Prehistoric Body Theater

Prehistoric Body Theater (www.prehistoricbody.org) creates deep-time animal dance, bringing an embodied celebration of humanity’s shared evolutionary ancestry to the stage and screen.  We are an emerging collective experimental performance company based at our live-work studio The Nest, in Central Java, Indonesia.  Our work synergizes a unique combination of Indonesian traditional performance and cultural knowledge, cutting-edge stagecraft, and a deeply inspired exploration into the science of natural history with an international panel of mentor paleontologists.  Our work seamlessly merges fine art and science education.

American interdisciplinary artistic director Ari Dharminalan Rudenko has been rooted in Indonesia for over a decade, and since 2017 has been co-creating PBT with an all-Indonesian ensemble of young traditional dancers and a team of mentor scientists.  Ari is a current PhD candidate in dance creation studies at the At Institute of Indonesia Surakarta.