Bones 

'The magic of beasts belongs to the wild sorcerers who are part human, part spirit, part animal; the ones who dance the knife's edge between the worlds of life and death, the incarnate and discarnate' — Sarah Anne Lawless in Serpent Songs

Bones was a collective exploring creative responses to the planetary emergency through ritual, physical theatre, movement, myth and grief.

The project emerged at the intersection of non-violent direct action, activism, ritual and performance — a need to bring the spirit of the disappearing wilderness and its inhabitants into the city through a relationship with animal bones and the spirit of feral creatures.

It began on Dartmoor with a small group of activists and artists, working on the land with animal skulls and bones. From there, a performance was created and developed that was offered as part of Extinction Rebellion's October Rebellion, and the collective participated in the 20–30,000 strong Grief March through central London. Further work was developed for Extinction Underground at Vault Festival, and a residency at the Dance Research Studio had been planned to deepen the research and practice before Covid-19 intervened.

The intention behind working with ritual, physical theatre and animal bones was to create a space to honour the many lives, species, creatures, humans, insects, mammals and plants that have been and will be lost to climate breakdown and the destruction of ecosystems and biodiversity — a humble offering to begin to come to terms with what this loss means.

Through site-specific works and non-traditional theatre spaces, the project sought to reach a wide range of audiences: those who came expecting to witness the work, and those who did not.

At its heart, Bones aimed to reach into hearts and disrupt the apathy surrounding the climate and ecological emergency — supporting people to connect with the loss of life through meeting a very real representation of death: bones.