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I have not had many experiences with community or participatory dance before this project. In the past I have only worked with children ages 5-10 briefly teaching them different dance classes like ballet and contemporary, and I use to perform for the elder homes when I was younger and sometimes they would dance with us.

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What does the author think the "self-interest" of cultural organisations is when they choose to engage in co-creation?

Phrased differently: Why might cultural organisations want to do this for their OWN interests? The reading states that the reason cultural organizations engage in co-creation is “To give voice and be responsive to the needs and interests of local community members. To provide a place for community engagement and dialogue. To help participants develop skills that will support their own individual and community goals” Matarasso Francois (2023) These are all geared towards the costumer, consumer, or client. That being said this is highly beneficial to industries and business when their work is curated for the community. Making them more likely to engage or indulge.

Matarasso writes: ’One reason for making a distinction between participatory and community art is that they have different concepts of power-sharing.’  Summarise what these differences of power-sharing are.

Participatory art is where the facilitator (choreographer, director) has main control over the community, giving the public freedom to participate but they must still listen and be a part of the facilitator’s final vision.

Community art is when the community creates the arts, they have more contribution to the final product and may differ according to who the community is.

In the final paragraph, Matarasso argues that co-creation might, indeed should, lead to a degree of shared ownership over the artistic product that takes it in directions which the artist leading the project thinks weakens the art. Why might the artist think this is a desirable outcome? What other goals might the artist be considering? Who defines what is “quality” in an artwork in a co-creative process?

When co-creating with people who aren't as involved with the medium practice as they are, the artist are putting away their ego for the sake of the experience during process. Another thing is when you're giving another person enough freedom and authority without a heavy monitoring you're opening the space for true art to appear, and because this art is being created from a different person or people, they're bringing all of their life experiences and knowledge into the product which would become something you wouldn't necessarily do. Which can lead to inspiration and a wider pallet, or just something different to digest. As far as what is the deciding factor of quality is, I strongly believe art is objective but as long as there was thought and effort put into each aspect regardless of what it looks like or what it would have looked like that is the richness of art.

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Lizzie Fort

Lizzie Fort is working with a community of Vietnamese women. There is a language barrier between LCDS students and these women, and I wonder what type of communication tactics will need to be learnt in order to connect properly. I appreciate the opportunity Lizzie has given us to observe Vietnamese culture up close, to be able to respectfully bring new things to their safe and trusted environment.

Lucinda Jarrett

Lucinda brings works with a very powerful group of individuals and her role working with this group is of great importance. Rosetta Life is an arts charity that she runs that works with people who deal with Brain Odysseys which is a rare and life-altering illness. Her goal is by bringing dance into these peoples life with intentions of changing their perception of the world around them and possibly their situation. I can imagine this to be an emotional process but also a very beneficial one. The group of individuals she brought in seemed very sweet and lively.

Ingrid Molinos

Ingrid brings Amici and Young Amici theater company in to collaborate with us. This is a group of people of all different ages who have learning disabilities. Ingrid's career is very intriguing with her interest in Graham and studies at the Martha Graham school. She seems very creative and inclusive with her practices and I like the personalities of the few members she brought in.

Francesca Matthys

What is unique to me about the Baked Bean Company is how Francesca takes her lineage and ancestry and implements it into the practice, for example the Nama Stap Dance originated by the Nama people in Southern Africa. Also adding the experiences of navigating a learning disability mixed with different cultural knowledge. She is looking to use this collaboration as a research opportunity to see what happens when the experiences of the company come into contact with people from different backgrounds, and compare and contrast the experiences in a dance space. I enjoyed the movement we did in this taster session.

Alejandra Gissler

I highly enjoyed visiting and meditating in the story garden with Alejandra. I love being in nature and the tasks she explained for the future of the community commission were very enduring. Although we didn't get to meet any of the members of the community, the environment itself was enough. Alejandra uses this space to encourage healing and softening difficult experiences of a diverse group of women using movement, meditation, and journaling.

Molly& Luke

Molly and Luke are working with a dance company called Damn Fine Dance which is made up of dancers between 60-80 years old. I am really intrigued in this community because they are already dancers. During this taster session they had us dancing together the most and the members of Damn Fine Dance are very creative and kind. Molly and Luke's goal for this project is to discuss age, what that can do for our bodies, and where that can place us in society.

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My first choice is Molly and Luke who work with 60-80 year old dancers based in old street. They're goal is to create work and turn it into a live performance. There is lots of improvisation and journaling. I feel like I would gain a better understanding of people from a different generation than me.

