From Summer 2019 to Winter 2022, Stephanie undertook a three-and-a-half-year embodied inquiry across the ten major biomes of North America. Living and dancing as remotely as possible, she immersed herself within each biome for four to six weeks, investigating how movement improvisation, somatic inquiry, creative practice, and ecological encounter disclose different ways of sensing, perceiving, moving, relating, and knowing with the more-than-human world.
Embodied Inquiry Across the Biomes
This short film introduces the questions, practices, and ecological encounters that shaped Stephanie’s three-and-a-half-year inquiry across the ten major biomes of North America and became the foundation for Dancing the Biomes.
Following each biome, Stephanie attended artist residencies where she transformed her field experiences into dance films, photography, and reflective essays. Rather than simply documenting the landscapes, these creative works became part of the inquiry itself, helping illuminate the distinct somatic, creative, and philosophical insights that emerged through each ecological community.
Together, the ten biomes became the foundation for an ongoing exploration of embodiment, environmental ethics, creativity, and more-than-human relationships—an inquiry that eventually evolved into Dancing the Biomes, an eco-embodied undergraduate curriculum, and Stephanie’s doctoral research. Each biome invited a distinct mode of encounter and revealed different ecological, creative, and ethical questions.
Deciduous Forest Biome
Lake Biome
Tundra Biome
Swamp biome
Grasslands Biome
River Biome
Desert Biome
Temperate Rainforest Biome
Boreal Forest Biome
Marine/Reef Biome