VINES is an ecosomatic practice and performance created by Melanie Kloetzel. Using state-based, improvisational and durational approaches, the work explores how the human body can corporeally adapt to urban spaces by rigorously embodying growth patterns from climbing plants.
In dialogue with Indigenous concepts of relationality, VINES considers what it might mean to identify with plants as kin. Specifically, through an investigation into the growth-oriented movement patterns of vining or climbing plants, the VINES process offers a rigorous and ethical framework for considering the translation of more-than-human movement vocabulary into the human body. In this way, the process helps us consider whether an embodied translational approach can engender a sense of kinesthetic empathy with our more-than-human kin.
The work has enjoyed research development in both Toronto and Calgary with support from Canada Council for the Arts. VINES has been performed at Contemporary Calgary Art Gallery as part of Fluid Fest in 2024 and in 2025 as part of the New Works Calgary season in collaboration with a live presentation of Emilie Lebel’s ‘field studies’ performed by the UltraViolet Ensemble. The performances of VINES develop in dialogue with local casts and local spaces – each performance is generated by Kloetzel working with local dancers and/or dance-curious folks who immerse themselves in the VINES practice; each performance is also created in deep dialogue with the land and the caretakers of the land.