My second choice is Alejandra Gissler who works in the story garden with a diverse group of women 50 and older who live alone and deal with mental or physical health struggles. Alejandra uses tactics like meditation, journaling and improvisation along with the use of the space being a safe, social, and healing environment. Another goal she aims for when collaborating with LCDS students is for us to be able to join the healing experience as well, which is something I definitely see myself doing.

My third choice is the Baked Bean company with Francesca Matthys because I have already worked with her in the past and really enjoyed it. She works with a group of different aged people from all different backgrounds that deal with learning disabilities. Francesca’s goal is to continue to incorporate joy and ancestry into the studio. Opening the space and body with improvisation. I've never really encountered many people with learning disabilities up close or in the studio but I'd like to be able to learn about the stigma around these people and ways that I can break it in social settings.

The similarities I'm finding would be a lot of improvisation, and journaling. Some differences are that certain spaces are more accessible with where they are located, and I don't have experience navigating a space with people who have disabilities in that case can be more challenging. I also think spending time in the story garden has potential to become quite emotional, whereas I don't think I will be given that many challenges with Luke and Molly.

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10 THINGS YOU NEED TO CONSIDER IF YOU ARE AN ARTIST – NOT OF THE REFUGEE AND ASYLUM SEEKER COMMUNITY- LOOKING TO WORK WITH OUR COMMUNITY is a strong cleared pointed reading, listing 10 things you need to know before working with their community. I appreciated the simplicity of it, that way it felt more real, and passionate. Written in a very crucial manner I think this should be read by any artist before working with any community. It can be a universal guide in that way. These steps require a lot of reflection and research, and it's interesting to think about what it would be like for me to create something with a community who have a greater struggle than me. To dismantle the biais and become aware of the privilege and power I hold in the space to make sure my community doesn't feel exploited by sharing their experiences. To deeply assess my intentions beforehand and then carefully choose a topic or topics that I feel are appropriate. Also ask myself “what do I want this community to get out of this?”

What discourses (texts, ideas, theories, words, concepts) did your lead artist introduce this week? Summarise the discourse(s) surrounding the practice which your lead artist brought in. The Life of Lines by Tim Ingold. Chapter 22, To human is a verb is a reading discussing what it means to be human. Talking about anthropology, and going story line of 5 different writers/philosophers as they are discovering what makes us human and not animal and what makes the difference. What our lives are made of. The discovery went from being human is to only exists like fire stands as fire. When it burns and doesn't need any other factors. To humans are becoming, and a separation that was used is a bird doesn't need to fly to be a bird but speaking is what makes us human. How we are ever evolving and leading our lives. I think this speaks to me about how as I am human I am forever learning and evolving my practice of life. How to become human I must grow, as I am growing I am also aging and this changes my state of being human. So I plan to keep this in mind when I begin working with my community of older and wiser individuals.

What approaches to co-creating dance with communities have you experienced in your preparatory workshop?  How do the approaches introduced by your lead artist invite others to co-create with you?

In Luke and Molly’s taster session we were given a task to write a letter of critique  to our bodies individually. Then join together in a group with a DFD dancer per each group because at the time there were more LCDS students than DFD dancers. Then we shared our letters with one another and created a piece of choreography with each other under a score set by the lead artists. This score was something that we had improvised just before where we would use the percussion of someone's voice as a musical guid for our dancing.

What has helped you to feel prepared for starting work on your commission? Do you enter the commission with any questions or concerns? Something that I found was super helpful was the safe-guarding precautions. There were so many things that I hadn't thought about before this that will be very beneficial when working with dancers 60-80 years old. Also the readings so far have brought a greater awareness about how I will enter the community space on the first day.

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Project coordination

-Aims : really asses what are my intentions carefully, to help with planning as well

-Participants : taking into consideration the demographic of people I will be working with, what are their needs?

-Schedule : time management, planning the time properly so there are enough breaks and scheduling a productive amount of time of each activity

-Venue : where am I? What do I have? What don't I have? Is it accessible?

-Content : What will we be doing? Making sure to let everyone know the plan as well so they can be prepared. Try to switch it up and keep it positive.

-People Management : Who all am I working with? What roles can I give to the people who are helping me? And making sure everyone has a role they enjoy.

-Equal opportunities/inclusion : Always consider that my body and minds capability differ from other people. So even if I can do something doesn't mean everyone can and always making sure I have alternates.

-Publicity : Where is this going? And how do I get it there?

-Duty of Care (safeguarding) : Making sure I know the procedures. Create a form to be filled out asking for allergies and health conditions. Making sure I have any aid supplies that are needed.

-Insurance : Public Liability Insurance?

-Resources/music/materials : Would I like to sure prop? Do I want a live musician? Copyright? Writing materials? Clothing or costume?

-Liaison with partners : Host meetings periodically with organization leaders with feedback.

