ANIMA

The anima, a concept developed by Carl Jung, is an archetypal figure playfully flitting at the edges of the male psyche. Anima translates from Latin into "soul, spirit," making it the animating substance of the unconscious. It is referential to the psychic life of man's unconscious and primordial behaviors. Throughout history, she has been personified in myth and folktales as various beings such as the mermaid, witch, wraith, or succubus. In waking life, the feminine form is the embodiment of the anima, which gives man a figure to project onto. Depending on the observer's perspective, this psychological projection can be therapeutic or problematic. The creative research for this project was situated on being a female-identifying individual and navigating identity under this projection from the male gaze.

Understanding Archetypal Figures in ANIMA

The work is a ritual-focused performance that offers a continuous flow of movement with processional elements between the four set pieces. The following describes some archetypes presented for artistic and emotive guidance when structuring the project. However, it is not a finite list of the possibilities of what each piece portrays.

Fabric Piece

Archetypal Figure: Priestess/moon or water-associated goddesses/matriarchal figures (Oshun, Freya, Isis, Artemis)

Usually, feminine goddesses/matriarchal figures in myth and folklore have strong connotations of water or the moon. They are further connected to the unconscious and bridge the gap between the physical and spiritual. However, there is an air of unknowingness as they understand something that cannot be entirely revealed and is okay with sitting with that knowledge. The High Priestess of the Rider-Waite-Smith tarot deck traditionally sits before a veil between two pillars with moon and water symbols in the card. The veil inspired the fabric's usage, which physicalizes the Divine Feminine's ability to ground the ephemeral.

Sound Bowls Piece

Archetypal Figure: Mermaids/sirens/water nymphs

These figures are associated with waterways and often with an alluring persona. In some myths, they are related to tempting men to a watery death. This myth provides a more accessible explanation of how men could be "lost at sea" or be found drowned in the local lake because of hearing a melodic voice or seeing a beautiful woman. The Irish mermaid figure of the selkie, who is half human and half seal, further highlights the sexual connotations of the figure. If a man can capture her seal coat, which is usually draped on a rock while she is naked on the shore, that man controls her as she can't return to the water without her seal skin.

Silk Fans Piece

Archetypal Figure: Wraiths/La Lallorna/Banshee

The above-mentioned female spirits fulfilled duties in a patriarchal setting even after death by their wispy presence at the places of their death. Why does a female spirit need to stay behind to cry out for the soon-to-be dead, such as the banshee, or be a potentially malevolent apparition who mourns the loss of a child or spurned lover in the case of La Lallorna? These female apparitions even appear in American pioneer folktales of the Great Plains, with women settlers' staying behind in crumbled structures to mourn. The howls of the wind on the plains are said to be their cries to the ones they had lost in a fire or other disaster.

End Piece

Archetypal Figure: "Dark" feminine goddess/matriarchal figures (Kali, Isis, Morrigan)

From a Western lens informed by patriarchal and Christian thought, the feminine is often associated with Mary, who offers a female figure who is pious, obedient to male control, and without much want or need for her interests. The dark feminine, or the awakened feminine, is considered a figure of doom and witchcraft, as is the case for many goddess figures. For instance, from Christian writings of myths of the Morrigan, a Celtic goddess or triple-aspected goddess in some versions, she/they are thought to be associated with vengeance and war. However, some feminist scholars have repositioned her as an earth and sovereign goddess focused on tribe autonomy.

ANIMA Director/Choreographer

Amber Hongsermeier is an interdisciplinary movement artist, educator, witchy scholar, and dance filmmaker. She received her BA in Dance with a history minor from the University of Nebraska at Lincoln, where she was awarded the Porter Award for Creativity in Dance. In 2021, she earned her MFA in Dance from Rutgers University with her thesis work entitled “Accessing Individual Divinity: Inquiry into Embodied Self-Actualization through Movement by Investigating Cartesian Dualism and Western Christian Narratives.”

Her varied educational and performance background consists of commercial, concert, and vernacular dance forms, which gives a nuanced understanding of aesthetics and the high-brow and low-brow narratives built around these forms. She has performed works by Susan Ourada, Kayvon Pourazar, Blanca Huertas-Agnew, Jody Sperling, Pavel Zustiak, and Jessica Bostock. Her choreographic work for stage and film has been shown in Nebraska, Iowa, Washington, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Japan. In her creative and scholarly work, she uses frameworks from cultural anthropology, Jungian psychology, religious studies, and somatics to reflexively look at Western society, especially concerning the body, spirituality, and movement, through a praxis-based approach.

