Are you passionate about work that uses words in dance performance? What kind of challenge do words present when making instantly composed pieces? What skills need to be practiced? Do you have questions or ideas about the weight, geometry and emotional load of words? What can dancers and poets learn about the body’s sense of poetry? How does space play a role in all of this?

You are invited to come together to explore these sorts of questions and more in a relaxed space that supports genuine curiosity and genuine listening.

OST believes that exactly the right people are present in the conversation. Propose to discuss a question that you feel is imperative to ask. If a conversation doesn’t do it for you, then use the law of two feet and move on to one that does. OST gives you the freedom to choose what you want to think, debate, plan and do with a forum for action at the end of the day.

This is an opportunity for dancers and poets and scholars to reassess and reaffirm the work we want to do. The day will arrive at the end of a week of work looking at space and words for dancers led by Julyen Hamilton (Spain) and Billie Hanne (Belgium). We will produce reports and other artefacts (images, videos, words, poems) to submit to the Space and Words for Dancers website. It is also envisaged that in the after-life of this event, as well as performance-based outcomes, there’ll be an opportunity for artists, scholars and poets to contribute to a special edition of the journal Choreographic Practices edited by Vida Midgelow (Middlesex University).

Throughout the day there’ll be food and drink to oil belly and tongue. (Bring a cushion for comfort).

An inaugural event of the Transdisciplinary Improvisation Network (TIN) – a research cluster led by Vida Midgelow, Robert Vesty and others in the School of Media, and Performing Arts at Middlesex University. Supported by Arts Council England, Middlesex University, & Chisenhale Dance Space. Facilitated by Beccy Owen.

For more information and to book your place