ANTHROPOCENE

Performa/Dance celebrated its 10th season with ANTHROPOCENE, an ambitious new dance theatre work that interrogated, with equal doses of humor, anxiety, grief, and wonder, how we became comfortable with the end of the world.

Taking a slightly absurdist, wholly penetrating viewpoint, ANTHROPOCENE evoked perspectives of singular persons and the global collective as we navigate a changing planet. Modern society’s disassociation from the natural world - choices we make, and at times earnest yet bumbled action - leave us vulnerable in the face of increasing natural disasters and global crises. ANTHROPOCENE examined, through allegory, humanity’s tendency to put itself dead center at the expense of other life forms through surreal scenes at a beach, in a laboratory, in one disaffected young woman’s fevered monologue, at a family dinner table, and a hospital room.

Performa/Dance assembled a stellar artistic team that spanned Austin’s cultural scene. Alexandra Bassiakou Shaw, director/playwright, Co-Artistic Director of Rude Mechs; Kelsey Oliver, experimental dance and theatre maker; and, Performa/Dance’s own Artistic Director, Jennifer Hart, collaborated to bring this work to life. Sound artist Henna Chou, lighting and co-scenic designer Stephen Pruitt, and co-scenic designer Tor Reynolds rounded out the artistic team. Performers also came from all corners of Austin’s rich dance community, including Angel Blanco, Cellise Brown, Alexa Capareda, Jairus Carr, Aida Hernandez Reyes, Arnaldo Hernandez, Taryn Lavery, Clay Moore, Tikiri Shapiro, and Kanami Nakabayashi Timpe.