Jody Sperling connects human bodies and earth ecologies in mesmerizing movement. As part of a communication team on a polar science mission in 2014, she translated climate phenomena into haunting dances at the edge of the earth – the arctic ocean to be precise. Ice Floe captures her performance on thin sheets of unmoored sea ice: the morphology and dynamics of a vanishing world. Jody shares her artist’s journey aboard the science research vessel – and the origins of ecokinetics – in which human movement acts as conduits for environmental systems. Explore her drive to create transportive vehicles that embody natural phenomena, and the stories in their wake. Learn how her collaboration with ecoacoustics composer, Matthew Burtner, nurtured kinetic responses to deeper earth processes in American Elm and Arbor. Be astonished. As founder and artistic director of Time Lapse Dance, Jody and her all-female ensemble expand time-space for us to explore kinship with life forces within our more-than-human ecosystems.
4 Things you’ll learn in this episode:
How sea ice is structurally akin to human bone in formation
The way Jody expands the technological genius of modern dance pioneer, Loie Fuller, into contemporary environmental forms
While women are taught to take up less space, the massive structures of her dance costumes provide apparatus for women to take up more space as they embody powerful, natural forces
Just how playful and provocative a “pile of garbage” can be when Jody Sperling and her troupe take their activation to the streets
Be sure to watch these Jody Sperlings performances on https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC2gkt8RPLqGal_CYBJ4-pEQ
To book a performance contact Jodie Sperling directly on https://www.timelapsedance.com/
To find out more about Jodie Nelson and Female Frequency workshops go to www.pressreign.com and instagram @pressreign