Rooted: Building Connections to Nature in our Communities through Theatre
Year Awarded
2024
Amount
€59,800
- Organisation:University of Galway
- Co-funded with Dept of Education:Yes
Project Summary
We protect the things we love best. ROOTED will use dance and performing arts methods to explore nature, our connections to it, and how we might protect it from the climate crisis for future generations. By bringing together scientists, dancers, and theatre-makers with students and rural communities, we want to develop new ways of knowing the world around us.
The performing arts can provide new viewpoints on scientific topics, as well as introducing those topics to people who might not engage with traditional research. For ROOTED, we will mount public-facing performances which incorporate expert talks about ecology and climate change, as well as an evening-length dance theatre production which uses music, images, and movement to convey the central concepts. The choreography and staging for the production will be directed by Prof. Deidre Cavazzi, in collaboration with the performers, and drawing from material developed in co-creation workshops in rural communities, as well as two transition year science/art weeks, to pose the questions:
How is nature a part of my community?
How does my health and well-being connect to a sense of self, community, and Nature?
How do we associate with ideas of place?
How can we facilitate connections to issues of climate change through the arts?
By talking to people about place and nature, and using visual, literary and performing arts ways of exploring, we hope to break down barriers between environmental science and communities, creating new ways to sustain nature and our relationship to it for years to come.