Dance Memory Space and Trace
An exhibition curated for the CultureMoves project LabDays, asking artists to contribute an image of a site dance practice and a text memory of that practice.
About the Dance, Memory, Space and Trace exhibition
The Dance, Memory, Space and Trace photographic exhibition was co-created by a number of key stakeholders (choreographers and dance artists) developing from a curiosity into the relationships between dance and site. C-DaRE was keen to transform the space for the initial CultureMoves LabDays and allow the invited artists and panel members to showcase one image from their practice or previous projects. In preparing these LabDays it emerged that there were many visuals that conveyed aspects of projects and moments which revealed highly emotional, political or social interactions between the dancer and the place and or the public. This point felt like an important aspect to build on and to capture, which then encouraged the C-DaRE team to ask the artists to contribute a text memory which was connected to the image or the project they were going to be speaking about during the LabDay. As the team disseminated the CMoves LabDays and mentioned the ideas of artists offering images and a memory, more key stakeholders were intrigued and wanted to contribute to the collection. The exhibition has continued to grow and develop throughout the project demonstrating the diversity of practice around dance / movement practice, site and cultural heritage. The physical exhibition is mobile and has been taken to various CultureMoves events. This is a digital version of the exhibition.
As part of the curation of this digital version of the exhibition, Aswad Iftikhar and Kathiravan Pugazhendhu, two postgraduate students in Architecture at Coventry University, have been working alongside the COVUNI CultureMoves team. They viewed the original Dance Memory Space and Trace exhibit, looking at how each of the images and texts might speak back to an architect's understanding of the moving body in space, and then offered 'an architect's view' response to some of the original dance images as well as curating photographic images of the city for this collection, looking at Coventry through an architectural lens and thinking about the potential relationships between body, memory and space that those sites might inspire.
Amy Voris - enter and inhabit, Coventry (UK), 2019
Photo credit: Christian Kipp
Location: Coventry
Date: 2019
This image encapsulates the project description -- 'enter and inhabit / a site of flow and transition'.
CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
Location: Coventry
Date: 2019
This image encapsulates the project description -- 'enter and inhabit / a site of flow and transition'.
CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
Anton Mirto - THE TRADITION, Bing Place, London (UK)
Photo: Ståle_Eriksen
A sculptural performance that sees the body as a sculptural object, arranged in space.
A sculptural performance that sees the body as a sculptural object, arranged in space.
Performers re-shape & restrict themselves to accommodate wooden forms, holding poses that contort & disjoint into impractical figurines in outdoor public spaces.
A work that aims to prompt reflection on what the body can hold onto, & our resilience to often comply & endure, but seldom to change or resist.
CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
Anton Mirto - THE ARMY, Tower Hamlets, London (UK) for Whitechapel Gallery
Photo: Alberto Duman
Conceived as a desire to stand up, stay awake & survive, THE ARMY is a call to be brave in an age that promotes fear; a guerrilla performance against apathy & for healing, purpose & power. .
Between 2016-2018 it saw different women ‘march' impromptu in over 30 ’secret’ locations in the public realm, united through audible rhythmic breath & burning small fires each time.
“I wanted to see & hear people moving past my window, expressing a new free logic on my street, resounding & awake, instilling curiosity, renewed purpose, hope, commitment & strength.” A. Mirto
CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
Ellen Jeffrey - On the Patterns we Gaze, Grubbins Wood (UK), 2019
Photo credit: Rebecca Richards
Dancers: Lucy Starkey and Jenny Reeves
Year:
2019
Location:
Grubbins Wood, Arnside (UK)
Memory:
“Twilight in the wood, and the blue hues of the almost-night create a gentle glow. As the dancers turn, the edges of their bodies catch the last of the light and I can just make out the mud and twigs clinging to their forms, telling me something of the exchange taking place between bodies and site, materials and motion.”
CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
Stephanie Donohoe - I'm a Brummie Bab, Birmingham Rag Market, Birmingham (UK)
Photo credit: Mark Worrall & Birmingham Dance Network
Year: 2019
Location: Birmingham Rag Market, Birmingham (UK)
Location: Birmingham Rag Market, Birmingham (UK)
'Dancing in the centre of Birmingham to music that reminds me of this wonderful city.'
CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
Jen Wren / Slanjayvah Danza, 6 Feet, 3 Shoes, Annat Hall, Rait (UK), 2019
Photo credit: Ian Rodley.
Date: 30th November 2019
Location: Annat Hall, Rait
One Line: Performing 6 Feet, 3 Shoes for our home community on St Andrew’s Day – celebrating inclusion of all cultures and community spirit in Scotland.
Artists: Jen Wren, Charlotte Matthiesen, Leticia Cabezudo
6 Feet, 3 Shoes is a heart-warming show that brings vividly to life, a true story of friendships that cross borders and generations.
