All The Way Down

All The Way Down is a new solo research project which poses dancing as a vehicle for thinking about abolition. The notion of abolition can refer to the abolition of gender, the abolition of capitalism, the abolition of prisons or the police, and more. All of these abolitionist movements have in common a desire for and belief in the possibility of a total transformation in the present state of things. I’m interested in how dancing enacts transformations which are as ambitious in scale and spirit as these movements.

The title All The Way Down hints at 2 metaphors that help me think about abolition:

1. Burning: an intense process of material transformation which emits vast amounts of heat and light and leaves no trace of what was previously present.

2. Appliqué: the process of sewing one piece of fabric on top of another - constructing or transforming something through a potentially infinite process of addition.

These 2 metaphors will help me generate scores for dancing which both construct new kinds of presence and transform old ones. If we are constructed as individuals and as a society, “all the way down”, it might be possible to transform and be transformed entirely; again and again and again.

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Upcoming residencies:

September 2020 at Capel y Graig, Ceredigion, Wales

January 2021 at Dance4, Nottingham