Resisting Extinction offers practices for living and dying together on 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. 

Full length documentation of each section can be found here:

weather walk

the missing

dying & decomposing practice

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

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

What Do You Do with the Mad That You Feel? BodyCartography Project’s Resisting Extinction, Pantograph Punch

The feel of rimu needles in my hair; the taste of gorse flowers; the pull of gravity on a slope, Theatreview

“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