Location: Zoom Room 2
Zoom Link: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/6087153816?pwd=ppMzS6CF8VMyDMKcF9DX0BiTTC3Exf.1
Abstract:
In many Euro-Western cultures, modern reality causes disruption of emotional, physical and behavioural equilibria. Minds and bodies are constantly under stress, due to phenomena such as the degradation of the environment; the modification of food, and addiction(s) to technology. Hegemonic neoliberal capitalism is one of the major reasons for this (Haraway, Alexandrowicz, Cudworth). Expanding performing arts practices to include the nonhuman, we argue, can support us to bring balance to our equilibria; it can challenge inherited structures that privilege the individual over the collective, the mind over the body, an economic flourishing over a flourishing Earth.
In this online workshop, we will practice the transition from anthropocentric perspectives into ecocentric consciousness. Informed by (applied) theatre practices, ecofeminism and vital materialism, we will share visualizations, embodied and sensory interventions and creative writing practices , to guide participants online into an imagined (or very real but forgotten?) collective planetary ecosystem (Bennett, Muhr, Clayton & Opotow). Beginning by bringing awareness to the earthliness and wisdom of our own bodies, we will then attempt to perceive how the more-than-human may be communicating with us and respond in a collectively created micro-performance.
Biographies:
Ruthana Slob completed a Bachelor of Theatre, a Master of Education in Arts and several post graduate degrees in life coaching. She is currently doing her PhD-research with the University of Victoria: she explores how (applied) theatre can play a role in bringing awareness to the interconnectedness between all life on earth, more specifically between humans and other animals, and ultimately foster the development of a ‘relational ecological identity’ in young people?
Sophia Treanor is an MFA Directing student at the University of Victoria. She is a director, performer, and educator previously based in NYC. Sophia received her BFA in Drama from New York University. She is the director of the Mary Overlie Legacy Project and the Six Viewpoints Institute.