Since 2007 my choreographic practice has been inspired by
explorations into the innate interconnectivity of humans and other
animals with a particular focus on non-human primates.
With a fabulous team of artists, we have created a series of
works; Enclosure 44 – Humans (2008), Torque (2008), Human Animal
Beijing (2009), Human Animal Shanghai / Scotland (2010), Humanimalia
(2011) and Enclosure 99 – Humans (2011). These works have been performed
in diverse settings ranging from theatre venues, the Urban Park at
Shanghai Expo, coffin-sized glass covered holes in the floor of 798 Art
Space (a huge cavernous gallery in Beijing once the home of a military
machine factory), to theatre foyers and art galleries in Scotland, and
the most well attended and exposed incarnations, the Enclosure series,
performed inside animal enclosures at Edinburgh Zoo.
The works have all stemmed from ongoing research into
non-human primate behaviour and communication. With support from
zookeepers and staff at Edinburgh Zoo as well as leading primatologist
Klaus Zuberbühler (University of St Andrews), we have developed
choreographic and improvisation strategies, structures, workshops and
performance works that draw attention to human and other animals and our
interconnected lives and behaviour.
“Part of the reason we, today, are attracted and attuned to
animals is that we are locked together, as we have always been locked
together, in a shared journey that spans past, present, and future… Like
us, they breathe air and thirst for water and food and seek others of
their kind, and endure the inevitable suffering that comes with the
cycle of life, birth, and death.” (1)
The process of investigation began in late 2007 with a
creative development research period funded by Creative Scotland which
allowed three dancers to spend four weeks between Edinburgh Zoo and the
studio, observing and absorbing several aspects of animal behaviour,
communication and movement. The research process culminated in
indulgently innocent, anthropomorphic engagement with the myriad of
non-human primates at Edinburgh Zoo, with a special focus on our closest
kin there, the famous Budongo Chimps.
The resulting works have covered the span from an
aesthetically ‘pure dance’ set to a Bach partita and performed in a
traditional theatrical setting, to the exploration of an enclosed
performance space; a large Perspex box that turned into a steam bath in
the sweltering heat of Shanghai. The keystone, however, of all the
pieces and to which all of the works owe credit, is the award winning
Enclosure 44 – Humans for which the company received a Herald Angel
Award and a Total Theatre shortlist during Edinburgh Fringe Festival
2008.
Enclosure 44 – Humans took dance to the public in a massive
way – the zoo had 32,596 visitors in the two weeks we were there – and
to our delight unexpectedly turned the audience performer relationship
on its head resulting in a ‘who’s watching who’ interactive durational
experience where audience members unknowingly became the subject of the
performers’ observations. As audience watched performers watching
audience watching performers, boundaries blurred and unexpectedly the
objective of the work – observing human behaviour and its relation to
other animal behaviour – was fulfilled from both sides of the enclosure.
Behaviours often became evident in more spontaneous,
profound and sometimes hilarious ways outside of the original
performance space as audience members and passers-by watched, commented,
gasped, laughed, clicked cameras, imitated chimpanzees, dragged their
children away, danced, complained about arts funding, threw kisses, and
even cried. For the performers, despite spending much of the time in
waterproofs and Wellingtons in the cold wet Scottish summer, it was an
awe-inspiring and highly educational fortnight.
A zoo attracts probably the largest demographic of visitors
of any public event in the world drawing into one space and one shared
field of experience people of all ages and abilities, from all class,
religious, ethnic and educational backgrounds. From just one enclosure
at any given time the animal within may be faced with a vast array of
human animal onlookers, which could include a child with grandparents, a
mother with her newborn baby, a psychology student, a professional
athlete, a school teacher, a wheelchair user, an office worker and a
primatologist. The possibilities are endless – Muslims, Christians,
Hindus, creationists, atheists, sports lovers, couch potatoes, actors,
dancers, cleaners, mathematicians – they all visit zoos around the world every day of the year, in droves.
