INHABIT - Programme Brochure

INHABIT

Tickets and Information: 0151 702 5324 www.thebluecoat.org.uk

...is in its final phase of Bluecoat’s three year programme of New Dance which champions the independent dancer and includes audiences and participants from the wider community in the making and performance of new work.

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Based at Bluecoat, Jo Blowers, Paula Hampson and Mary Prestidge are members of Liverpool Improvisation Collective (LIC), the dance artists behind the INHABIT programme. Their dynamic presence across the city in the past twenty years has raised the profile and made dance more visible across Liverpool and the North West.

back cover

We are delighted to share this final INHABIT programme, for Spring 2019.

INHABIT front cover

New Dance Events at

© Katrina Shock

Front and reverse images © Chris Mellor

New Dance Events at

CI SUNDAYS – Contact Improvisation: open dance sessions 17 Feb, 17 Mar, 14 Apr, 19 May Time: Class 1–3pm. Jam 3–5pm.

Class, £6/4. Jam, £3. Both £8/5.

Inspiring imagination Wed 6 Mar 2–4pm £5/£3 Performance space

Liverpool Improvisation Collective continue their monthly Contact Improvisation Class and Jam throughout winter and spring 2019. These sessions are designed for people with all levels of moving and dance experience. The CI class is taught by LIC artists and associates and offers skills and materials related to this form.

The Jam is not led but invites opportunities for participants to explore their own dancing in a more open but supported framework.

Mary Prestidge, who has worked with emerging dancers from Bluecoat’s inclusive arts programme Blue Room over the past three years, will offer insights into her methodology around supporting authenticity and imagination in new dance practice.

Two Blue Room dancers, Tony Carroll and Diana Disley, will co-facilitate the session.

Participants will be invited to join in with a typical session of improvisation and play.

There will be time for reflection, discussion and exchange about this area of work. This workshop is open to dancers, other artists, facilitators or organisers working in and interested in inclusive arts practice.

© Chris Mellor

In The Palm Of My Hand A dance cross- art performance Sat 2 and Sun 3 Feb 2pm and 4pm each day Tickets £5/£4 This performance event draws together a group of women and children from Kinship Carers Charity, in Liverpool. Over the last 6 months, dance artist Paula Hampson and composer Chris Mellor worked creatively with the group to explore ways to raise awareness of the role of a kin carer. In August the families were invited on two field trips to Delamere forest and Formby beach. Den building, beach combing, climbing trees and sliding down dunes became the playground to further engage and share stories. A dedicated group continued their creative journey at Bluecoat.

Through their own words and movement, personal stories of hope, courage, love and determination are shared. Joined by First Take Video, with lighting design and production by Phil Saunders, projected image, music and film capture the passionate narrative of the group.

Sharing Artistic Practice Workshops led by INHABIT dance artists Mary Prestidge and Paula Hampson

© Katrina Shock

New Territory – Real Lives Wed 20 Mar 6–8pm £5/£3 Performance Space As part of INHABIT, Paula Hampson has set about engaging people from very different communities through dance. Sharing her practice she invites participants to explore the idea of engagement, personally and socially through creative movement, improvisation, drawing and writing. In considering New Territory, Real Lives, Paula reflects upon a recent project to explore creatively ‘how we meet our-self, in order to meet others’.

What skills do we draw upon and believe to be important when developing new groups and relationships?

© Laura Yates

Expanding the Picture II Wed 13 Feb 7pm Tickets £5/4 This is an immersive performance event with Tony Carroll and Diana Disley who have been working over the past six months with Mary Prestidge and guest artists. Expanding the Picture II brings this process to the public sphere to share with a wider audience these two dancers’ interests and ambitions. The performance illuminates a way of being present and ‘in the moment’ bringing rare authenticity to the fore as the performers engage in multi disciplinary activities, interacting with objects, sound and projections.

Contact Improvisation is an evolving system of movement initiated in 1972 by American choreographer Steve Paxton. The improvised dance form is based on the communication between two moving bodies that are in physical contact and their combined relationship to the physical laws that govern their motion – gravity, momentum, inertia. Contact improvisations are spontaneous physical dialogues that range from stillness to highly energetic exchanges.

CI is enjoyed by movers of all kinds – professionally trained dancers, recreational movers, actors and physical performers, disabled dancers, old, young.

© Pete Griffiths

Sat 6 Apr 10.30am–5pm £30/20 (includes light refreshments) Moving Dialogues is a one-day event for artists and educators. Delivered in partnership with Liverpool Improvisation Collective (LIC), the symposium is the culmination of INHABIT, a 3-year programme of new dance at Bluecoat.

The event includes a workshop, discussions, presentation and performance.

LIC artists Jo Blowers, Paula Hampson and Mary Prestidge have a shared ethos and collective practice which has sought new ways of working through artistic experimentation and exploration. The day will be an opportunity to reflect and share, with invited guests, their experience of INHABIT having worked across participation, practice innovation, programme and audience development to create a wide reaching programme of New Dance.

The session is open to dancers, other artists and facilitators working creatively in engagement.

There will be time to reflect, discuss and exchange our experience.

© Katrina Shock

Symposium – Moving Dialogues

© Thomas Haentzschel