing Earth, an itinerant and inter-tribal U.S.-based company founded by Rulan Tangen eleven years ago Firmino Castillo, Maria Regina. 2016. "Dancing the Pluriverse: Indigenous Performance as Ontological Praxis" in Special Issue, INDIGENOUS DANCE TODAY: Motion, Connection, Relation. Guest Editor: Jacqueline Shea Murphy. Dance Research Journal, 48( 01): 55-73. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0149767715000480 I

Performance Research, 2010

Endangered Human Movements, Volume 4 – Danza y Frontera, 2022

Endangered Human Movements, Volume 4 – Danza y Frontera is an artistic research project rooted in ancient pre-Hispanic dance forms that survived the historical meeting with dances used by the Spanish Crown (Casa Austria / Habsburg), to develop the conquest of Mexico during the 16th century. The topic of the artistic research is to trace the origin of colonial difference in dance practices as constituted by movements of exclusion and inclusion which imply liquid and invisible borders as well as material ones. Dance practices have been sites for colonial indoctrination but also for the creative reversal of colonial relations in performance and the continuity of ancestral experiences within colonial contexts, strengthening communities and creating common sense through shared experience. The research questions are which forms of understanding (cosmopolitics) are reflected in this intertwining between Amerindian and settler colonial performance practices? How to practice decolonial thought in dance by tracing back the memories stored in bodies as cultural archives? How can a decolonial form of art making become a practice of political action through performance? Endangered Human Movements - Volume 4 represents the intersection of different border crossings, focusing on transversal connections and creolizations, on questioning the closed spaces imposed on us by colonial difference and extreme capitalism. By bringing these dances to new and unknown grounds we want to open spaces for border identities and narrations that have been suppressed or silenced. With this work, we want to contribute to the creation of spaces that resist all forms of oppression and dispossession.