Currently, she resides in South Jersey/Philadelphia, where she works as a full-time dance professional and part-time tarot reader.

ANIMA Collaborators

Erica Densmore is a Philadelphia based dancer and choreographer. For undergrad she attended Penn State University where she received her Bachelor's in Arts in Dance and Integrative Art. Erica's work focuses on contemporary dance with influences from styles within the African Diaspora. She has worked within the styles of jazz, hiphop, heels, ballet, modern, and other commercial genres. Most recently, Erica performed with The Chocolate Ballerina Company in their premier performance of Black Swan: A Swan Lake Premier. In addition to performance, Erica has 6+ years of teaching experience. In the Spring of 2024 Erica will receive her Master's in Fine Arts from Temple University.

Angeline DiGiugno received her BFA in dance from Temple University in 2016. She received training in jazz, modern, ballet, pointe, and lyrical prior to graduating high school. At Temple, she furthered her modern technique under artists including Jillian Harris, Kun-Yung Lin, Marion Ramirez, Eun Jung Choi, Dara Meredith, and Molly Shanahan, and furthered her ballet training with Laura Katz Rizzo. While pursuing her dance career as a ballet teacher and modern dancer, she also pursued her passion for science by continuing her education at Kutztown University and received a BS in Environmental Biology in 2019. At KU, Angeline combined her interests to choreograph ‘Anthropocene’, a modern dance shedding light on climate change and human influence. Angeline is currently a microbiologist seeking and creating opportunities to dance for others or for herself. Her endeavors include improving her skills as an environmentalist along with developing and presenting ‘Anthropocene’ to continue spreading awareness about the climate crisis.

Karly Meehan is a Chicago native who obtained her BFA in Dance Performance and Choreography from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. While attending, she had the privilege of performing lead roles in two works from the Erick Hawkins repertoire, "New Moon" and "Early Floating". Since graduating, Karly has been invited back to UNLV as a guest choreographer in two shows for the Performing Arts Department, as well as worked alongside Cirque du Soleil and Academy of Villains. Two of her works have been featured in the Inaside Dance Chicago choreography competition and the Inspired Dance Australia Film Festival. In 2022, she developed her own dance program for the Salcianu Elite Academy of Gymnastics, managing classes, teaching, and scheduling. Karly is currently based in Philadelphia as a teaching artist with BalletX's Dance eXchange, teaching at Movements in Motion Inc., and attending Temple University where she will gain her MFA in Dance.

Ellen Miller is a dancer based in South Philadelphia. With a background primarily in ballet and modern, she has performed works by Jacquelyn Ralls-Forcher, Lacie Sereika, Ian Forcher, and Christina Castro-Tauser. Ellen has danced locally with International Ballet Exchange and trained with International Ballet Exchange/ Wissahickon Dance Academy, SHARP Dance Company, and Amy Novinski Ballet. Prior to moving to Philadelphia she was a company dancer with Momentum Dance Company, a resident company of the Irving Arts Center in Irving, TX, under the direction of Jacquelyn Ralls-Forcher. Anima is her first performance as part of Fringe Festival.

Hannah Misangyi grew up in State College, PA where she trained in ballet and modern dance at The Performing Arts School of Central Pennsylvania. She graduated from Haverford College in 2019, and while she was there trained in dance at Bryn Mawr College, and founded Shift Dance company, a collegiate contemporary dance performance company. Hannah is currently a fifth grade teacher at Tilden Middle School in Philadelphia, but still passionate about dancing and performing. She currently is a member of The Trestle Inn’s mod go go performance troupe, and is also trains and performers pole dance. She is excited to be part of Anima and to perform with this wonderful group of dancers.

Choreographer Context to ANIMA's Creative Research Investigation

My interest in the anima for this project stemmed from being a neurodivergent female and my performance background as an ambient performer in immersive and liminal spaces. As a neurodivergent female, I have had to learn from trial and error how to display more normative mannerisms and behaviors, leading me to analyze and study social situations deeply. The inability to perform neurotypically results in loss of social capital and potential ostracization more frequently for neurodivergent individuals, which have detrimental effects on personal and professional lives. My performance background includes go go dancing, a performance style in nightlife, music festivals, and corporate events that improvisationally blends various vernacular dance styles to different music genres. This makes the performer more included in the event experience than just a spectacle. It has also given me a sense of how some view this style as "less than" or "more sensual" than other forms, such as my modern and ballet performance background when speaking even with dance peers. In both these experiences and my study of psychology and embodied cognition, I understand how peoples' implicit and explicit biases affect situations and a person's long-term success due to how one is perceived under the psychological projection from others, which is highly subjective and emotionally driven.