CIVICUS speaks with Nicola Haskins, a choreographer, dancer and lecturer at South Africa’s Tshwane University of Technology Performing Arts Dance Stream, about her approach to climate activism through the arts.

Artivism combines art and activism to address social issues, using creative expression as a tool to inspire change. Art helps stimulate reflection, raise awareness, foster empathy and inspire action. In Africa’s diverse cultural landscape, artivism plays an important role in drawing attention to pressing issues such as climate change, human rights and social justice.

What’s the focus of your activism?

Having long used dance as a medium for storytelling, I’ve recently turned to dance as a way to address climate change by focusing on the deep connection between humans and the more-than-human world. Climate change is a cause close to my heart, and I hope my work can inspire positive change, even in small ways.

It is a huge challenge to make the climate crisis feel immediate and personal. Climate change is often perceived as something distant that happens somewhere else. I try to bring it closer to home by involving the audience in direct sensory experiences of the environment. To do this, I develop choreographic dance theatre productions.

What makes art a powerful tool for activism?

Art can be a catalyst for change by creating shared, embodied experiences that connect people to pressing social and political issues.

Art, and dance in particular, has the power to evoke empathy and communicate beyond the limits of words. It can transform abstract realities into tangible, felt experiences. Movement is the essence of life: from the beating of our hearts to the flow of our breath, it’s what keeps us alive. It’s how we express ourselves as human beings, emotionally, physically and spiritually. Movement is how we engage with the world, communicate and adapt to our changing environment. Movement is not only essential for survival; it’s fundamental to how we experience and shape the world.

Dance is not just a form of aesthetics; it’s a political act that can catalyse personal and collective change by inspiring empathy, raising awareness, shifting perspectives, deepening our connection to the world around us and inspiring movement towards a more compassionate and sustainable future.

How do you combine art and activism in your work?

I combine art and activism by creating dance performances that embody the complex relationship between humans and the world, based on the idea that we live in the world and are a part of it. I engage audiences on a sensory level, offering them a direct, embodied experience of often abstract environmental issues.

For example, in my latest production, Weathered, I symbolise the symbiotic relationship between our internal states and the external world. This immersive dance theatre production delves into the profound impacts of climate change on both humanity and the earth. It advocates for climate justice by highlighting the relentless exploitation and encroachment of human activities on the natural world, leading to its gradual erosion. It blends expressive dance, captivating visuals, videography and storytelling to raise awareness, evoke emotions and inspire action.

The performance brings to life the interconnectedness of human relationships and weather states. Dancers embody the physical and emotional turmoil experienced by couples as they navigate storms, droughts, floods and desolation within their own bodies and minds. Personal narratives are paralleled with environmental phenomena, emphasising the inseparable bond between human experiences and the state of the planet.

By focusing on severe droughts in South Africa, I bring the audience into a space where they can feel the desperation of communities struggling without access to water. Thanks to art, climate change stops being a distant issue. It becomes personal, immediate and visceral.

In a previous work, Displaced, which focused on cheetah conservation in South Africa, I tried to raise awareness of the challenges facing these animals. Many of the cast and audience were unaware of this, even though they were South Africans. I don’t claim my work alone has brought about change, but I think it can spark micro-changes that contribute to the wider movement.