Dance floors and economics lectures share the same space in 'Homo Economicus,' a high-energy and thought-provoking performance that examines how economic systems shape our everyday lives.
Created and performed by Emily Bate, the multi-disciplinary piece blends music, movement, and even a lap dancer to create an unexpected and must-see show.
Below, Bate talks to Metro about turning Econ 101 into a dance party, collaborating with the worker-owned theater collective Obvious Agency, and why reimagining the economy feels similar to moving together on the dance floor.
I started researching the show a few years ago, because I was curious to learn about how the world around me works. So many things come down to “because–money!” and I was like, “how does this actually work?” The show is rooted in my belief that we all know a lot about our current economy, just by living in it. I hope the audience learns something new, but even more, I hope the audience connects the dots of how this giant global system plays out in their own day to day lives.
It feels surprising and interesting to pair dance, striptease, and club music with content that could be considered kind of boring or dry. I haven’t seen this on stage before. Music and dance are modes of emotional connection, and I want us to explore our emotional relationships to the current economy.
I really love dance music, and dancing is one of my favorite ways to get unstuck. A good dance party has a group energy that’s sort of rare to find. It’s a place where we’re all doing something together, for the joy of it, in a group. That is how I hope it might feel to shift our economic system. Like a really juicy, fun dance party.
Obvious Agency is the perfect partner for this piece — they are a worker cooperative, which means they own and run their business collectively. That is a really powerful model, and unfortunately, it’s very rare in our current economy. They’ve been so helpful in thinking through the content of the piece, and helping me build the show in a way that reflects our shared values — interdependence, connection, and abundance.
Probably the whole thing! I think someone taking Econ 101 in school learns a really different version of this information. I’m trying to ask big questions, like what is the goal of the economy? Can we reexamine some of the core assumptions that underpin Econ 101?
There are lots of specific examples in the show of ways to make our economic system more democratic. One place I’d point folks is the Peoples’ Budget Office here in Philadelphia, a project that empowers everyday Philadelphians to shape the city’s budget. Having a meaningful say in these huge, global systems that shape every facet of our lives is so important. There are people and projects all over the city that are engaged in that work, in places like food co-ops, community land trusts, and community organizing work.
I hope this show gives the audience places to exercise agency in their everyday lives. That might be personal, like our relationship to our own finances, the feelings of scarcity or generosity we might experience day-to-day. It might be bigger than that — join a project, organize, think bigger picture about ways to shape our world. And I hope they leave the theater with some catchy dance music about money stuck in their head.
'Home Economicus' will take place at God’s Automatic Body & Spa (5522 Baltimore Avenue) from May 1 to 10. Tickets are available at handstamp.com
