The Awe Factor

The Awe Factor, a contemporary dance production that emerged from two years of research on the science of awe and its relevance to environmental grief, especially the crisis of single-use plastics. This project puts an emphasis on experimentation and re-imagining both emotion and environmental engagement as embodied experiences.

Awe is a powerful emotion that forces a shift in one’s current perspectives. It has been found that awe helps us form communities, breaks down the sentiment of ‘us’ vs. ‘them’, and that little bursts of awe help us to be humbler. We often associate this emotion when looking out onto a grand landscape or starry night sky, but awe also creeps in when we need ‘cognitive realignment’. For example, do you ever feel a little dizzy when you try to grasp the concept of relativity or another heady subject matter? That’s awe! The experience of awe can be both positive and negative – adjectives such as ‘awesome’ and ‘awful’ are derived from this emotion. 

The first part of the work dives into our collective experiences of awe and explores how we can access it in our daily lives both individually and as a group. The second part contextualizes awe in a real-world problem – single-use plastic waste, a contributing factor to climate change. Though Mosser is focused on climate change, the goal is for the work to resonate with any large-scale problem we face today.

The Awe Factor premiered May 16-19, 2024 at the TEK BOX at the Hennepin Center for the Arts in Minneapolis, MN, USA.