“The idea is that this has been going on for a very long time, and it will continue after you leave” – Kate Hilliard.  

Like many artists, Kate Hilliard was thrust into existential contemplation during the pandemic in 2020. While on frequent woodland walks near her home in Washago, Ontario, the multi-disciplinary choreographer developed an idea for a fable about the post-apocalyptic regeneration of our planet.  

Over the next two years, that fable – titled Story Creatures – emerged into a seven-hour-long durational dance installation of the same name. On October 25 and 26, Hilliard and a cast of other dance artists will bring the Story Creatures experience to the AGO for the first time.        

In collaboration with artists Jeremy Mimnagh, Miyeko Ferguson, Sean Rees, Chris Malkowski, and presented in partnership with Fall for Dance North, Story Creatures is a seven-hour durational installation, performed in one-hour shifts with a rotating cast. Live from the AGO’s Level 5, the Story Creatures environment includes a score of choreography, interpreted by two dancers and created by coding words to gestures. Their bodies translate a futuristic story, telling of a new beginning after the worst has happened to our planet. The sound environment is an original composition that collages nature and machine while incorporating recordings of the spoken story in six languages.  

Hilliard is an artist working in movement, installation, digital media, and text. Her performances closely examine themes of transformation, and her process invites collaboration. She is currently the Artistic Director of Arts Orillia. 

Before the premiere of Story Creatures at the AGO, Hilliard spoke to Foyer about the installation’s origin story and what visitors can expect from the piece. 

Story Creatures. Photo by Jeremy Mimnagh

Foyer: Story Creatures began as a fable you wrote during the pandemic. Can you tell us more about the fable, and how it emerged into a seven-hour dance installation? 

Hilliard: I wrote Story Creatures in lockdown. It sort of fell out of me. A strange little tale about a beginning after the worst happens to our planet. Perhaps a bedtime story, imagined to quell the anxiety I felt for my children. I kept thinking about my late father sitting in a canoe looking over the water in a forlorn way. He said, “Kate, the tundra is melting and the viruses are waking up. The world doesn’t know what's coming.” This nostalgia led to a kind of meditative practice. One that allowed me to experiment with the ideas that were causing worry. I started coding words to gestures and I performed translations through technologies that frightened me. I walked in the woods a lot in those days. As time passed, I realized I was creating a durational performance - an expression that captured the fragments of my thoughts at a time when everything was suspended. This project is a constellation of ideas about communication, extinction and being a mother.   

Story Creatures. Photo by Jeremy Mimnagh

Can you share some details about the one-hour shifts within the piece? Do they function as chapters? Does each hour feature completely different performers? 

The score loops every 60 minutes, and the cast features two dancers who rotate every two to three hours. Each 60-minute chapter is a window into a post-apocalyptic world where bodies hold a record of the past. The audience will experience a story told through movement that has been coded to the fable itself. This same fable is also told in several languages that are distilled across eight speakers positioned around the room.  

The soundscape is an original composition that incorporates nature, machine and human voice. Can you share the creative process and conceptual intention behind the soundscape? 

The sound was created through a layered process of speeding and slowing events captured in nature. I was inspired by the cicadas that emerged in 2021, called Brood X. My collaborator Sean Rees recorded these insects while also composing an ambient environment. These early field studies and digital sound motifs were then woven together by Sound Designer Jeremy Mimnagh to create an aggregate of moods that blend the natural world with elements of machine belonging to the film experiments that are part of the work.  

Story Creatures. Photo by Jeremy Mimnagh

For visitors attending the gallery on October 25 and 26, do you have any recommendations or insights on how best to engage with Story Creatures?  

Story Creatures aims to create a contemplative space for thinking about the past and future. Some may choose to stay for the duration of an entire loop, which is an hour. Others might choose to meander through the room, particularly in still or quiet moments. There is no beginning, middle, or end. Every chapter is slightly different, just as every rainfall or sunset is different. The idea is that this has been going on for a very long time, and it will continue after you leave.  

Story Creatures happens on October 25 and 26 on Level 5 of the AGO. This performance is free to visitors with the price of admission.