Prehistoric Body Theater: Bringing Paleontology Narratives to Global Contemporary Performance Audiences

Extract

When I see my fellow humans, I see ghosts of animals past, glances of an epic story that’s hidden inside us all. As a scientist, I see human bodies differently than most people—the way we grip with our hands, we can thank our primate ancestors for that. How we hear so many sounds, that dates back to the days when we were the size of a shrew. And the further back we go, the stranger it gets.

Dr Neil Shubin (2018)

Nature is a drama. It is the most ripping yarn ever written. You’ve got life and death and sex and betrayal and the best way to approach it is through individual animals.

Dr Robert T. Bakker, on “Raptor Red.” (Jones 1995)

Prehistoric Body Theater is an emerging performance company that offers paleontology and the evolutionary sciences a unique form of global public outreach through the medium of contemporary dance-theater. These productions aim to educate and inspire diverse audiences by presenting an emotionally potent experience of Earth’s prehistoric ecosystems and humanity’s deep-time origin story. The central characters of these performances are specific vertebrate species from the fossil record. Under collaborative mentorship with leading paleontologists, artistic director A.R. generates choreography by mapping the theoretical locomotion and physiology of the featured prehistoric animals onto diverse ensembles of dancers. These animal characters and their evolutionary narratives are brought to life on stage through evocative use of clay makeup, lighting, sound design, and set installation. Audiences describe their experience of watching Prehistoric Body Theater as “a fully immersive journey through time, with the air, light, soil, and taste of life as it evolved” and as “a dive into a mysterious prehistoric past evoking such empathy for all that has come before us.” (Bergstrom Award: Anonymous Audience Questionnaire 2018).