PREHISTORIC BODY THEATER
Prehistoric Body Theater (PBT) 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 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.
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 who share a passion for nature conservation, education, and experimental performance-making. Since 2020, we have been living together in a collective studio called "Sarang Prehistoric" or "Prehistoric Nest," located at the historic Lemah Putih Jungle Park in Surakarta, Central Java, Indonesia.
Who Are We?
66 million years ago, an asteroid hit the Earth with the force of a billion atomic bombs. The ensuing global mass extinction event marks the end of the reign of the dinosaurs and the dawn of the age of mammals. Ghosts of Hell Creek tells the story of Acheroraptor, the last feathered raptor dinosaur to prowl the Hell Creek jungles of prehistoric Montana 66 million years ago, before its annihilation in the wake of the apocalyptic asteroid impact. The work then celebrates the miraculous survival of humanity’s ancient primate ancestor Purgatorius, who rose from the ashes and thrived on the first fruit as the world was born anew.
Ghosts of Hell Creek is Prehistoric Body Theater’s first mainstage dance-theater production, crafted like a mesmerizing clay-textured diorama, activated by full-body clay costumery, intricate lighting, and an immersive soundtrack undulating with experimental gamelan motifs.
The work has been under development through evolutionary iterations since 2017. We are excited to announce that we’ve completed a new film adaptation of the work, Ghosts of Hell Creek: primitive streak, created during the pandemic through an intensive residency at our “Nest” headquarters, and shot at the Art Institute of Indonesia Surakarta’s Large Theater. The international live touring version of Ghosts of Hell Creek is deep in development, keep tuned for updates!
Prehistoric Body Theater’s second mainstage performance A Song for Sangiran 17, is a work in honor of the ancient Homo erectus peoples who lived in Java one million years ago, known from the Sangiran fossil site just 30 minutes north of Prehistoric Body Theater’s “Nest” basecamp house. Sangiran 17 is the most complete skull found at the site, and from this fossil we can reconstruct their face and brain case. The Sangiran people were among the first in the world to use fire and simple stone tools, and mark the dawn of humanity’s consciousness.
A Song for Sangiran 17 was first commissioned by curator by Melato Suryodarmo for Indonesia Bertutur Festival, and was performed on September 8, 2022, on a constructed stage at Borobudur Temple, Central Java, Indonesia. Keep tuned for updates on future performance iterations!
CALENDAR
