Shawbrook Creative Space Residency

I returned to Shawbrook this February to start work on a new collaboration with danish dance artist Susanne Engbo-Andersen. Susanne and I trained together at the Northern School of Contemporary Dance and have wanted to reconnect since to explore a creative project together. The pandemic pushed this meeting forward as we felt the space and distance over the last two years was in fact giving us the time and space to brew our ideas and consider this meeting.

The inspiration for "Queen of the Meadows"(working title) came after the passing of my grandmother. I wanted to honour her life through dance and performance and pay tribute to a generation of women who, along with their folklore are slowly disappearing. I remember growing up around my grandmother's unconventional, "old fashioned" ways; putting cobwebs on my cut knees instead of plasters, knocking on wood or having bizarre cures for various ailments. I always recall these moments in my head with such theatricality that they almost seemed otherworldly, absurd and far fetched.

More on Shawbrook Creative Residencies for 2022 here