-Documentation : Budgeting, resources, photography or video. Evaluations.

-Monitoring : What kind of records will I be keeping and how will I keep track of them?

- Celebration/ finish : what will take place when this finishes?

-Personal support : Making sure to take care of myself and what I need.

RISK ASSESSMENT

-thinking about what they need in terms of intensity mentally and physically

-reminding myself that this is not going to look like my normal class

-don't pressure any participants work past comfortability

-making sure the space is clear and accessible

-create table list the activities, hazards, risk rating, precautions to be taken, and additional information for leaders

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Discourses:

Affirmative- clear and straightforward about the aim of the institution, open to the public coming from a direct source

Reproductive- introducing art to a new public, widening and educating its audience. Shared through cultural paths.

Deconstructive- Breaking down the institution, making sure it is tickling all the boxes. Making room for better changes.

Transformative- Making positive change politically and socially carried out by independent groups.

No project sits any one of the discourses,  indeed elements of all four approaches can be found in some projects. What elements can you identify in your project which sit in one or more of these discourses?

The one I am finding most relevant to my current project is reproductive. Because we are a school, collaborating with a new group of people creating a work bringing awareness to topic of age that will be performed to a multitude of individuals.

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Here is audio my class and I recorded

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I spoke with Maili who was with Lizzie and the Vietnamese women. To compare our communities Lizzies group didn't have much dance training experience, and spoke very little English. Also Maili’s group got to cook and eat some traditional Vietnamese foods. Most of my group members are from London so there wasn't much of a cultural difference between the LCDS students and DFD dancers. Another factor of Maili’s group is the lack of physical contact, as many of then are domestic abuse survivors, and there is a language barrier the communication to initiate physical contact was a lot harder than it was for me as the DFD dancers are very comfortable with partner work. I would say there are things from each of our groups that could fill gaps in the others. However I am still super grateful that I was put with DFD and wouldn't trade it.

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How did your lead artist end the encounter?

On the day of the performance we had a lovely sensory warm up following by contact improv with the a DFD dancer, got to run through the piece and performed. During the warm up we got to reflect with each other in a shared setting, giving feedback to Luke and Molly and the DFD dancers.

Did you feel the project "ended well" for both you and the other dancers?I felt the project ended very well or me and the DFD dancers and we were very sad it was over.

Was there anything missing from this ending? I wish I was able to spend more time with them and celebrate our hard work and collaboration.

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Main Question: What role can participatory/community dance play in the development of an artistic practice?

Each day we would have some sort of warm up, most of the time led by Luke Birch with some sort of release like quality. Incorporating breath, practicing balance and mobilization. Other times we would do a sensory warm up with a partner, using touch to introduce the body to movement and contact. Something I really appreciate about our structure was the way I always knew what the plan was for the day. Some days we would follow the warm up section with an improvisation task, these ranged from vocal to physical. One of my favorite tasks we practiced was where two individuals would be having a conversation but without using words but noises that would be used as a reaction in a conversation. Lots of “ou’s” and “hmm’s” sometimes there would be laughter involved. What I found most appealing about this task was whoever wasnt speaking would be mimicking the sounds with their bodies and each person would face each other with the mimicking bodies behind them so we could watch one another. Another task we were given was to walk in a line. The only instruction was to interact with the person in front or behind you. This day in particular the Damn Fine Dancers dancers really proved to me how open, explorative, and creative they can be. Luke and Molly kept adding props for us to use along the way, there were shoes, trousers, water bottles, and at one point one of the dancers named Karla was pulling my socks off as I was walking away. These tasks were always entertaining and informative. A huge aspect of this process was journaling, we used them each day for different reasons. Either to write letters, information about each other, or notes, this task would normally come either after the warm up or after the improv tasks. Then we entered the compositional stage of our process, we worked with one other person or in small groups. Sharing what we had written and creating ideas, working together to collaborate. Half way through or after the creative process, we would have tea and biscuits. Regardless, this break would always occur at 3 pm and last for 30 minutes. This was a perfect opportunity to socialize with the community and get to know them better. Once that time was up we would come back and finish our creative processes and share. Once we shared depending on what time it was Luke and Molly would use what they had just seen and create something involving all of us. People would teach their choreography to us to make a large unison section which was one of the first things we created in the process of developing the final product. On our 3rd day we played with a task where we split into groups, clumped together and fought to be at the front, pretending to want all the spotlight and each member had to take their turn of stepping in front or moving the person in the front to the back in a gentle way. This got messy and was very enjoyable to watch. This task ultimately made it to the final product with the subtle change of maneuvering with the same energy except instead of pretending to want all the spotlight we read small bits of a letter of complaint we had written to our bodies just earlier that day. Most days Luke and Molly directed us and what we made into a final product they felt was fitting to their vision.

