ANIMA

Overview

The anima is an archetypal figure playfully flitting at the edges of the male’s unconscious self and referencing the psychic life of man. ‘ANIMA’ researches the physical embodiment of the feminine shaped under the male gaze within contemporary patriarchal structures. This cast of female-identifying collaborators explores the psychosomatic expression of the divine feminine incarnate, oscillating between sensual, soulful, animating, and underlying. Utilizing a praxis-based approach to the movement inspired by feminine archetypal images, ‘ANIMA’ conjures itself from man’s psyche to become a reality.

Mythical figures, alchemy, ancestral knowledge, and the corporeality of the human experience exemplify the chthonic nature placed on the feminine that is lacking within Western culture’s masculine. Swaths of fabric, singing bowls, flow art apparatuses, and light projection heighten the experience and observance of ritual performance. ‘ANIMA’ reveres and consecrates the feminine into consciousness by extricating itself from the primordial projections of the male unconscious.

About the Artist

Amber Hongsermeier is a neurodivergent movement artist, educator, and dance filmmaker. She received her BA in Dance with a history minor from the University of Nebraska at Lincoln, where she was awarded the Porter Award for Creativity in Dance. In 2021, she earned her MFA in Dance from Rutgers University. Her educational and performance background includes commercial, concert, and vernacular dance forms. She has performed works by Susan Ourada, Kayvon Pourazar, Blanca Huertas-Agnew, Jody Sperling, Pavel Zustiak, and Jessica Bostock. Her choreographic work for stage and film has been shown nationally and internationally. Her creative and scholarly work uses frameworks from cultural anthropology, Jungian psychology, religious studies, and somatics to reflexively look at Western society, especially concerning the body, spirituality, and embodiment. She works as a full-time dance professional and part-time tarot reader in the NJ/PA area.⁣

Credits