Both joyous and tender, this is a story of three female dancers who forged a bond, a language and culture all of their own. Through uniting their families and sharing life experience and their love for Spanish, Scottish and contemporary dance – 6 Feet, 3 Shoes celebrates the joining of cultures and the importance of community spirit.
The dancers are joined on stage by musicians playing the Scottish fiddle, Flamenco guitar and Cajon.
And if that wasn’t enough, audiences can join the cast after the show for an evening of socialising, singing and dancing.
‘A night with Slanjayvah Danza is a little bit different, it’s both captivating and emotion fuelled. By the end of the evening you will have been taken on a journey across two cultures, laughed and cried, plus danced in a ceilidh with half of your village, what could be better!’
(Jo Gatenby, Rural Arts ON Tour Manager)
CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
Eline Kieft - Ansley, Midlands (UK), 2016
Photo credit: Henk Kieft, 2016
Location: Ansley, Midlands
"Leaf or Tree, Whirling or Rooted? Dancing with the Wind."
CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
Location: Ansley, Midlands
"Leaf or Tree, Whirling or Rooted? Dancing with the Wind."
CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
Eline Kieft - Tintagel, Cornwall (UK), 2009
Photo credit: Henk Kieft, 2009
Location: Tintagel, Cornwall (UK)
"Skin to Skin: Caressing the Earth."
CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
Location: Tintagel, Cornwall (UK)
"Skin to Skin: Caressing the Earth."
CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
Eline Kieft - Tintagel, Cornwall (UK), 2009
Photo credit: Henk Kieft, 2009
Location: Tintagel, Cornwall (UK)
"Up or Down? Meeting Sea, Sky, and Stone."
CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
Location: Tintagel, Cornwall (UK)
"Up or Down? Meeting Sea, Sky, and Stone."
CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
Erica Charalambous, Corfu artistic research / Luxembourg and Trier residency and performances, 2007
Photo credit: Marinos Tattaris, 2007
"Sensing surfaces, temperatures, and textures, using the body as an apparatus for somatic explorations and non-conventional dancerly embodiments and unusual uses of places and spaces."
CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
"Sensing surfaces, temperatures, and textures, using the body as an apparatus for somatic explorations and non-conventional dancerly embodiments and unusual uses of places and spaces."
CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
Rosemary Lee - Passage for Par, Par Beach, Cornwall (UK), 2018
Photo credit: Steve Tanner
Groundwork 2018
Passage for Par is a site-specific performance for 30 women created for and presented on Par Beach. Rosemary brought together an international cast with a diverse range of experience, combining Cornwall-based dancers and students from Falmouth University with performers from further afield.
"Developed on location over a two-week period, the resulting performance will slowly and rhythmically snake across this magical beach at low tide. As the audience follows the hypnotic movement of the group from afar, they are invited to witness the image of the performers’ meandering pathways carving into the wet sands."
Passage for Par was commissioned by CAST (Cornubian Arts & Science Trust) and Dance Republic 2 for Groundwork, a season of international art in Cornwall from May to September 2018. Produced by Dance Republic 2 in association with Artsadmin.
“ this image reminds me of how I never got up to the coast path to watch the work from there where this image was taken though I had in my minds eye what it might look like to spectators up there.”
CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
Rosemary Lee - Without, Derry-Londonderry (UK), 2013
Photo Credit: Living Witness
Without - a seven screen video installation with a specially commissioned soundtrack by Graeme Miller - encircles the viewer and captures a spectacular panoramic view and intimate portrait of Derry-Londonderry and its inhabitants.
Filmed from the city wall, it features almost 400 local inhabitants - from tea-dancers to skateboarders and school children to cyclists. Regardless of the real and imagined walls and barriers, they reclaim the streets both distant and near as they glide, dance, melt away and reappear.
Without was commissioned by and created with Echo Echo Dance Theatre Company as one of their major projects for the Derry-Londonderry UK City of Culture Programme.
"this image captures for me the beauty of the city's unusual topography and the potential to place movement that has a fragility and temporality both within and against the backdrop of the permanence of the city" (Rosemary Lee)
CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
Without - a seven screen video installation with a specially commissioned soundtrack by Graeme Miller - encircles the viewer and captures a spectacular panoramic view and intimate portrait of Derry-Londonderry and its inhabitants.
Filmed from the city wall, it features almost 400 local inhabitants - from tea-dancers to skateboarders and school children to cyclists. Regardless of the real and imagined walls and barriers, they reclaim the streets both distant and near as they glide, dance, melt away and reappear.
Without was commissioned by and created with Echo Echo Dance Theatre Company as one of their major projects for the Derry-Londonderry UK City of Culture Programme.
