Dancing Bodies In Coventry - CRMC / Anton Mirto Residency
In May 2020, artist Anton Mirto had an online residency with the Coventry Refugee and Migrant Centre, exploring movement, community, the soul and the city.
What does Coventry mean to you?
In preparation for the movement workshops to be offered by artist Anton Mirto during the residency, the Dancing Bodies in Coventry team first asked the CRMC team about what Coventry means to them as people who live and/or work in the city.
What is your experience of working in Coventry?
CRMC team members Rachel Harrington, Mary Unsworth and Sroosh Kouhyar share their experience of the city, thinking about its past and its present.
Can you share a picture of a place in Coventry that means something to you?
The CRMC team speak to the city's diversity and sense of community; it is a city of production and industry, but also of survival and resilience; a place of shelter and sanctuary.
From physical place to digital space: lockdown
Artist Anton Mirto's notes for the residency workshops. The sessions, which had been due to take place physically, had to happen digitally in one-to-one sessions because of the Covid-19 pandemic and the UK-wide lockdown restrictions. Both Anton and participants, Ahmed Ghazy and Mary Unsworth, worked together from their respective homes, speaking and moving across distance. There were Skype conversations and improvised movement duets, moving through thoughts about belonging, place, city, community and Soul in a time of international crisis.
Gestural scores
Artist Anton Mirto's notes on gestural scores that emerged from exploring the movement of the Soul with workshop participants, Ahmed Ghazy and Mary Unsworth.
Workshops began with a series of breathing and movement exercises, developing into improvised dance, writing and drawing.
Workshops began with a series of breathing and movement exercises, developing into improvised dance, writing and drawing.
What is Soul? Building a Place
Artist Anton Mirto's notes for the online movement workshops. A score for thinking and moving through the question 'What is Soul?' and building a physical place for that Soul, using paper, gesture and movement.
Mary's Dance
Artist Anton Mirto's notes for participant Mary Unsworth's dance created over the course of the online movement workshops. The dance responded to the following prompts:
What is the sound of your soul?
What is the movement of your soul?
What enlivens the soul?
What is the sound of your soul?
What is the movement of your soul?
What enlivens the soul?
Thinking about Place
Artist Anton Mirto's notes for the online movement workshops, thinking about place and the soul.
What places generate a sense of belonging and enrich the soul?
How do we care for the place around us? How does it care for us?
What places generate a sense of belonging and enrich the soul?
How do we care for the place around us? How does it care for us?
Where do you feel a sense of Soul?
Artist Anton Mirto's notes for the online workshops about site, place and where we find a sense of Soul.
Wherever you stand, be the soul of that place
Artist Anton Mirto's notes for the online movement workshops: where in the city would you stand to laugh? where would stand to feel love? To feel safe? To appear strong? To belong? To show your soul?
How Many Times
A poem written and read by Ahmed Ghazy, a Coventry resident, who took part in three online workshops with Anton Mirto as part of the Dancing Bodies in Coventry CRMC project. Ahmed wrote this poem as a response to the movement material explored in the first online workshop in May 2020.
Act as a bird
A poem written by Ahmed Ghazy in response to the second online movement workshop led by Anton Mirto.
Destination
Coventry resident Ahmed Ghazy's poem written in response to the second online movement workshop led by artist Anton Mirto.
Yes We Can
A poem written by Ahmed Ghazy in response to the second online movement workshop with Anton Mirto.
Find a Quiet Place - A Walk with the Soul
'The simple meaning of life came from the mother.
Any mother either human, animal or plant.'
Photograph and text by Ahmed Ghazy in response to a final task suggested by Anton Mirto following the third of the online workshops:
'Find a quiet place.
Any mother either human, animal or plant.'
Photograph and text by Ahmed Ghazy in response to a final task suggested by Anton Mirto following the third of the online workshops:
'Find a quiet place.
Maybe close your eyes.
Gently follow your breathing.
Be still / find stillness somewhere deep inside.
Welcome / greet your soul in whatever way you like.
How does your soul respond to your reaching out to it?
Perhaps begin writing a dialogue.
You might start by saying how you feel, what’s on your mind, or asking a question.
When you’ve expressed yourself, let your soul respond… ..
Then, go somewhere in the city (safely) & take two photographs that can express anything that may, or may not, come out of this dialogue' (Anton Mirto).
Find a Quiet Place - A Walk with the Soul II
'The other photo gave me a good place to spend some time with my soul to talk to ourselves.'
Photograph and accompanying text by Ahmed Ghazy in response to Anton Mirto's suggestion of a final task in the third workshop to go on a walking dialogue with the soul out into the city of Coventry.
Photograph and accompanying text by Ahmed Ghazy in response to Anton Mirto's suggestion of a final task in the third workshop to go on a walking dialogue with the soul out into the city of Coventry.
