Animal Dances

Humans and other animals

How do we, urban animals of the 21st century, relate to ‘other animals’ – the domestic cat that lies purring on our laps, the mouse in the shed, the cow, 100 grams of which lies on our plate, the predator we photograph on safari...? Martin Nachbar examines what makes us animal or non-human and why there is a taboo on ‘dancing animals’. It’s simply not done to make animals dance. Merce Cunningham performed one in ‘Biped’: the dance of bipeds – humans and birds. The theme of metamorphosis was also touched on in Xavier Le Roy’s wonderful Self unfinished. But beyond this?
  
Nachbar aims to make our relationships with animals transparent through dance. The performance imitates animals in their habitat and in the habitat of contemporary dance (theatre) and examines the possibilities of moving, feeling and thinking like animals.  

• Martin Nachbar is a Berlin performer and choreographer; he teaches and occasionally writes about his work. Some years ago we presented his Repeater –Dance Piece with Father, a dance performance in which he appeared on stage with his father, who is not a dancer.