All of these onlookers have come to watch and connect with
the zoo’s inhabitants, knowing or not that they themselves are a member
of the animal kingdom. For the most part they have come to connect with
these other animals via a medium shared throughout the animate world –
movement. Whilst enjoying the roar of a lion, the song of a gibbon, the
groans of a hippo and the chatter of monkeys may be of added benefit to
visitors, for most, the calling to a zoo is a calling towards movement;
the skittering flight of parakeets, the dexterous climbing of spider
monkeys, the acrobatic swinging of gibbons, the slow determined
lumbering of a silver back. At a zoo, humans make connections with other
animals and to their own animal selves, primarily through movement.
Thus a major draw-card to our performances was the sheer
amount of movement the human animals engaged in for seven hours daily.
Whilst sleepy lions and undulating otters kept the attention of visitors
for fleeting moments, the humans engaged their watchers for the longest
viewing periods of any enclosure.
Both Enclosure 44 and the recent Enclosure 99 involved five
to ten ‘human animals’ (dancers) inside an animal enclosure seven hours a
day for two weeks, supported by two ‘zookeepers’ (a physical theatre
performer and an actor) who respectively offered the daily 1pm Human
Animal Feeding Time and the 3pm Human Animal Talk.
The human animals, all experienced improvisers, had rules to
adhere to and scores and games to play, but essentially, the work
evolved as an experiment. We were interested in the process; what would
happen if we spent all of that time inside one space together
communicating through movement, devoid of the most defining attribute
that distinguishes us as human – speech. We also took away the power of
sign language and directive gestural communication signs such as
pointing and waving, and tried to avoid or abstract anything that we
felt clearly represented a ‘word’ such as rolling eyes, shaking the
head, shrugging shoulders, thereby inviting both ourselves and the
audience to partake in reading us through our movement and behaviour.
The zookeeper sessions were based on observations and
shadowings of the actual keepers at the zoo, with particular attention
being paid to the chimpanzee talk where the zookeepers employ a personal
and affectionate attitude to their highly volatile cousins, naming them
all by first names and telling of their individual histories – where
they are from, if they have had children, what rescue mission had
brought them to the zoo, etc. Couched in this familiarity between the
keeper and his subjects, the Human Animal Talk became a performance tool
that touched on conservation and educational issues (such as the
connection of almost 99% DNA between humans, bonobos and chimpanzees),
as well as the plight of the endangered and ‘often misunderstood species
called the contemporary dancer’. Standard zoo talk procedures became
highly effective tools for bridging the audience/performer gap and
inviting participation. Question and answer times were particularly
entertaining; ‘Which one is the Alpha Female?’ ‘Where do they go to the
toilet?’ ‘Why don’t they talk?’, and the favourite daily laugh inducer guaranteed to be asked
by a middle-aged man ‘Does the zoo have a human animal breeding
programme?’
The work proved entertaining and educational on several
levels and this was enhanced by the enthusiastic and committed education
team at the zoo. Random (real) zookeepers would appear with a group of
visitors and indulge in their own Human Animal Talk unannounced.
Key to the success of the works was the relationship with
Edinburgh Zoo, which had begun back in 2007 when the particularly brave
and eccentric Education Manager, Stephen Woollard immediately responded
with a passionate ‘yes’ to the idea, and has since helped us manifest
both projects.
In 2011 riding on the success of Enclosure 44 – Humans and
the subsequent plethora of media exposure for the zoo, we were invited
to restage the performance as a lead up to the planned arrival of two
giant pandas from China. This made funding more accessible and a cast of
five UK and five Chinese dancers took the work to a new level in
Enclosure 99 – Humans.
This time, having been ousted by the fairy penguins from our
original enclosure, we were re-housed in the outdoor koala enclosure
where once again the performers, both planned and accidental, engaged
for 14 days in an experiment. Primarily through movement we highlighted
the human as a part of the greater community of animals, a member of the
great ape family sharing almost 99% DNA with our closest cousins.
contact janis@janisclaxton.com or 07813 864 778 / visit www.janisclaxton.com or www.facebook.com/JanisClaxtonDance
Enclosure 44 – Humans was produced and supported by
Edinburgh Zoo, Artemis, Dance Base, and Catalyst Dance Management.
Enclosure 99 – Humans was produced and supported by Confucius Institute
for Scotland, Scottish Government, Edinburgh Zoo, Dance Base, Artemis,
Catalyst Dance Management, Barceló Hotels and Star Sea Chinese
Restaurant.
(1) King, Barbara. (2009) Being with Animals, Doubleday Religion. p.35.