Break in Case of Change in Perspective
Gurnee, IL
2023, Senior, Performing Arts
Climate Hero: Arzucan Askin
Reflection
Reflection
This project was probably my most favorite - I loved the range of creativity I was given and had a lot of fun developing a story in my routine. When trying to think of what I could do, I remembered a Ted Talk we watched in Science class a few months prior. It was about how the power of dance can be used to address climate change. The speaker was a woman named Arzucan Askin. She is a climate activist, conservation scientist, animal geographer, National Geographic Explorer, and technical diver. Some of the most important points to me in her Ted Talk were that dancing is natural to us humans, making it universal. Dance is a shared form of nonverbal communication that cannot be affected by language barriers or cultural barriers. She says this is powerful because it allows for issues to be advocated for universally and be understood. I decided to create this work because I wanted to convey the complexity that understanding climate issues can sometimes come with and how they can be overcome using dance as a universal language. I hope viewers will feel more prepared to combat climate change and understand that it is okay to feel unsure or angry because they are natural feelings and reactions, and now they can work to inspire others, perhaps even through the universal language of dance.