The Case for Invagination #3 is an interdisciplinary solo with improvised dance, puppets, and clowning. This third version of the piece includes monologues performed by Bindler’s belly button and scars who ask big questions about consent, trauma, and existential loneliness, to comedic effect.

“I might be vestigial, but I still deserve respect.” –Belly Button

“I was put together by Dr. Kelly and Dr. Mehta. They used two different suture techniques, which is why I look so different from the right to the left. My middle is just kind of a splotch.” –Knee Scar

“Someone recently said about me, ‘I couldn’t tell if that was a scar or a funny wrinkle.’ And actually, that really offended me because I’m not just a funny wrinkle.” –Neck Scar

The concept arose out of Bindler’s Body-Mind Centering® research on the embryology of the genitalia from a nonbinary perspective. She has toured workshops on the topic internationally and wrote articles about it for Contact Quarterly and the Journal of Dance & Somatic Practices.

The Case for Invagination #3 addresses one particular aspect of the somatic material, the practice of allowing space/situations/people to invite us in, rather than injecting ourselves into spaces. This practice has social and political implications around embodying consent culture and as an antidote to the ways many of us have internalized capitalism and colonialism.

An invagination is a fold, a concavity, a feminist reimagining of space, not necessarily correlated with the anatomical vagina. Bindler makes her case: Why invaginate?? 1) Feels good. 2) Try something new? 3) Your cells will love it! 4) Intussuscept the patriarchy.

For more information about this performance, please see this thINKingDANCE review by Leslie Bush: https://thinkingdance.net/articles/2019/11/02/Single-Thing-Infinite-Folds

Showtimes

Health & Safety

Proof of vaccination is required to attend this and all Cannonball Festival events. For the safety of audiences, artists, staff, and our greater community, you must be fully vaccinated to attend this event. Fully vaccinated means two weeks after your second dose. You will be asked to show proof of vaccination before entering the venue. Accepted forms for proof of vaccination include: a physical vaccine card with your name on it or a digital photo of your vaccine card on a cell phone. Please plan accordingly.

Masks must also be worn for the duration of the performance.

Credits

Created and performed by Nicole Bindler

Directed by Mark Kennedy

Music by Dustin Slaughter

This show is presented as part of Cannonball Festival, an independent satellite festival produced by Almanac Dance Circus Theatre and the Maas Building featuring over 150 events including performances of 27 original shows, nightly cabarets, and more. Learn more at cannonballfestival.org.

Content Considerations

Appropriate for Ages 18+

About the Artists

Nicole Bindler is a dance-maker, Body-Mind Centering® practitioner, writer, and activist. She has been presented at festivals, conferences, and intensives throughout the U.S., Canada, Argentina, and Europe, and in Tokyo, Beirut, Bethlehem, Mexico City, and Quito. Recent projects include teaching about consent culture and disability justice in contact improvisation; somatic research on the embryology of the genitalia from a non-binary perspective; collaborations with Diyar Theatre in Bethlehem, Palestine; and presentations at the Future of CI Conference and the BMCA Online Somatic Symposium about rebuilding in-person dance and somatics communities in ways that tangibly address the inequities laid bare by the pandemic.