ENGINE ROOM Residency - what is worth dancing for?

What is worth dancing for?

On the 27th of September I embark on a week-long residency to ask the question ‘what is worth dancing for?’ where by dancing can be seen as an action, for standing(dancing) up for what we believe in or as a collective or individual act of celebration, resistance and/or resilience.

Dance has been an important part of protest throughout history, being used as an act of solidarity, taking and reclaiming space and in some instances the physical act itself being used to break from physical enslavement, where as to dance and to fight became interchangeable.

The beginning of this research seeks to look not so much at the direct use of dance in protest but at the blurry spaces, the spaces in between where people feel disempowered, excluded or unsure as to why they should dance or to what their dancing could be for.; What is this for feeling, what does it feel like in the body, for each other and ourselves.

Motivations

I have been much moved by Eve Tucks essay ‘Suspending Damage; A Letter to Communities’, and a conversation I had in early 2020 with an 8 year old named Zack who expressed that for him, freedom and feeling held was being able to dance around his living room or wherever(!) like a cheetah, daily, when he felt like it.

The work that we begin to look to explore, I would like to sit somewhere between these two inspirations. I recommend reading Eve’s essay and to talking to the 8 year old in your life about what they think is worth dancing for.

The week will be playful and the research period will engage 100+ people from ages 6 - 100 whose dances and contributions will all feed in to the event/workshop/participatory event that will begin….to emerge.

As prompted by my mentor Jo Fong, I was asked to vision what the work might look like, the below is what appeared and it seems like it’s quite a journey. The movement and the exchange are to be fleshed out but forward motion and the event is there. Make of it what you will;

The beginning, middle or end. Probably a bit of all three.

Provocations and structures we will be exploring;

ECSTASY / PARADE / PROCESSION / MARCH / THE MIDDLE SPACE / BORDERS / BOUNDARIES / JOY / HORIZONTALITY / GIVING A SHIT / RESILIENCE / RESISTANCE / PROXY / BECAUSE WHY NOT? / COMMUNITY / APATHY / TRANSMISSION / CELEBRATION / FUTURES

Collaborators

I am excited to be joined by a wonderful room of makers, dancers and activators ;

Racheal Clerke

Deepraj Singh

Katherine Hall

Ania Varez

Stefania Pinato

Dror Shohet

Mentored by Jo Fong

With thanks to Femi Oyewole, Gina Ricker & Stephanie Singer for being sound boards for the long path it’s taken me to get this project in action.

The project is supported by Arts Council England, Wiltshire Creative, ENGINE Room, Salisbury Playhouse and INTERVAL.