The term choreokratic (in our research-creation project, the knowledge mobilization project, etc.) reflects an integration of choreography (from the Greek choreia, meaning dance or movement) with the ecological thinking that emerged in the inquiries around Blackness and Dramaturgy, the pillars of Dramaturgical Ecologies research group. Choreo suggests movement that interconnects individuals and collectives within an environmental and relational context, evoking a dance across human and non-human ecologies. Rather than indicating governance, the okratic here refers to a co-created structure of interdependence, where movement - both literal and metaphorical - generates a shared ecology. In this sense, choreokratic ecologies refer to the ways in which entities - human, vegetable, conceptual - interrelate through dynamic and unpredictable exchanges that blur traditional boundaries in research and methodology.

Okra as a Motif

Okra is more than a subject of culinary or agricultural interest - it becomes a conceptual and material “intercessor,” a term Deleuze used to refer to something that participates or even facilitates in creating or sustaining a network of relations within a process. In this context, okra serves as an intercessor for diasporic, ecological, and cultural dialogues, but also a transversal line between interdisciplinary fields in research-creation. This aligns with Deleuze’s concept that intercessors do not pre-exist the connections they establish but emerge through relational interactions, sparking new ideas, forms, and collaborations. Okra’s qualities (e.g., sliminess, shape, diasporic roots) are valued not for what they represent symbolically but for how they provoke relational and experiential insights, for example through the collective act of cooking together and sharing stories, reflections, sensations.

Okra becomes a node within choreokratic ecologies, a point that fosters relational interactions across people, plants, and histories. In engaging with okra, collaborators were participating in a choreokratic ecology where research, creation, conceptual and ecological were continually performed.

As briefly described in our introductory page, the term Murmurations rises from our encounter with the article  Resonances: A Conversation on Formless Formation (2021). In their dialogues, the authors question the limitations of traditional forms, especially within academia, favoring dynamic, improvisational approaches. They argue for moving beyond rigid structures toward a “formless formation” that is open, evolving, and collective - a pattern that is embodied in the organic, shifting formation seen in the murmurations of birds. This resonates as a metaphor for social organizing and study, likened to a swarm or a “vignette,” an independent yet interconnected unit that fosters collaboration and resists commodification. 

Fred Moten compares the spontaneous, collective movement of birds in murmurations to a “deformative preformation,” where no single bird defines the direction or shape. This image mirrors how collaborative practices function. Murmurations represent the possibility of formless formation - each part informs the whole without hierarchy, resisting linear structures and encouraging inclusivity and continual flux. Moten reflects on this as a way to enact a form of intellectual and social freedom, a continual reformation against the confinements of institutions.

Between the formless formation of the okra slime and the bird flocks, a research-creation practice emerged, resonating with okra and being resonated by choreokratic ecologies.

Okratic Inquiries

Our methods included shared activities like cooking together, land-based activities, and collective discussions. The communal acts of chopping, cooking, and reading together aloud became a landscape of research-creation that breaks the frames of representation.

How to share the incommensurability of such a refrain: Blackness as lens to think dance dramaturgy?