Week 3 - A week to think about Themes - by Jo Fong and Ellie Davies
Jo writes about week 3
Llandudno is a seaside town in North Wales. We heard the land used to be underwater so the vikings never settled, they thought the two ormes ( mounds ) were giant sea creatures. The area has rich prehistoric evidence. Today the town is kept within a Victorian era, it’s owned, yes the land is owned by a family called Mostyn since hundreds of years. The space we worked in is a philanthropic offering from the Mostyn estate, a response from a moment when the local community said “We have nowhere to dance!”
Local dance artist Angharad told us this and much more when she joined us for our open studio.
I'm going to call her an activist for dance.
Select themes, topics, what’s that?
And further “urgent”, let’s get to the point.
We brought our values, past experiences, previous themes, personal current enquiries, irritations, identities, what is carried in the body and a sense of what are our drivers, needs, motivators, beliefs and of course the state of the world.
We tried not to get stuck on the state of the world.
Some of the questions we created for one another.
What are you relating to?
What are you in relationship with?
What are you fighting for?
What are you frightened of?
What are you facing away from?
What are you not looking at?
What do you need right now?
Words from the week
Remember you have a body,
how society is becoming further and further away from the body, becoming chair shaped, screen shaped, virtual reality shaped…. To make work that reminds people that we/they have a body, potentially is a radical act
Activism was present in all the chosen themes in some way, not necessarily a leader, an undercurrent.
Likewise
Love could equally sit comfortably in each of the themes that emerged.
At the point of individual writing or selecting themes, it surprised us that it didn’t resemble how we thought we would write or articulate what we felt should be included, the staying open, keeping the creativity patient, gave space for more, for layering themes and sub themes gravitating towards one another.
Bodies communing,
If we change the word “dance” to communing, the dance changes.
The act of nonverbal communication, Therein lies listening, provocation, desire, curiosity, impulse, vibration, release, intuition…and also care, offering, receiving…
The BSL sign for intuition is a hand pointing to the gut.
Radical access, this was the first time access, apart from the obvious British Sign Language that we are using everyday, came into the room. I'm glad it’s landed in the room. More to come I’m sure, devising work that is accessible to all in a way that the experience is not diminished for anyone.
And guests!
Weds morning co designed and co led by the collective ( we are getting good at this, it’s a pleasure to share the holding of the room, and enjoying the “not knowing” the whole of what will happen ) we were joined by a local dance artist and a community music practitioner.
The communing makes all this make sense.
And sharing with 3 D/deaf guests
Practicing our co-hosting, being observed in our dancing and hearing how reading the body goes for the D/deaf.
A shared space where the activities were designed for the D/deaf experience
We asked our guests not to try too hard, if nothing happens nothing happens,
They chose to read faces, tempo, relationship, emotion..
Some of the week is difficult
Crafting/Pioneering Deaf and hearing spaces, capacity of an organisation, mistakes, responses, expectations, the pressure of marketing, the wish for everything to be done well.
The moment for honest conversations, not to exhaustion, but with a plan to talk and after we would walk up the Orme (the sea monster) in the wind and rain and we cleaned ourselves.
As a group
We are consenting to explore the unknown.
Written by Jo Fong
Below is a reflection and a drawing from one of our open studio guests, Ellie Davies.
Jo Fong, Anna Seymour and Gwyn Emberton: iCoDaCo collective: 19th Feb 2025
The session/feelings, responding, reflection….
Moving in pairs from one side of the room to the other with one person applying pressure - Not knowing what to do, still in my head, out of place...i'm doing this wrong….breath into it… allow the body to move and be moved….trust…
Growing and melting around the space - safe, in my body, becoming aware of other, aware I want to stay on the outside looking in, responding from a distance but beginning to allow interaction without the head and ego getting in the way…the beginnings of flow, connection,
Eye contact following - Eyes are usually terrifying for me but a space had been created that was safe, without expectation so allow it,
Move from one side to the other following the heart rhythm Slow down, I keep wanting to go back…felt good to allow my body to take its time...not rushing at my head's speed to just get there… listening, feeling with all parts of the body… Follow the heart - reconnect, wait - pause, allow the space - enjoy it!
Pair work with Jo starting back to back, feeling, letting go of the head, deep listening to my own body to jo’s into a flow, trusting, allowing the body to speak as it wants - listening to the other, communing without words. Realisations: when Jo suggested I take the lead, my immediate response is to say but I really love to follow…then I pause, my truth is that i'm learning to stand in my own power and not get sucked along by the emotions, pull, needs of others, from this point I felt like we were moving as one and yet at the same time were within our own beings… a simultaneous giving and receiving? Deep power and strength, trust, holding my own weight as well as Jo’s. even more powerful was the losses of connection, when the head got in the way - very different from the power of the lightness of touch when we were very much together tho not really touching! ... I cry….there is Release... A connection I don't feel in day to day life...no words required...they blur the meaning and knowing that can only be felt...moved.
Written by Ellie Davies who joined the Open Studio in Llandudno
