Performa/Dance to Present ANTHROPOCENE This August

Performa/Dance will celebrate its 10th season with ANTHROPOCENE, a new dance theater work that interrogates, 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 evokes 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 examines, 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 has assembled a stellar artistic team that spans Austin's cultural scene. Alexandra Bassiakou Shaw, playwright, Co-Artistic Director of Rude Mechs and UT assistant professor; Kelsey Oliver, experimental dance and theater maker; and, Performa/Dance's own Artistic Director, Jennifer Hart, have collaborated to bring this work to life. Composer Henna Chou, lighting designer Stephen Pruitt, and set and design collaborator Tor Reynolds round out the artistic team. Performers also come 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. 

Since 2014, Performa/Dance has been programming works by local and national choreographers, with the goal of showcasing historically underrepresented artists, including Minneapolis-based LGBTQ+ activist Nic Lincoln, Christian Warner, a rising star based in NYC, as well as local favorites, including BLiPSWiTCH, Magdalena Jarkowiec, Alexa Capareda, and ARCOS. Additionally, Performa/Dance consistently pushes itself in new directions, reevaluating the vocabulary used to communicate modern storytelling.

ANTHROPOCENE will be held at Ballet Austin's downtown AustinVentures StudioTheater, August 15th at 7:30pm, and August 16th at 4pm and 7:30pm. The performance runs approximately 66 minutes with ASL interpretation on August 16th at 4pm. Spanish translation will also be available. This production is supported in part by the City of Austin's Elevate Grant Program. 

ABOUT Performa/Dance

Performa/Dance, founded in Austin, Texas in 2014 by choreographer Jennifer Hart and dancer Edward Carr, presents exploratory, original dance work by women, BIPOC, and LGBTQ+ choreographers.

Through imaginative and ever-evolving processes, we reconsider contemporary ballet outside its bounds, in dialogue with artists across disciplines.