About

Performa/Dance celebrates its 10th season with ANTHROPOCENE, an ambitious 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 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 in 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.

The performance runs approximately 66 minutes with ASL interpretation August 16th at 4pm. Spanish translation will also be provided. This project has been funded in part by the City of Austin's Elevate Grant Program.