► JULY 8 2023 / DANCING ON THE EDGE
The Dance Centre, Vancouver BC
► NOVEMBER 7 2024, 6pm & 8pm / FLUID FESTIVAL
Contemporary Calgary, AB
► SEPTEMBER 20 2025, LUNA ARTS FESTIVAL
Revelstoke, BC
► OCTOBER 11 2025, Nuit Blanche
Kelowna, BC

Meta/fauna presents two shape-shifting creatures evolving in their ephemeral habitat. It portrays ever-changing landscapes, large animals hybridizing with fossilized plants, bleached corals, metallic structures, bones, and the ghosts of those who have disappeared. Meta/fauna invites the audience to witness cycles of evolution, transformation and extinction through movement, design, light and sound. 

Inspired by the writings of feminist cyborg Donna Haraway and extinction biologist Ben Kessler, we question the dichotomies between humans and other species, nature and culture. How can we move sensitively on damaged land? How do we orient through constant transmutations? With bodies composed of a multitude of “other” organisms (fungi, viruses, microbes), how do we blur the boundaries of the self? How can we embody the hugeness of geologic time?

” This performance is a tour-de-force of world-making, taking an enraptured audience deep into time, in a place both familiar and magically transformative where powerful creatures awaken and transform before our eyes. With a rich and resonant soundtrack, evoking organic emergence and guttural calls, two dancers emerge from the darkness, a kind of cave-like realm, with a combination of smooth acrobatic movements and almost uncanny motions that intrigue. They conjure a realm in which living beings emerge and morph, interact and evolve, a dark place where brittle-sounding and almost glowingly white bones are central to a quickly-shifting landscape. Utterly captivating from the first evocative moments to the last scene, Meta/fauna evokes our deep history as creatures of fantastic evolutionary pasts, and re-orients us towards our wild kinship with mysterious forms of life that include ourselves.” – Michael Hathaway, Cultural Anthropologist & Author of What a Mushroom Lives For

“This will haunt me for a long time”

” Such a FANTASTIC performance! Spell-binding.”

Concept Isabelle Kirouac
Performers Isabelle Kirouac, Levana Prud’homme
Choreographer Delia Brett
Costume & Object Designer Tamara Unroe
Composer Stefan Smulovitz/Christopher Kelly
Lighting Design Jamie Sweeney
Photography Luciana D’Anunciacao
Videography Lara Amelie Abadir & Nico Dicecco

Listen to an interview at Radio-Canada with Isabelle Kirouac about Meta/fauna here.
Read an article here.

We are grateful for the generous support of Canada Council for the Arts, the Dance Centre, the Shadbolt Arts Centre, the Moberly Arts Centre and École des Pionniers.