Resisting Extinction offers practices for living and dying together on a damaged earth. Resisting Extinction invites us to not only look forward but 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 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. We must hone our skills. to improvise, to play, to experiment,  to be receptive, to be in the unknown and trust we have the resources in our bodies to negotiate, survive, and thrive. 

Resisting Extinction unfolds as a series of three experiences:

  • weather walk is a one-on-one performance journey. We will transform our small talk about the weather.
  • the missing is an invisible performance that flickers on the periphery of our consciousness where critically endangered multi-species beings haunt the landscape.
  • dying and decomposing practices allow us to collectively practice for potential climate realities.

 

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

 

“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

“She transforms into the wounded creature embodying such beauty and horror in her death throes that grief wells up in my throat as I re-join the group.” 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

“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

“What Do You Do with the Mad That You Feel? BodyCartography Project’s Resisting Extinction. Amit Noy, a performer in this event, speaks to creators BodyCartography Project on making work in times of ecological grief.

 

Related curriculum

Ecosomatic Practices for Living and Dying on a Damaged Earth

Past 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