A r m y Ant
Eciton burchellii
—Feral
Pheromones, show the way!
Coordinate the corps, of our Eciton ballet.
The music and dance film Swarm Raid is a surreal trip to the grocery store inspired by the highly coordinated food gathering missions of the army ant species Eciton burchellii. The ants’ swarm raid begins at dawn when tens of thousands of worker and soldier ants fan out in different directions from their nest site in search of food. Eventually, the swarm forms a single massive column, reinforced with pheromone paths, that flushes out promising food sources from the forest floor— crickets, cockroaches, larvae from other species—that the swarming ants bring back to feed the whole colony.
The film Swarm Raid navigates a tension between the feral and the refined, as grocery store shoppers enact the swarming behaviors of the army ants. The film draws connections between the ways that humans and army ants find food and reflects on collective behavior and social hierarchy in both ants and humans. The central character in the film experiences a kind of fever dream borne of social anxiety in which she witnesses crowds of humans becoming ant-like workers bringing offerings of food to their “ant queen,” performed by a virtuosic soprano. The ant queen invokes the refined choreography of the army ants as she sings “Pheromones, show the way! Coordinate the corps, of our Eciton ballet.” Meanwhile, humans dance in and around shopping carts and circle islands of produce in Busby Berkeley-inspired formations. Ultimately, distortions in the speed of the film reveal a manic and feral quality in the humans’ search for food.
Anna Lindemann
Assistant Professor,
University of Connecticut,
Department of Digital Media & Design
—USA
Film Credits
Directed by Anna Lindemann and Ryan Glista
Music by Anna Lindemann
Lyrics by Emma Komlos-Hrobsky
Music performed by Lucy Fitz Gibbon
Cinematography by Alex Rouleau
Assistant Cinematographers — Charlie Gorski, Evan Olson
Editing by Ryan Glista
Costumes and Makeup by Brittny Mahan
Set Design by Lucy Fitz Gibbon and Emma Komlos-Hrobsky
Consulting Choreographer — Felice Lesser
Cast
Mona — Anna Lindemann
Hennie/Ant Queen — Lucy Fitz Gibbon
Featured Dancers
Elizabeth Barbeau, Felicia Famularo, Maddie Gidman, Lenore Grunko, Allie Leonard, Rachel Surridge, Stephan Vazquez, Paige Woods
Dancers
Cat Boyce, Lydia Briones, Janine Caira, Karin Ching, Josh Chirip, Evan Dennison, Jack Dillon, Heather Elliott-Famularo, Eric Ellison, Ben Gladstone, Ryan Glista, Bernard Goffinet, Charlie Gorski, Robyn Guyette, Ann Harper, Herbert Jenkins, Thomas Jensen, Stephen E. Johnson, Krissy Johnson, Sierra Kane, Emma Komlos-Hrobsky, Mike Krywinski, Meredith LaMalva, Edwin Lewis, Lisa Weixel Lippert, Eleanor Magnuson, Josh Matthias, Dwayne Mullings, Julia Oppenheimer, Jane O’Donnell, Sandi Petersen, Ena Pottinger, Eric Quinter, Jasmine Rajavadee, Emma Santasiere, Alex Semendinger, Sarah Shattuck, Kelly Zimmermann
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Special thank you to Kevin George, Mona Golub, Matthew Hicks, Yohei Igarashi, Bonnie Mettler, Eric Lindemann, Michael Toomey, Stacy Webb, Mike Vertefeuille, Heather Elliott-Famularo, and Alain Frogley.
Made possible through the generous support of the UConn School of Fine Arts Dean’s Grant, UConn School of Fine Arts Project Completion Grant, the UConn Department of Digital Media & Design, and the UConn Office of the Provost AntU Academic Plan.
Inspired by the Carl W. and Marian E. Rettenmeyer Army Ant Guest Collection housed at the University of Connecticut, a natural history collection of more than 2 million specimens.
Filmed at the Price Chopper grocery store in Storrs, Connecticut.
Featured in the The Colony, an art-science performance on social life: www.thecolony.show
© 2019