Terra: Bodies and Territories (2025)

Project Overview

TERRA: Bodies & Territories represents in my work a culmination of many themes which I have explored over the last five years: site specificity, engagement with the natural world as a source of inspiration and co-equal creator, use of off-grid sound recording and reproduction technologies, and improvisation and adaptability as key thematic elements. TERRA is a work of experimental dance theatre, created by choregrapher Silvana Cardell. I was brought in as the composer and sound designer of the piece given my prior experiences in creating site responsive installations and compositions that engage with the more than human world. The core artistic production also included visual artist Sarah Kavage, who designed installations and props from materials gathered directly at the performance site, costume designer Vasi Zivanic, and theater director Blanka Zizka, who served as dramaturge, collaborating closely with Silvana Cardell on the work’s dramatic structure.

The piece features a core cast of seven women/femme dancers, and an ensemble of an additional 11 dancers. TERRA was supported by a generous grant from the Pew Center for Arts and Heritage and performed at the Schuylkill Center for Environmental Education in Northwest Philadelphia.

The project’s webpage, hosted by the Schuylkill Center, describes the conceptual framework, connectedness to the land and the collaborative essence of the piece:

“…TERRA activates the land as a living laboratory and stage. This immersive, multi-sensory performance is laden in kinetic, theatrical, and sonic experiences of dance, sound and land-based visual art.

Responding to the land’s sloping topography, the piece immerses audiences in an experience where bodies align with the land and human movement and nature merge to reveal our inextricable livelihood and empowerment. The performers will explore the natural setting, moving seamlessly among the trees and using props to create shelters and unveil imaginative landscapes collaboratively.”

Sound Design & Composition

My work as composer, sound designer, and sound engineer on Terra was driven by the goal of creating a sonic experience that accompanies the choreography, one that is simultaneously deeply immersive and completely integrated with the natural environment of the performance space. Achieving this goal required both compositional and technological approaches that dissolve the boundaries between performance and place. Through months of field recording, production, rehearsal, and experimentation, I developed an integrated creative methodology that combines ecological listening and off-grid audio design to create sonic experiences inseparable from their environment.

The compositional approach centered on deep listening and response to the site’s existing sonic ecology. The sonic foundation of Terra was created from an extensive field recording library, captured using ambisonic, contact, stereo, and hydrophone microphones throughout the forest site. These raw materials—birdsong, wind, water movement, rock textures, and human footsteps—were transformed through Ableton Live and Max for Live into percussive, textural, and melodic elements that formed both composed cues and live-performed gestures using MPE controllers. The resulting score weaves seamlessly with live environmental sounds: bird calls, rustling branches, distant train horns, and highway drones become integral compositional elements rather than interference.

The sound system design was conceived not as a neutral delivery mechanism, but as an extension of this ecological philosophy. Creating a powerful, definition-rich system running entirely on rechargeable batteries wasn’t just a technical challenge—it was an artistic necessity. By combining conventional PA speakers with Isobel Audio’s omnidirectional hemispheric speakers, I achieved spatial immersion that existed within, rather than overpowering the forest environment. Buried contact microphones created direct sonic connections between dancers’ movements and the earth itself, making the ground a literal instrument of the performance.