Ruebush Hall, Room 146
3:45PM
Instinctual Behavior is a structured improvisational movement piece composed of sixteen dancers, set into three distinctive sections. The work is a continued study of my ongoing curiosity about animals and their connection to human behavior. I am rather fascinated with our connection to our inner primal behavior and our deterrence to that within society and cultural norms. Many questions that arise fall under our ability to be performative within societal norms, our deference to our natural behavior as animals, and our intolerance to act based on instinct. I have felt like an observer through this ongoing study as I feel as though humanity is pushing further and further away from our connection to our awareness of humans being mammals, and I question whether or not that has separated humans from the animal kingdom or driven us further into the madness of being animals. I would like to prioritize that this work is simply a canvas for me to further ask questions within a set group of dancers, and I am not declaring any statement in regards to the larger scope of humanity.
Instinctual Behavior lies in the questions and our actions as humans. It also is a further study into human emotions and whether or not the emotions that we feel and that motivate our actions are purely instinctual or are they crafted within our choices. My intended goal is to take my poetry and splice it up into many different small sections. From there, each dancer will have a section as their starting point within their improv. It is vital for this process that they have no awareness of what “emotion” I am trying to pull out of them. It would defeat the purpose. To live within their instinctual choices is the embodiment of me all at once. It is vital for this process that they have a state of vulnerability within themselves and a willingness to act decisively, not within the movement that they feel comfortable in. I do not look at this as improv as in a space to be free, but rather a place to let the body take over. It is also vital that there is a strong sense of community within all the dancers. As I see it, they are the embodiment of me. They may not know it within the process, but they are telling my story and emotions, and they must act as a collective, being aware of being one part of a larger machine to fully form cohesiveness within each other. Each dancer is acting instinctually within their own self, within the larger scope of a collective. I see improvisation as the truest form of instinctual behavior within the dance setting. In improv, there is no moment to question your actions or think about your movement; you simply act on instinct.
I am hoping to cultivate this with the large set of dancers within three distinct sections that correlate to certain emotions I plan to study. Love/Loss, Grief in Solitude, The Joy of Release. It is also part of this work that it be set in the round so the audience can garner a deeper scope of the dancers. I plan to use dirt across the space to allow the dancers to connect with the inner primal energy within themselves, in hopes that it allows a more truthful and instinctual performance.
15–20 minutes
Kylie Nicole, dramaturg