Choreographic Research
Season of the Magpies
What does it mean to listen like a magpie?
Season of the Magpies is a long-form research project situated at the intersection of choreography, acoustic ecology, and avian behaviour. It asks: what can the social and sonic intelligence of corvid birds — their mimicry, their mourning rituals, their collective attention — teach us about how bodies move through and with the world?
The work grows out of Communing with the Mundane, extending its inquiry into non-human presences and the ethics of listening. Where Communing turned toward the domestic and the everyday, Season of the Magpies moves outward — into landscape, into wildness, into the question of what it means to be witnessed by something that watches back.
Research unfolds across residencies, field recording sessions, and movement laboratories. The work is not yet finished — it is accumulating.
↳ Sister research to Communing with the Mundane.
Methodology & Structural Framework
Choreographies of Attention
Developing movement vocabularies drawn from corvid behaviour — the sideways glance, the caching gesture, the collective alarm. How does a body learn to attend the way a magpie attends?
Acoustic Ecology
Field recording as compositional and choreographic practice. Listening to the sonic territories of birds — their calls, their silences, their responses to human presence — as a score for movement.
Avian Mimicry
Exploring mimicry not as imitation but as a form of radical attention. The magpie learns by listening deeply. What does it mean for a dancer to learn the same way?
Research Trajectory
December 2026
UpcomingPerson(a) Residency
Guadalajara, Mexico — Rayon 376 Cultural Arts Center
Opening research phase — field recordings, movement research, and initial choreographic development in the landscape of Guadalajara. In collaborative research with Nikko Axzul.
View Residency ↗Credits
In collaborative research with Nikko Axzul. Collaborators TBD based on residency phase allocation. Operating within a fluid, interdisciplinary model.
Follow Along
This research is ongoing. Follow its development on Instagram.
@sienaavalonciancia