‘Our Common Sky ‘ is the overarching title of a series of embodied research projects I’ve undertaken that ask the question: what is the dance this place needs right now? This was funded originally by a Jerwood Choreographic Research Project bursary, managed by FABRIC Dance. It also encompassed my collaborative work with Sádé Budhlall across our geographical boundaries.
Our Common Sky: what is our dance and what happens when we share it under our common sky? This research uses social and folk dance forms as a public experimentation in how to answer these questions. Is a procession a way we can talk without words about what unites us? Are circles always inviting? I am also interested in what an improvised folk dance practice look like? All folk dance must have come from some enthusiastic dancer working it out, but in recent times it can often feel prescribed and strangled by orthodoxy.
This work sits between ideas of traditional performance art and orthodox folk tradition. What happens when the folk actually get to create a dance together right now?
Our Common Sky
Forest Dance Walks
As part of the research I invited people from my community into the Forest to explore what movement could be generated from the environment we occupied - embodying the ‘more than human’ world. Could we tap into a new folk dance (made by the folk and in their enviornment) through listening to the woods? Could we also build our interpersonal relationship with the more than human? And if so, what effect did that have on us as part of the natural world?