Resisting Extinction offers practices for living and dying together on, in and with a damaged earth
Resisting Extinction invites us to look around and notice what we are losing. Together our bodies live inside this ecological crisis. This ecological crisis is an identity crisis. Everything is shifting. Recognizing grief as a legitimate response to this multi-species mass extinction. It is a vital step to expanding our understanding of what it means to be alive in this swiftly transforming moment. We can’t rely on models that perpetuate this crisis. We need to practice embodied knowing to repair our relational field with this more-than-human world. This is an opportunity to move collectively towards creating more ecologies of reciprocity. We must hone our skills. To improvise, to play, to experiment, to be receptive, to be in the unknown and trust we have resources in our bodies to negotiate, survive, and thrive.
As the world is experiencing a climate emergency, the core of the project offers adaptive practices for performers and audiences to develop understanding and resilience in the fight against climate change on a personal and collective level.
The site-specific relational dance work will unfold in sites of ecological importance. It provides a structure for ongoing research, mentoring, and exchange with local communities, scientists, activists, and local and international artists to learn about local ecosystems through embodied practice. Together, the partnership adapts to meet the socio-cultural, ecological, and geographical contexts in which the work will be performed.
The performance functions as an intimate communal event, opening space to grieve for animals, plants, land, values, or belief systems that are being lost. Practices will be shared that reweave relational fields with the more-than-human world. This immersive participatory work offers opportunities to move collectively towards creating more ecologies of reciprocity.
Full length documentation of each section can be found here:
Credits
Concept: Olive Bieringa
Direction & choreography: Olive Bieringa & Otto Ramstad
Co-creating performers: Sigrid Marie Kittelsaa Vesaas, Ornilia Ubisse, Hanna Filomen Mjåvatn, Kristina Gjems, Otto Ramstad, Olive Bieringa, Nina Wollny, Daniel Persson, Oliver Connew, Uma Ramstad, Laressa Dickey, Kosta Bogoievski, Josie Archer, Rachel Ruckstuhl-Mann, Olivia McGregor, Amit Noy, Maria Lothe, Eline Selgis, Helina Karvak, Laura Kvelstein, Nele Suisalu, Joanna Kalm
Writers: Olive Bieringa and Laressa Dickey
Costume design: Kristine Gjems
Producer in Tallinn: Ann Mirjam Vaikla
Photo credits: Alissa Šnaider, Maria Lothe, Otto Ramstad, Arne Hauge, Guy Robinson
“…like an extended science lesson where I get to feel my body. Resisting Extinction became a ritual where I could reflect on the climate crisis and its consequences.” Marte Reithaug Sterud, Norsk Shakespeare Tidsskrift
“Bieringa and Ramstad are deeply committed to their practice, to conversations, to inviting participants to connect more fully with their bodies to face dis-ease and the pains of our time. Its gruelling, honourable work as they grapple with the question of how this ‘practice’ can lead to action.” Lyne Pringle, Theatreview
“sometimes you go to see art and you know that this experience will follow the rest of your life … its changing something inside me … ” interview with audience Ellen Hageman, November 17, 2022
“A flight of kakas, orange armpits flashing, herald Bieringa’s strong articulate voice as she delivers an intricate informed text about the process of drowning. It is an horrifically beautiful thought experiment – it is astounding how these states can nestle so closely with each other.” Lyne Pringle, Theatreview
“This production’s awareness of the environment and the ecological crisis takes on a rather experimental form in this dance scene, which distinguishes it from most of the works that have come out in recent years. This time, site-specificity is not merely in the service of decoration or showmanship: the site amplifies the theme, and the production is resonant of people’s direct experience of nature, albeit directed by the performers. The whole action is engaging and practical rather than distantly spectacular.” Iiris Viirpalu, SIRP
WORKSHOP
Ecosomatic Practices for Living and Dying on a Damaged Earth
PERFORMANCES
2025
Dancehouse Lefkosia, Cyprus
Nurt Foundation, Szczecin
Nurt Foundation, Warsaw
Passage Festival, Helsingor, Denmark
2024
Weather walk, Keha Festival, Oulu, Finland
2023
Tantsuruum, Tallinn, Estonia
Biotoopia, Tallinn, Estonia
Performance Arcade, Wellington, New Zealand
2022
SITE, Farsta, Stockholm
Bærum Kulturhus, Bærum, Norway
Bygdøy, Oslo
2021
DanseFestival Barents, Hammerfest
Bygdøy, Oslo
DansiT and Rosendal Theater in Trondheim
Field and Stream exhibit ArtStart, Rhinelander, Wisconsin, USA
The Embodiment Conference 2020, online
The Body-Mind Centering Conference 2020 online
Body IQ at the Somatics Academy, Berlin
Love in the Time of Covid online publication
PRESS
How not to go extinct. “Resisting Extinction”, EDASI
A Midsummer Night’s Dream, SIRP
“Resisting Extinction” by the company Bodycartography project is an open invitation to reflect on the consequences of the climate crisis, Norsk Shakespeare Tidsskrift
KONST-VÄRK / ART-ACHE #17 – SITE podcast BodyCartography Project – Olive Bieringa & Otto Ramstad
On Resisting Extinction, BLOT
