Endangered Species

Supported by: Baryshnikov BAC Open Residency and the Gibney Company Moving Toward Justice Fellowship (MTJ) project developed and curated by Artistic Associate Kevin Pajarillaga.

January 26 & January 27, 2024 at Gibney Dance Center, NYC

In the not-so-distant future, today's most plentiful creatures are now endangered and fighting for financial aid to protect their kind. An extravagant pageant-styled competition gives the audience the power to make a life-altering decision for these species. 

Creator/Director/Choreographer: Kelly Ashton Todd
Story Developer: Ria Meer
Performers/CoChoreographers: Truth Colón, Stephanie Crousillat, Ingrid Kapteyn, Tori Sparks
Mask Designer: John Pete Hardy
Lighting Designer: Beaudau Banks

Director’s Note:

What if we could interview an animal? 

What would they say? 

Who would get to interview them? 

Would they be concerned about appearances, about being ‘likeable’? 

Would they burn the building down?

Would they look out at us in despair? 

Would they attack? 

Would they come near us? 

Would they tell us about the catastrophe they have witnessed and all the loved ones they have lost? 

Would they not give us that pleasure? 

Would they know pleasure? 

Would they sit in our lap, gain our love, tell us their most truthful, brutal story, and then leave? 

Would they speak? 

Would we listen? 

The Endangered Species Act was enacted in 1973 as a response to the declining populations of many species of animals and plants. The Act was designed to protect and recover species at risk of extinction and to promote the conservation of ecosystems and habitats necessary for the survival of those species. 

It all started with our society needing to create a law to protect species. That is where our consumption and power has taken us - needing to be under the law to protect a living being. 

It may seem obvious. But this act is consistently under attack due to the demands of agriculture, cattle farming, logging, drilling and more. The Endangered Species Act has a long history of being brought to Congress in hopes of removing certain species to further commercially develop the land and water. 

There are even some states that don’t recognize insects as species, and thus will not be protected by the state. 

In 2023, 21 animals and plants were declared extinct in the United States alone. 

I am so deeply in love with a vanishing world. And I believe you are in love too. 

The above questions were stimulated by years of research regarding biodiversity and the protection of land. Information that the Indigenous Peoples have carried and shared forever, but we haven’t listened. It also took me through the undergraduate classroom led by a white man to hear. 

For me, these questions and realizations stir up grief, rage, deep love, absurdity, nausea, anxiety, hope, humiliation, betrayal, bliss, and admiration - emotions I strive to bring into the process and the characters. 

Though these emotions seem contradictory to one another, they are held in the same body. They are intertwined like we are intertwined with all species, the planet, and the atmosphere. 

I am left with more questions than answers. With more feelings than stillness. But that is what I adore about art and activism - we lean into the “what if” and we let ourselves dream. These dreams become our protest and our action.