Waves as a hydro-choreographic material in the hydrocene

The Hydrocene is the watery epoch that I propose to name the tide of art going into the blue in response to the climate crisis. In this essay I analyse and argue for the potential significance of waves as hydrochoreographic materials in eco-critical performance practices. I look to the work of Swedish based artist-choreographer Pontus Pettersson in his expansive and watery body of work All Departures are Waves (2018-) and British based artist, dancer and choreographer Temitope Ajose-Cutting in her video work How to Move Like the Ocean (Liquefaction, Lubrication & Expansion in Twelve Easy Steps) (2019). I relate Pettersson’s queering of water practices to theorist Stefan Helmreich work in The Gender of Waves. Further I look to the wave as a hydro-choreographic offering in the Hydrocene and point to the potentiality of the wave as a queer and disruptive force in contemporary eco-critical performance practices.