When Talya Rubin was little, she would tell adults she wanted to be ‘a ballerina and a gorilla’ when she grew up. Zoology is a performance lecture and dance work for one woman and two children that attempts to live up to that childhood dream.
There is a dream-like lecture at the centre of Zoology. It riffs on zoos, panda diplomacy, Reagan and Thatcher, The Wizard of Oz, extinction and Talya’s own childhood – until it falls apart.
Zoology is a timely work of true imagination, a personal journey of listening towards surprising transformation. It provokes a visceral reconnection with our inner wildness and invites us to sit in the unresolved spaces of the current extinction crisis.
The work had its premiere season from February 25 – 27 as a full-length showcase at APAM 2026, presented by PICA & WA Museum Boola Bardip.