“ANIMAL” is an interdisciplinary dance-based piece that relates movement, sound and image to environment and place. It highlights raw power, energy, beauty and emotion, and celebrates the intuitive animal in all of us. It is a living breathing piece of art that has been enjoyed by all ages.
Developmental process
ANIMAL was created over a two year developmental process, including 15 public performance drafts in various locations with varying casts, costumes, and technical elements. Including two outdoor performances: “Snow ANIMAL” at Goddard College, Plainfield, VT, February, 2014, and “Hubbard Park” at Montpelier, VT, June, 2014. See both videos on the right.
Final Stage performance
The staged work is a 50-minute multimedia piece which premiered in April 2015 at Spruce Peak Arts in Stowe, VT, and described as an “Experiential odyssey of emotion.”
The stage premiere can be viewed on the right of this page or here.
Excerpts can be watched here: excerpt 1, excerpt 2, excerpt 3, excerpt 4, excerpt 5, excerpt 6, excerpt 7, excerpt 8, excerpt 9.
Review
Jim Lowe, Arts Writer for the Times Argus, who has been following ANIMAL since its inception, wrote multiple articles on this project, among which “Creating Dance“, “Satterlee’s ‘Animal’ has an emotional bite” “Hanna Satterlee’s ‘Animal’: Seeking our instinctive selves“, and “Dance Review: ‘Animal’ evokes nature’s power in debut“. He wrote:
“Hanna Satterlee’s ‘Animal’ may be abstract but it has the emotional power of heartfelt storytelling… What separates Satterlee’s work from much original work in all the arts is a simultaneous devotion to excellence and the idea itself resulting in a clear and unfettered sense of conviction.” March 2014
“Satterlee brought her powerful ‘Animal’ even closer to nature, adding a bow to evolution. New is the real nature video backdrop and nature sounds by Lukas Huffman, and the number of dancers has grown from four to 10… The generic animals mate, fight for dominance, hunt and play, often in sudden but graceful movement. There is a march from feral animal to human. All underscores humanity’s connection to the animal world. It was compelling and beautiful.” September 2015
