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Here with the Tallgrass

Thesis IV Concert University of Iowa
Hickory Hill Park, Iowa City
April 12, 6pm 2025​

DANCERS
Fabiola Castaneda-Santiago as Rhudbeckia hirta
Gariana Clinton-Nelson as Cirsium discolor
Jackie Fuentes as Daucus carota

Ally Meinders as Erigeron annuus
Emily Pyburn as Solidago canadensis
Trinity Woody as Verbena hastata

THESIS COMMITTEE
Tony Orrico
Stephanie Miracle
Eric Gidal
 
DRAMATURG
Lauren Linder


COSTUMES
Juliana Waechter

Here with the Tallgrass is a thesis performance that interrelates the disciplines of botany and dance. Utilizing the structure of a botanical field survey as a choreographic structure, the work uses embodied language as a way of documenting plant observations. Taking place in Hickory Hill Park, the performance moved through three different restored Tallgrass Prairies. Throughout this investigation, processes of dancing as, with, and for plant life emerged. These strategies intermingled and coexisted throughout the work as dancers replicated plant shapes in their bodies to identify plants through dance, moved alongside plant species in response to the environment, and welcomed an audience to the space. The work and process was grounded in a sense of deepening our connections to the living world as we move through the climate collapse. 

© 2026 by Sophia McLaughlin

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