Rooted in the River: An Eco-Dance Theatre Exploration of the Corrib
🗓️ Wednesday, 24 June — 4:30pm
- 5:30pm
(60 mins)
Presenters
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Abstract
ROOTED is a co-created dance theatre piece which explores ecology and the climate crisis with communities in the west of Ireland. The project comprises both workshops and live performances, in collaboration with the public, scientists, dancers, students, and those who may identify with multiple categories, culminating in a dance theatre production devised from emergent workshop themes, data from scientific collaborators, and the stories and perspectives of project performers. By taking a collaborative and transdisciplinary approach, this work avoids the trap of art/science interactions that are either overly literal or hyperstylized (Coates 2017), allowing themes and meaning to emerge in the overlap between ecology, the body, and community (Bentz et al., 2022).
The movement vocabulary, score and script for ROOTED are developed from co-creation workshops and exploration of ecological data, and also includes improvised components that vary in response to audience interaction with climate data at the event. The embodiment of scientific concepts is both science communication and a shared multisensory experiment (Myers, 2012), enabling new collaborative sensemaking methods not traditionally associated with scientific data and analysis (Vogelstein 2022).
The performance will begin with a short talk about the environment and climate change, followed by an interactive data visualization allowing the audience to explore local human impact through live web-based input and projections. This will be followed by an abstract dance theatre piece, which creatively interprets concepts and interactions from the natural environment using physical movement, projections, patterning and text in a stage performance. This lateral approach to our local ecologies, at the intersection of science, performance, and collective agency, encourages new ways of thinking about the world around us and our place in it.
ROOTED is supported by the Research Ireland Discover programme.
The movement vocabulary, score and script for ROOTED are developed from co-creation workshops and exploration of ecological data, and also includes improvised components that vary in response to audience interaction with climate data at the event. The embodiment of scientific concepts is both science communication and a shared multisensory experiment (Myers, 2012), enabling new collaborative sensemaking methods not traditionally associated with scientific data and analysis (Vogelstein 2022).
The performance will begin with a short talk about the environment and climate change, followed by an interactive data visualization allowing the audience to explore local human impact through live web-based input and projections. This will be followed by an abstract dance theatre piece, which creatively interprets concepts and interactions from the natural environment using physical movement, projections, patterning and text in a stage performance. This lateral approach to our local ecologies, at the intersection of science, performance, and collective agency, encourages new ways of thinking about the world around us and our place in it.
ROOTED is supported by the Research Ireland Discover programme.
Biography
Jessamyn Fairfield is a lecturer in the School of Natural Sciences and the School of English, Media and Creative Arts at the University of Galway. She holds a PhD in Physics from the University of Pennsylvania as well as an MA in Writing from the University of Galway. She leads research and practice on the intersection between science and the performing arts, and is an improviser, writer, and performer. She founded Bright Club Ireland, a research comedy variety night which has held over a hundred events across Ireland and trained hundreds of academics in standup comedy. Her most recent project, We Built This City on Rock and Coal, explored climate action using improvised theatre, co-creating 30 shows with remote coastal Irish communities.
Deidre Cavazzi is the Honors Chair and a Professor of Dance at Saddleback College. She holds an MFA in Creative Writing from Dominican University and an MFA in Dance from the University of California at Irvine. She has been an artist-in-residence with The Arctic Circle in Svalbard and both the Fish Factory Creative Centre and NES in Iceland. Her ecopoetry chapbook, carapace, root & feather, was published in Fall 2025 by Bottlecap Press. Her work as a choreographer and artistic director explores STEM themes through performance, often involving interdisciplinary collaborations and opportunities for further engagement through educational partnerships.
Deidre Cavazzi is the Honors Chair and a Professor of Dance at Saddleback College. She holds an MFA in Creative Writing from Dominican University and an MFA in Dance from the University of California at Irvine. She has been an artist-in-residence with The Arctic Circle in Svalbard and both the Fish Factory Creative Centre and NES in Iceland. Her ecopoetry chapbook, carapace, root & feather, was published in Fall 2025 by Bottlecap Press. Her work as a choreographer and artistic director explores STEM themes through performance, often involving interdisciplinary collaborations and opportunities for further engagement through educational partnerships.
