Performing animality

Abstract

Considering performances with animals such as Going to the Dogs (Wim T. Schippers, 1986), Octavio and I (Linda Molenaar, 2010), Performances for Pets (Juurak/ Bailey 2014) and A Performance With an Ocean View (for a Dog) (Kokkonnen, 2008), I argue that these works illustrate three emergent effects of performing with animals: challenging a binary and exclusionary view of co-presence in performance; determining a modification of the performer’s interaction with a non- human animal audience; reversing the humanization of the animal, by rehearsing an animalization of human agency.