Becoming Animal

This three day research led workshop encountered becoming animal and ‘creatureness’ and researched a heightened physical and embodied awareness of our inextricable interdependence to the natural world. Drawing upon Butoh and expressive voice work, Rotie drew upon classic butoh animal forms as transmitted from the legacy of Butoh founder Tatsumi Hijikata (fish, cat, horse etc) and methods continued by the late Ko Murobushi. The workshop also drew upon methods investigated by Marie-Gabrielle in her early solo and group works exploring Mutations (2001) and Mutability (2003) as well as the methodologies of Human Zoo (2001 onwards). The focus, through guided improvisation, was on finding our own mutable animal and cultivating hybridity and fluidity between human and animal metamorphosis. The work seeks an embodiment of Deleuze and Guattari 'becoming animal' as expounded in 'A Thousand Plateaus' (1980) and asks what this transformation might look like, and how this might then inform both actor training but also have a wider impact upon everyday life and our understanding of the fluid inter-dynamics of human/animal and wider post-human ecological thinking.

Dancers in Foreground of Video: Malik Ibheis