This Research Project – initiated by artists and long-time friends Perel and Elizabeth Ward – examines collectivity and consent as a means of performance making. Aiming to work with queer-feminist and anti-ableist frameworks for embodied connection and invite interested performers to join Perel and Elizabeth in this Field Project, the main inquiry is into mutual support, and how that shapes the process and form of performance. What are ways to invite an audience into a space where everyone is considered as a subject?
Throughout the week Perel and Elizabeth will share their dance, artistic, and political histories through lineages that are both real and imagined, and invite participants to map out their own lineages. These can be based on teachers, mentors, relatives, both alive and dead, who create a map or constellation of influences that we seek to carry forward. We will discuss how we continue legacies of embodiment, and share what we carry as a collective.
Holding Space is simply that – a time together for care, embodiment, and somatic practices while holding space for divergence, difference, and rest. Holding Space is also more than that – a time busy with mutual support through a multitude of supports, visible and invisible, available to us. Some of the practices we will explore are derived from Authentic Movement, Skinner Releasing Technique™, and Body-Mind Centering®. With each exercise we facilitate, we will discuss the histories behind these techniques and how this knowledge was passed onto us, from generations of bodily transmissions.
Short readings of theory, poetry, and other writings will be provided as we explore what it means to Hold Space, and participants will have time for their own writing, research, and exploration in response to this. The time will be divided between group activity and solo work, as it is important that there is time to integrate the material into one’s own practices.
This Field Project is for dancers, activists, artists who see facilitation as a vital part of their practice, or who seek to learn more from what holding space can mean for their work. If there are questions and research inquiries you already want to look into, the group can support this.
Those who have experience with care work, or forms of care and want to examine how it can extend further into creative practices are welcome. The Field Project is also open to those who have less experience with this subject but who want to open up their understanding and capacity for holding space in dynamic ways.
If you’re interested in taking part in this Open Level Field Project, apply with a letter of motivation that answers the following questions:
