Performance Archive
Photo: Rosie Simmons
Psychic Predator
Presented by Cannonball Festival and Philadelphia FringeArts Festival September 3-18, 2023
My rules for making art: Have an idea. Doubt it. Fear it. Make something. Cry. Repeat. Psychic Predator is a solo, interactive, improvised dance performance for five audience members that embodies the internalized voice that suppresses our creativity. Come help me turn the prey into the predator.
Psychic Predator is a term coined and explored by Dr. Clarissa Pinkola Estes in her seminal work, “Women Who Run With Wolves.” She teaches us that the “psychic predator” is an internalized dark force that suppresses our instincts and creativity. What does the “psychic predator” or the shadowy internalization of the “inner critic” look like for you? What do you do to overcome, skirt around, or ward off your psychic predator? Audiences are invited to write down words about their inner critics, to apply colors to the predator’s costume, and to create spaces of rest, creativity, and comfort while witnessing the predator’s dance. Together, through small acts of creation, we will empower our instincts and creativity to ward off the psychic predator.
My psychic predator stalks; it hides in the shadows of my mind, ready to pounce as I start getting vulnerable. Can you relate?
Come help me turn the prey (that’s me) into the predator (also me.)
Psychic Predator is a rest stop on my ongoing road trip through CREATURE research. While my offering for last year’s Fringe Festival was an exploration of sensation, stillness, and meditative movement; this year’s offering is prickly, sharp, with retractible claws. It emerged from reading and movement research, where I have explored animalistic behaviors of both prey and predator as a way to shift my heart and animal body away from self doubt. What better way to ward off the “psychic predator” than to get creative with it!
Creature: A Movement Meditation
Presented by the Digital FringeArts Festival September 1-30, 2022
A short dance film and an invitation to move: this creature draws you out, barefoot, into wet grass, squidgy mud, running water. Let your feet, then your body, respond to the feel: sliding, squishing, flowing. Open the door to your inner animal and respond to the sensations, to the textures, to your instincts.
Creature: A Movement Meditation is a digital dance offering that invites participants to join me in a guided movement practice to get in touch with the animal within. Participants are welcome to view the dance film from the comfort of their homes or to bring their devices “on the go” to experience it in nature. engage fully in the experiential component. This offering is framed as a solo-experience, but participants may “bring a buddy” if they’d benefit from a communal experience. Choose your own adventure.
If participants enjoy the movement meditation and want to share your experiences with a broader community of creatures, the final invitation is to repeat and record a small version of the movement meditation. This can be shared via instagram by tagging @kkingsfordsmith, on facebook by tagging Kalila Kingsford Smith Dance.
Below are some supplemental materials: an audio only version of the video which includes audio description of the movement, a transcript of the instructions, a link to the video with audio description, and a contact form where you can send your video in a dropbox or google drive link. Please mention if you would like me not to share your video on my social media.
“The work moves into boundless possibility when guided through imaginative practice and navigated through somatic inquiry. I breathe a little deeper; I wonder when the leaves will fall; I sigh, and the wind picks it up.” – Jorgie Ingram, The Dance Journal
Movement Instructions:
I invite you to step out into the natural world. Find a tree, some grass, a rock, some dirt, a stream. Begin with a deep breath. Check in with your body. Arrive in this moment, in this place. Begin to feel your environment. Sense the heat from the sun on your skin. Feel the breeze, the humidity, the shade. Bask in your environment.
If you feel comfortable, remove your shoes. With bare feet, start to feel the ground you stand on. Notice its textures, its heat. Is it prickly, is it smooth? Is it squidgy, or is it firm? How do you want to move in relationship to this surface.
Here you are. Sensing your environment, feeling with your feet. Tap into the animal within you. What creature is this? How does this creature want to move? Let this creature emerge and begin to move you.
When your instinct tells you to stop moving, come to stillness. Breathe deep. Check in with your body. How does the creature within feel? Thank it for joining you in movement today. Thank you for joining me in movement today.
Kalila Kingsford Smith Dance 