Biomes is a contemporary dance production that unearths hard-earned love with our natural environments. We explore this through three perspectives: as humans, as plants, and by zooming out to the biomes that make up the ecosystems on our planet. It pulls inspiration from Zoë Schlanger’s book “The Light Eaters,” Richard Powers’ book “The Overstory”, and the perspectives of scientists and community members associated with the University of Minnesota’s Cedar Creek Ecosystem Science Reserve (CCESR), where I have been Artist-in-Residence since 2024.
The three perspectives are sections in the overall work:
-Stewards: The Animal Kingdom. What is our relationship to our environment? How did we learn to care about it, and how did we become disconnected? In this section of the work, the focus will be on specific humanistic roles: the Inheritor, the Scientist, and the Disconnected.
-The Other Kingdom: The Plant Kingdom. Science is only beginning to decipher the complexities of plants’ biological agencies. Evidence is building to support plants’ consciousness and intelligence, though nothing has yet been proven. What would it look like to embody this unfamiliar form of intelligence?
-Biomes: this section will unite the two Kingdoms in one ecosystem. How will these worlds listen to each other? How will they interact, see each other, find hard-earned love and respect for each other?
By inviting audiences to imaginatively embody plant intelligence and ecosystemic interdependence, this work focuses on the empathic, imaginative leap that allows people to see beyond anthropocentric perspectives—to feel with, not just think about, the other forms of life and systems in which we are embedded.
Biomes will premiere May 8-10, 2026 at the Luminary Arts Center.
Stewards
Stewards began at University of Minnesota’s Cedar Creek Ecosystem Science Reserve, and looks at our natural environment through the eyes of a scientist, an inheritor, and a person disconnected from the natural world. This work in the photos was presented as a Work In Progress Showing at a site-specific location on October 26, 2024.
Dancers: Karen Christ Aalgaard, Devyn Hannon, Addie Smith
Photos by Bill Cameron
The Other Kingdom
Simply put, the Plant Kingdom. Science is only beginning to decipher the complexity of plant agency. What does it look like to embody this alien form of intelligence and consciousness, that evolved right alongside the animal kingdom? Inspired by Zoë Schlanger’s book, ‘The Light Eaters,’ we give thought, feeling, and intention to the quietly stoic beings that live among us.
The Other Kingdom was presented in the production, Converge, co-produced by Amez Dance, Analog Dance Works and Ruby Josephine Dance Theater at the Southern Theater July 18-20, 2025.
Dancers: Nieya Amezquita, Colin Edwards, Jayde Grass, Doug Hooker, Juliana Johnson, Mary Mailand Schlichting, Vy Nguyen, Addie Smith
Lighting by Jacob Lee Hofer
Photos by The Studio Aura
The Greenhouse
The final chapter. When all is said and done, we still can’t erase the footprints of mankind on the environment. Only time can do that for us. In this final investigation, I questioned how nature can still flourish in all its complexity within the confines of manmade structures.
This solo was presented at a site specific location on the grounds the University of Minnesota College of Botanical Sciences Plant Growth Facility on October 10, 2025.
Photos by Bill Cameron
