of her clients whom she thought would
called BodyWeather. BodyWeather,
benefit. The group selected were people
originally developed in Japan during the
living with learning difficulties. I am new
1980s, is an interweaving of eastern and
at collaborating with people who live with
western dance practices. Its lineage draws
disabilities. I have no special expertise in
from Butoh, German expressionism, and
this field. This purpose of this article is
European contemporary performance.
simply to share some of the processes with
Essentially, it’s an improvisational dance
and by this particular ensemble of people.
practice, encompassing a myriad of modalities and frameworks that direct and
First, in 2015, I facilitated the project
train the body and imagination to move
Being Moved, a beautiful photographic
and perceive in an atypical manner. It’s
book exploring movement and dance
not so interested in form, but rather, it is
and collaborating with performance
interested in ‘being’.
photographer Heidrun Löhr. The outcome was a book launch, a photographic
BodyWeather asks us to radically
exhibition and a short public performance
reconsider our relationship to our body (as
on International Day of Disability. In 2016,
well as the external environment). There
we have been developing the DANCE
is an underlying tradition in the practice
DIARIES film. In 2017, we will run a
that upholds the so-called ‘imperfect’
series of dance and performance making
body, or bodies that are marginalized by
workshops which may lead to a public
society. It also explores bodies that are
performance in 2018. The overall purpose
non-human such as animal and plant or
of the project is to use each process to
perceiving movement on a molecular
build dance skills and confidence, with
scale. Philosophically, BodyWeather sees
the aim to develop a public performance,
our bodies as unique ecosystems that
if this is what this group wishes to do - a
move in their own extraordinary ways.
question yet to be answered.
When I dance, my interest lies in undoing what I think I ‘know’ about my body in
My work over the last 20 years has
order to find out what lies beneath my in-
concentrated on performance, dance,
culturated thinking patterns and beliefs.
mentoring and teaching. I engage with professional and emerging dancers and
For DANCE DIARIES: WOODVILLE I’ve
actors, and with people from various
had the pleasure of collaborating with
communities. My practice lies not in
Martin Fox (co-director / video artist) and
western dance but in a methodology
Michael Toisuta (composer) and working
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