The CONTINUOUS Network is delighted to announce its upcoming programme for Autumn 2021.
CONTINUOUS is an ambitious partnership between BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art and Siobhan Davies Studios, working alongside four galleries and two dance organisations around the UK. The partnership aims to foster dialogue and learning between artists and organisations, advancing the presentation of, and development of audiences for experimental independent contemporary dance within visual arts contexts. Reflecting on our learning from the first year of the project we released a statement in 2020 regarding our refocused aims and actions, click here to read that statement.
The CONTINUOUS Network comprises of: BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art (Gateshead), Siobhan Davies Studios (London), Bluecoat (Liverpool), Dance4 (Nottingham), Nottingham Contemporary (Nottingham), The Tetley (Leeds), Tramway (Glasgow), Turner Contemporary (Margate) and Yorkshire Dance (Leeds).
Touring in Autumn 2021
Freestylers' Everybody With Me, Always
Freestylers are an ever-expanding team of artists. We are person-centred and disability-led.
We couldn’t work together in the studio this year and we wanted to see each other in real life, so we started going on walks together. The work is a journey. We are going on tour for the first time. We are meeting new people, finding out what we need and how we can help each other. Making more and more connections.
In the performance we will be sharing some films and live performances with you. As well as some activities in a relaxed environment. You can stand up, make noise, move around and join us if you feel like it. You can have a break when you need, or just relax and watch the show.
Janine Harrington & coworkers' Satelliser: a dance for the gallery
Satelliser is a French transitive verb which means to put into orbit. Satelliser: a dance for the gallery is an ongoing performance work realised by an intergenerational group of coworking dance artists. Coworkers cycle through layered labours of moving, speaking, listening and resting over the course of a day, as they hold buoyant space for conversation to emerge.
The work is being redeveloped through an online discursive rehearsal process across 5 time zones through multiple states and stages of lockdown. As we have each navigated scales of upheaval, dislocation, political turmoil and changing personal circumstances, the processes of being together through conversation have both amplified and challenged what we imagined this work might be and do.
Fernanda Muñoz-Newsome's LET THE BODY
Positioning dance as a form of transformational expression LET THE BODY dives into the fibres, sinews and flesh of our bodies tempting out a devotional, mind loosening, re-pleasuring of our physical bodies sharing space and live electronic music. Parker’s score is entirely composed from recordings of the performers in rehearsal processed into percussive sequences. Using elements of bio-charcoal, soil, scent and smoke inside repetitive pulsing beats and bass frequencies, we are calling to re ground - re earth ourselves and those present, sifting out what no longer is needed and scattering intentions for this moment into the future.
LET THE BODY is a place for the mess and articulation of bodies, raving inside and in our chairs. A sit down inner rave. Let the music move our interior spaces, pivoting/ orienting towards others, creating connection despite the distance.
Featuring performances from Muñoz-Newsome, Serefine1369/Jamila Johnson Small and Nissa Nishikawa with music score by Shelley Parker and lighting by Charlie Hope, LET THE BODY asks what sensations, perceptions, thoughts and chemical/hormonal/cellular changes occur through submitting to dance, deep listening and sound.
COMING IN 2022
Zinzi Minott’s Black on Black: 24R
Black on Black: 24R is a 24-hour-long performance that explores Minott’s engagement with dance, queerness, blackness and the body as archive. The work interrogates dance as a form of labour and the limits of the body through the exhausting processes of repetition and duration.
Over the span of 24 hours, Minott repeats a solo created from movement phrases donated to her by an extended network of black dancers and artists: “if you could imagine a physical archive of dance”, asked Minott, “what nugget or phrase would you donate?”
Minott will perform her solo amidst a 12-screen audio-visual installation consisting of archival footage and other accompanying material from Minott’s personal image collection with a newly commissioned score composed by Gaika.
Robbie Synge & Julie Cleves' To Earth
To Earth considers physical acts of co-operation and a close companionship. With simple ambitions, Julie and Robbie devise novel solutions to share otherwise inaccessible time and space together. Their actions are quiet and personal, bold and adventurous. Performing their shared history through movement, talking, and film this work creates a space to explore, reflect and exchange.
Julie is a London-based performance and dance artist. Julie initially studied BA (Hons) Fine Art and MA Art and Design in Leeds. Increasing her physical practice and training, Julie has worked with a number of dance and theatre companies nationally and internationally including Graeae, Mark Brew, Scottish Dance Theatre and SPINN (Sweden).
Robbie’s practice investigates physical/mechanical potentials of bodies and other physical features. His projects allow social and political themes to arise through circumstance and relationship, often through long-term working relationships with professional or non-professional people.
About the CONTINUOUS x Unlimited Commission
In 2020 the CONTINUOUS Network teamed up with Unlimited to support the creation of a new disabled-led dance work.
A successful two-stage selection process was undertaken by a panel of commissioning partners (BALTIC, Bluecoat, SDD, Tramway, Unlimited) and independent disabled artists, who generously committed their skills and experience to the process. Thanks to those artists: Aby Watson, Chanje Kunda, Laura Lulika and Priya Mistry.
The quality of applicants for this commission opportunity was exceptional and we wish to thank every artist and collective who applied for taking the time to propose their ideas, particularly the four shortlisted applicants who we worked with to develop detailed proposals. It was important to the process that these shortlisted artists were paid for their time to develop these proposals.
Jo Verrent, Senior Producer, at Unlimited:
This new Unlimited commission - and its network of support organisations - is vital as we move forward and reimagine the cultural landscape. It speaks to how we profile and prioritise both as audiences and artists, to where both the dance and the visual arts sector place privilege. That sounds heavier than it's meant to - this work by Freestylers is about joy. The joy of authentic connection, the joy of movement, the joy of communities. Unlimited is proud to be a part of this - the commissioning network, the work itself and most of all, the joy! At this time, we all need more joy in our lives.