This workshop is an investigation of care as methodology in the process of making performances. It proposes that, by placing care at the centre of our artistic processes, we can move away from exploitative capitalist structures and towards interconnected and sustainable practices. We will examine how (un-)supportive the environments in which we make works currently are and collectively speculate on how much more caring, accessible, and pleasurable these could be. This is an invitation to re-imagine production models from a queer feminist perspective: it is inspired by the work of crip and femme survivors such as Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasihna, radical Black mothers such as Alexis Pauline Gumbs and invokes queer care structures developed by the likes of Sophie Lewis and The Care Collective. Focusing on care work is not only necessary for the survival of performance artists, whose working condition are notoriously precarious, it is also a radical act of acknowledging the reproduction labour which is part of making performance art. By revaluing this work and integrating it at the core of our artistic practices, we move away from hetero-patriarchal and production driven models, and get closer to queer and inter-dependent methodologies, where ‘how we do things’ is equally important as what we do in the first place.
From writing concepts, to planning rehearsals, all to the way to the recovery phase, we will learn how to create nurturing work environments for ourselves, our collaborators, and the performance field as a whole. Inspired by Claire’s ongoing research on the topic of care work in the performance field, her work as a performance doula, as well as her hands on experience as a performer, choreographer, and dance critic, the workshops will offer theoretical support, practical strategies and somatic exercises. Each session will tackle a specific topic connected to care work, encouraging the participants to reflect on their own practices from an intersectional point of view.
The course will include reading, writing exercises, group discussions and somatic work. We will practice hands on care as well: we will nap, we will do our nails, we read to each other softly. The working language will be English. The workshop is tailored for those working with performance as a medium but open to anyone interested in care work and sustainable collaborative processes. The workshop blends theory and practice: Each session uses a selected text from a care-library as a starting point for discussion and experimentation. Claire shares methodologies she developed in her own performance research: practical tools, choreographic scores, writing exercises and translates those concepts into somatic practices centring rest, body care and sensory awareness.
Claire Lefèvre
