I don’t have any prior community dance experience which is making me feel slightly apprehensive towards the community commissions. Although I have some worries about the project, I am hoping that the community I get to work with will teach me valuable knowledge and hopefully I will learn new things about myself also. 

Reading this article has helped me gain more of an understanding of what community work is actually about. It has made me think about how working with a community is about collaboration (perhaps with people that we don’t usually encounter in a dance setting/ people that don’t usually have access to dance). It is not necessarily always about the end result of the dancing, but more about the process of sharing the space together and the benefits that come with that. 

Phrased differently: Why might cultural organisations want to do this for their OWN interests? 

I feel that artists may want participants to co-create with them because it gives them the opportunity to have other perspectives imputed into their own creative vision. It can offer the organization’s new approaches when co-creating with a variety of people with their own individual experiences. 

Participatory art, as I see it, involves the artist taking the role of directing/ giving instructions on their creative vision, and then allowing the participants to have full autonomy over how they choose to react/ interpret these ideas. Therefore, the process involves co-creation, whilst having a power dynamic involved in the orchestration of the piece. 

• Alejandra Gissler / Story Garden 

• Damn fine dance/ Luke Birch and Molly Wright 

• Lizzie Fort 

Although I could not attend the taster session for this group, the idea of working with this community seems like something I would enjoy. Similarly to the story garden, I feel that the social aspect is quite important in this community. I think it would be very exciting to learn about Vietnamese culture and hopefully I would be able to bring new things to the table through movement and dance. 

• Communities can very easily end up in situations where they are being used by artists. The idea of taking people's lived experiences and turning them into a project is selfish and dehumanizing and doesn’t have any benefits for the community. Making sure that your practice is ethical and beneficial for both parties involved creates an environment for healthy co-creation and collaboration. 

• Realizing when to step back and only listen is very important because the intention for you being there should be to empower the people around you. Everyone should be able to learn things from each other and so listening is very important. 

• Making sure you are not approaching working with a community with a savior complex. Treating everyone as equals and not seeing them as ‘other’ or lesser, therefore in need of help/saving.  

I found that having a session with Lizzie and being given important information before meeting the community was very helpful. For example, being informed that only one of the community members speaks fluent English and that we will be relying on a translator most of the time. I think it’s very important to be well researched and to understand who you will be working with in a community setting as it makes it easier to plan appropriately according to the needs of the group. 

An example of taking action to ensure safe dance practice is making sure the space you are working in is accessible for your participants and appropriate for the type of movement/ activities you aim to do in the space (e.g. removing any trip hazards). 

Making sure you are providing movement exercises that target the needs of the group of people you are working with is important. If you have a community of older people or people with disabilities, it is crucial to make sure that the tasks being asked of them are catered to their abilities. Perhaps making your movement plans flexible so that they could be done sitting in a chair, for example, if needed.  

Something that Lizzie has done in preparation before each session is send us full day plans in advance so that we all know what will happen on the day. I find this very effective as it means that all of us arrive on the day prepared with the things that we need to bring, and the day can run smoothly as everyone is on the same page.  

I feel as if the ending of our last session did feel like a good conclusion to our project. However, I personally felt quite sad that it was over. I thought it was a shame because I had only just started to feel like I was getting to know the community members when the commission ended.