Immersive World Premiere Set in a Philadelphia Forest Set For June 2025

A site-specific dance performance incorporating the natural sounds of the forest and considering women's ancestral roles as guardians of the environment receives its world premiere in Philadelphia in June 2025.

TERRA: Bodies & Territories by Philadelphia-based choreographer Silvana Cardell is a work of experimental dance theater set in a forest with a multi-generational ensemble of women and femme dancers ranging in age from 7-78. Performed within the forest of the Schuylkill Center for Environmental Education, TERRA activates the land as a living laboratory and stage. This immersive, multi-sensory performance is laden in kinetic, theatrical, and sonic experiences of dance and sound.

Featuring a cast of multigenerational dancers, dramaturgy by theater director Blanka Zizka, and a score by composer Devin Arne that amplifies the natural sounds of the forest, the piece engages with the land's topography to consider women's ancestral roles as guardians of the environment and parallels between the oppression of nature and exploitation of women. Arne's sound installation captures the essence of the untamed forested space at the Schuylkill Center by recording the sounds of plants actively moving and growing. Set designer Sarah Kavage creates art installations and props from natural materials harvested from the land for the dancers to interact with. Costume Designer Vasi Zivanic creates costumes appropriate to the setting that allow dancers to be protected and enhance their movement. Women, femme, and gender non-conforming audience members will be invited to join the performers at the end of each performance, offering kinship and unity with the forest.

"Responding to the Schuylkill Center's topography, TERRA: Bodies & Territories immerses audiences in an experience where bodies align with the land and human movement and nature merge," said Erin Mooney, executive director of the Schuylkill Center for Environmental Education. "Our forest is the perfect setting for this performance, where nature is at its most wild."

"In TERRA: Bodies & Territories, we will unite women's bodies with the land using the untamed forest of the Schuylkill Center as a living laboratory and stage, creating an immersive experience that both reveals and amplifies the threat of patriarchal domination over women's bodies and natural spaces," said Silvana Cardell. "We will explore the profound connections between women's bodies and the earth, transforming the forest into a living, breathing stage."

To post a comment, you must register and login.