FLAMINGO MURMURATION was a one-day performance piece/experience where fifty-five volunteer participants from around the UMass Amherst and Connecticut River Valley community wore flamingo pool floats and created birdlike formations on the campus lawn on September 17, 2022.

This piece is an extension of my practice as a scenic designer and my interest in the interdependent movement of bodies in space. There can be various motivations for movement within a group, and this iteration of FLAMINGO MURMURATION relied on prompt-based improvisation with some choreographed elements. Inspired by the natural phenomenon of starling murmuration where massive flocks of starlings move as one in response to environmental perturbations, this comical format was a magnifying lens for loosely choreographed human movement. From the outside, observers could witness the gradual building of group attunement which developed on the lawn over the course of two hours. From the inside, participants enjoyed a low stakes opportunity to perform, imitate, and express, and to experience communal awe.

The piece also aspired to bring theater to a new audience, and it did so through scale and a centrally accessible location. The “uninvited” audience of people who do not typically seek out theater shows tuned in from nearby buildings and walkways.

I am grateful especially to two student collaborators for making this possible: Rudy Ramirez: MFA’23, and Fleur Kuhta: BA’23