Petrichor
2026
Petrichor is a dance theatre piece created by Lyra Butler-Denman in collaboration with Danielle Reed and Monell Chemical Senses Center, the only independent research institute dedicated to the scientific understanding of taste and smell. The piece explores smell and smell-loss as it relates to memory, safety, longing, and delight. It also explores the relationship between smell disorders and memory loss.
Petrichor examines the emotional experience of losing or distorting the sense of smell. Through movement and sound, exploring the discomfort and repulsion associated with parosmia, a condition in which familiar smells become distorted, as well as the grief that can come with losing smell as a meaningful connection to memory, place, food, and loved ones.
By translating these often invisible sensory experiences into physical and auditory expression, the work invites visitors to consider how deeply smell is woven into emotion, identity, and human connection.
Created and Directed by Lyra Butler-Denman
Devised and Performed by Lyra Butler-Denman, Lillian Ransijn, Bellisant Corcoran-Mathe, and Laura Schmidt
Sound Design by Taylor Burgess
Cinematography and Editing by Christoper Maute
Created in collaboration with Danielle Reed and Monell Chemical Senses Center