As far as the artistic process went, for the most part it was Luke and Molly facilitating and composing work that we made from tasks they intentionally created and supplied. I would consider this a co-creative process based on the lack of specific demands given from the lead artists. All of what we created would have drastically changed just by the switch of a person, from the movement they individually created to the way their energy and artistry had an effect on the other person or people in the group. “For example, it is of the essence of fire that it burns. Precisely what fuels the fire, or what is heated by means of it, is an accidental or contingent matter. Perhaps you burn wood to heat water, but neither wood nor water is necessary for there to be fire.” Ingold, T (2015). I chose this quote because it ties well the artistic approach Luke and Molly went for when curating the piece. Simply to allow what was made to exist for the sake of existing and let the other factors add themselves to the product. Meaning the choreography the DFD dancers and I made to be the fire and the other factors that were added on to be the wood and the audience’s perception to be the water. A Lot of questions asked by our lead artists was “what would it look like if we did this?” very much research that developed through molding and slight tweaking. Another one is “can we try this? Or “how does this feel?” I believe they asked these questions in hopes to not strip anything of its authenticity. My lead artists approached the setting process with very gentle and delicate hands. Some questions asked by the DFD dancers and LCDS students were “how do you want this?” in hope to curate ourselves into something we think the people in the front of the room want to see but most of the time the response would encourage breaking boundaries or set movement to take and feel whatever it is and hon in on that.

As this commission is over, reflecting back on the knowledge and experience I've gained from working with a community that is outside of my own. It is important to put away your ego for the sake of the space and experience of who you are working with as well. Something I found I didn't necessarily need to think about but will in future depending on who I am working with is. “Your project may have elements of participation but know how this can just as easily be limiting, tokenistic and condescending. Because of course the dancer I am working with isnt going to be absolutely fairmilar and on par with the skills that I am currently practicing. That being said I felt I encouraged a lot of material out of the Damn Fine Dancers, giving them space and letting go of any expectations. On the other hand of that I found myself not putting enough into the creative process in fear of it being too physically intense for their bodies. I asked Luke how to go about implementing my full ideas without overworking or overwhelming the DFD dancers. He responded with “we want you to bring your whole self into the space, they will tell you if it's too much. They want the challenge so don't be afraid.” (Birch, 2025). Another thing I've come to regret is not taking advantage of the time I spent with them, and really sitting to listen. I really wanted to know more about their personal lives and careers, because they have been on this earth longer than me and I know their experiences have brought them wisdom and I felt there was so much I could have learned from them. I had the chance to have formed close connections with these people but I never pushed past that uncomfortable feeling of not knowing someone yet and often clinged on to my fellow classmates. I was so fortunate to be able to spend time with these amazing people and if I could do it over, I would.

For my professional practice working with a community that is not of my own or something I'm used to was super educational. Because when working with people carrying different daily experiences or those who would be considered at risk, there are alot more aspects to be considered when leading that space. This project has greatly widened my awareness for people's needs, helping me build a bigger checklist of elements to consider before entering a space. “Your demands on our community sharing our stories may be just as easily disempowering. What frameworks have you already imposed on participation? What power dynamics are you reinforcing with such a framework?” Canas, T (2015) This reading in particular felt like a cultural awakening to what working with more intense communities can be like. The awareness we must have to make sure we are doing it for the right reasons and the people we are working with do not feel any harm. A good reminder to proceed with more caution with what I ask of dancers with the intention to avoid them feeling any sense of exploitation but also giving them space to open up and express themselves in a way that makes them feel comfortable or empowered.

I feel very fortunate to be able to say that most everything worked well. One of the main successes was the way the DFD dancers were so open to try anything and except all types of creativity.  Also the fact that they had previous dance training and have already been working with Molly and while we LCDS students already knew Luke made it an easy adjustment into that new setting. Another thing was the communication we had with one another made collaborating a smooth process. I think other LCDS students did a thoughtful job of setting aside our ego’s and giving full respect and commitment to the work. Not only the LCDS dancers but everyone in the studio was ready to try anything and was super dedicated. This energy was perfect to reach our creative potential as a group.

Bibliography:

Birch, L and Wright, M (May, 2025). A conversation between lead artists and students.

Ingold, T (2015). The Life of Lines by Tim Ingold. Chapter 22, to human is a verb.

Canas, T (2015) 10 THINGS YOU NEED TO CONSIDER IF YOU ARE AN ARTIST – NOT OF THE REFUGEE AND ASYLUM SEEKER COMMUNITY- LOOKING TO WORK WITH OUR COMMUNITY