UC Irvine

This thesis focuses on my rehearsal process by examining a personal movement practice–––ecological performance practice, which is a series of conceptual and practical approaches to connectivity, such as empathy, imagination, and animal body. In ecological performance practice, connectivity refers to a state of being where the performer experiences a sense of interconnectedness with the self and environment in which they inhabit. I ground my understanding of connectivity by following three contemporary intellectuals: Kimerer L. LaMothe, David Abram, and Andrea Olsen. The deconstruction of my rehearsals allows the readers to gain insight into the process of the performer interacting and interchanging energy with nature through movement by activating their empathy, imagination, and animal body in designed performative ritual practice(s). Additionally, I introduce how these approaches produce materials for my final creative project: CONNECT/disconnect.