"this image captures for me the beauty of the city's unusual topography and the potential to place movement that has a fragility and temporality both within and against the backdrop of the permanence of the city" (Rosemary Lee)
CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
Rosemary Lee - Melt Down, Granary Square, Kings Cross, London (UK), 2012
Photo credit: Richard Oliver
Dance Umbrella Festival 2012
Granary Square, Kings Cross
Gathering in a public space, a group of men of varied ages, raise their arms to the sky then slowly, almost imperceptibly, 'melt down' to the ground.
"Melt Down was originally commissioned in 2011 by Dance Umbrella to take place under a huge tree. The next year many of the same men melted into concrete. I remember the rain, the canal behind them and the soft draping of their bodies against the unforgiving surface of concrete."
CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
Dance Umbrella Festival 2012
Granary Square, Kings Cross
Gathering in a public space, a group of men of varied ages, raise their arms to the sky then slowly, almost imperceptibly, 'melt down' to the ground.
"Melt Down was originally commissioned in 2011 by Dance Umbrella to take place under a huge tree. The next year many of the same men melted into concrete. I remember the rain, the canal behind them and the soft draping of their bodies against the unforgiving surface of concrete."
CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
Gustavo Fijalkow - FeedMe, Hildesheim (DE), 2015
Photo Credit: © Cultura, 2015
Location: Hildesheim / Germany
Work: FeedMe Company: Cultura
Performers: Danielle Anna Füglistaller and Gustavo Fijalkow
“FeedMe was developed and performed in a derelict branch of a former chemist’s. In this area of Hildesheim, abandoned shops bear witness of previously existing urban structure and social cohesion that were devoured by the politico-economical development of the region.”
CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
Gustavo Fijalkow - FeedMe, Hildesheim (DE), 2015
Photo Credit: © Cultura, 2015
Location: Hildesheim / Germany
Work: FeedMe Company: Cultura
Performers: Danielle Anna Füglistaller and Gustavo Fijalkow
“FeedMe was developed and performed in a derelict branch of a former chemist’s. In this area of Hildesheim, abandoned shops bear witness of previously existing urban structure and social cohesion that were devoured by the politico-economical development of the region.”
CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
Gustavo Fijalkow - FeedMe, Hildesheim (DE), 2015
Photo Credit: © Cultura, 2015
Location: Hildesheim / Germany
Work: FeedMe Company: Cultura
Performers: Danielle Anna Füglistaller and Gustavo Fijalkow
“FeedMe was developed and performed in a derelict branch of a former chemist’s. In this area of Hildesheim, abandoned shops bear witness of previously existing urban structure and social cohesion that were devoured by the politico-economical development of the region.”
CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
Gustavo Fijalkow - FeedMe, Hildesheim / Germany (DE), 2015
Photo Credit: © Cultura, 2015
Location: Hildesheim / Germany
Work: FeedMe Company: Cultura
Performers: Danielle Anna Füglistaller and Gustavo Fijalkow
“FeedMe was developed and performed in a derelict branch of a former chemist’s. In this area of Hildesheim, abandoned shops bear witness of previously existing urban structure and social cohesion that were devoured by the politico-economical development of the region.”
CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
Gustavo Fijalkow - FeedMe, Hildesheim (DE), 2015
Photo Credit: © Cultura, 2015
Location: Hildesheim / Germany
Work: FeedMe Company: Cultura
Performers: Danielle Anna Füglistaller and Gustavo Fijalkow
“FeedMe was developed and performed in a derelict branch of a former chemist’s. In this area of Hildesheim, abandoned shops bear witness of previously existing urban structure and social cohesion that were devoured by the politico-economical development of the region.”
CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
Natalie Garrett Brown - FlockOmania, London (UK), 2017
An architect's view: 'STREET PERFORMER OR SPACE MAKER? Any unusual activity happening in any corner of a street will catch the public eye and gather the crowd hence transform the space into a social area.
ACTIVITIES make spaces live.' (Aswad Iftikhar and Kathiravan Pugazhendhi)
Photo credit: Christian Kipp
flockOmania 4 (London edition), April 2017
The Cass Bank Gallery, Invited Artists, Robertson, Garrett Brown, Kipp and Snell
CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
ACTIVITIES make spaces live.' (Aswad Iftikhar and Kathiravan Pugazhendhi)
Photo credit: Christian Kipp
flockOmania 4 (London edition), April 2017
The Cass Bank Gallery, Invited Artists, Robertson, Garrett Brown, Kipp and Snell
CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
Sarah Worth / Highly Sprung - Rats, Castle Vale, Birmingham (UK), 2013
Rats
Photo credit: Highly Sprung, 2013
Location: Castle Vale, Birmingham (UK)
Turning the story of a housing revolution into an inspiring piece of performance that united a broken community.
"That time when they knocked down the tower blocks and the rats came..."
CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
Photo credit: Highly Sprung, 2013
Location: Castle Vale, Birmingham (UK)
Turning the story of a housing revolution into an inspiring piece of performance that united a broken community.
"That time when they knocked down the tower blocks and the rats came..."
CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
Claire Lambert, Beautiful Thing, Binsey Walk, Thamesmead, London (UK), 2018
An architect's view: 'A COLOURFUL TRANSFORMATION - Using colourful lights and the right gesture, a dead corner space can be presented as an active area used for recreational activities' (Aswad Iftikhar and Kathiravan Pugazhendhi).
Photo credit: Chris Arrondelle
Binsey Walk, Thamesmead, London (UK), 2018
'Press night of Beautiful Thing written by Jonathan Harvey twenty-five years prior - his story is set on the very same council estate on which we are about to perform. Jonathan himself in the audience, perfect weather for outdoor show (balmy summer evening!) and a heartwarming story about to unfold' (Claire Lambert).
CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
Photo credit: Chris Arrondelle
Binsey Walk, Thamesmead, London (UK), 2018
'Press night of Beautiful Thing written by Jonathan Harvey twenty-five years prior - his story is set on the very same council estate on which we are about to perform. Jonathan himself in the audience, perfect weather for outdoor show (balmy summer evening!) and a heartwarming story about to unfold' (Claire Lambert).
CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
Sara Wookey - Punt.Point by Sara Wookey and Rennie Tang, Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven (NL)
Rennie Tang, 2014-17, Van Abbemuseum (NL)
'I remember speaking with museum staff about memories of performing headstands.' (Sara Wookey)
CC BY-NC-ND-4.0
'I remember speaking with museum staff about memories of performing headstands.' (Sara Wookey)
CC BY-NC-ND-4.0
Jane Hytch / Imagineer Productions - HUPLA, Coventry Cathedral, Coventry (UK), 2018
HUPLA performance installation
Coventry Cathedral, Coventry (UK)
Site specific work part of the Festival of Imagineers 2018
A collaboration with ARUP
CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
Coventry Cathedral, Coventry (UK)
Site specific work part of the Festival of Imagineers 2018
A collaboration with ARUP
CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
Jane Hytch / Imagineer Productions - HUPLA, Coventry Cathedral, Coventry (UK), 2018
HUPLA performance installation
Coventry Cathedral, Coventry (UK)
Site specific work part of the Festival of Imagineers 2018
A collaboration with ARUP
CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
Coventry Cathedral, Coventry (UK)
Site specific work part of the Festival of Imagineers 2018
A collaboration with ARUP
CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
THE HOLY SPACE
An architect's eye: "Walking towards the cathedral on the walkway and watching people busy under the big cathedral cross shows the comfort people feels being next to the Christ's home"
New Cathedral, Coventry
THE RICHNESS OF CULTURAL HISTORY
An architect's eye: "The materials of the ruins preserve the tragedy it went through in the past and if you look at them from certain angles, they repeat it all."
Blick in die Apsis der 1940 zerstörten alten Kathedrale mit dem Versöhnungsaltar
Blick in die Apsis der 1940 zerstörten alten Kathedrale mit dem Versöhnungsaltar Coventry
MOVING TIME
An architect's eye: "Some of the buildings that were once the skyline of the city have now vanished. This photo shows the impacts of moving time on the city and its urban life."
Stadtansicht in der Umgebung der Kathedrale mit dem "Fliegenden Kreuz" (Flying cross)
Stadtansicht in der Umgebung der Kathedrale mit dem "Fliegenden Kreuz" (Flying cross), "Ausland" Coventry
HOLY ARCHITECTURE
An architect's eye: "The architectural styles and elements and the use of right materials make the Cathedral an icon in the city compared to the surrounding buildings."
neuen Kathedrale. Kirchenschiff und Baptisterium
neuen Kathedrale. Kirchenschiff und Baptisterium, "Ausland" Coventry
OLD AND NEW
An architect's eye: "Old and new castle side by side to represent the prosperity, the culture and the identity of the city."
Die neue Kathedrale und die Ruine des 1940 zerstörten Kirchenbaus
Die neue Kathedrale und die Ruine des 1940 zerstörten Kirchenbaus, "Ausland" Coventry
COVENTRY STANDS IN HARD TIMES
An architect's eye: "Even in the darkest times, Coventry cathedral tower stood up with the pride to show and represent the strength of the city."
LOOK AT TODAY, THROUGH YESTERDAY
An architect's eye: "Looking at the Coventry today while standing inside the cathedral ruins tells many stories and sacrifices Coventry had to do to become what it is today."
Neue Kathedrale. Altarraum in der Christuskapelle (Chapel of Christ the servant)
Neue Kathedrale. Altarraum in der Christuskapelle (Chapel of Christ the servant), "Ausland" Coventry
