Shows for Futures. Review by Deborah Hazler
On October 3, 2025, I went to the performance Constellation #4 – Shows for Futures by Animalarium Dance Collective. I don’t go to performances that often anymore and, honestly, I only went to support my friends and colleagues.
The idea of using systemic constellation work in a performance had my eyes rolling a bit beforehand and I was actually prepared to be disappointed about going to the theater – that’s how I am: a cynical skeptic that still shows up to support my artist friends.
I am, however, also someone that can own up to being completely wrong about my judgmental opinions and this work proved to me how wrong I can be.
Constellation #4 – Shows for Futures reminded me of how powerful dance, performance, movement can be, how it can be rooted in the urgencies of the world in a profound way and how it can be exciting, educational, fun and emotional – all at the same time.
I’m trying to understand what made this piece so special: there is no real stage set, no music, the costumes and light are forgettable, but what there is, is one host who guides the audience and the other 3 performers on a journey that is set up as a game, or a game that is set up as a journey. The performers are asked to stand in for some of the big, some of the quite scary topics of this world as well as some historically or locally specific topics (in our case, i.e.: capitalism, the Habsburgs, artificial intelligence, the Danube) and relate to one another, with out in fact knowing what they are standing in for. Their relationships are built up through improvisation of dance, movement, sounds, made up songs but also conversations and it is in these bizarre and funny interactions that I am able to grasp a bit better, almost on a visceral level, how entangled the past, the present and the future are. How nothing is independent from anything else. How this world we are living in, how the animals, plants, buildings, systemic structures are all interconnected. How all personal decisions and thoughts are also dependent on what is happening in the world. And despite our humans big role in the demise of our planet, how we might still be able to hold on to some glimmers of hope.
The work that Animalarium Dance Collective has put into their research on climate injustices and capitalist systems and their impact on indigenous and rural communities in the Norwegian Sápmi and Sweden respectively is felt; not only in the performance but also in the artist talk I was able to attend afterwards. The artists’ reflections on colonization, the sharing of the hopes, dreams and worries from different people and different communities that they have worked with in order to build the performance, their multi-lingual approach and their attentiveness of the audience left me feeling inspired and a bit in awe that there are people working with such care in dance and performance. Perhaps this is not even so rare and I simply need to go to more shows.