Slip Mould Slippery

Fashion designer Sinead O’Dwyer & choreographer Grace Nicol are collaborating with dance artists Alethia Antonia, Dorna Ashory, Iro Costello, Florence Pearl and Natifah White to tackle themes of bodily autonomy in the context of dance, fashion & public spaces. They took part in a research and development period for the project, where they questioned what it means to own your body or claim power in the contexts of dance, fashion, and public spaces (such as galleries and museums) where, historically, non-cis male bodies struggle for bodily rights. The aim of the R&D was to look at how they could challenge their own borders to challenge institutional or cultural borders. This led to three main themes: The Abject (the messy living body), New Materialism (the power or efficacy of objects) & Care. This project is still under development with performances scheduled for 2022. Watch the mini documentary made of the R&D period below.

During the research phase of the project, they were led to the realisation that to explore bodily autonomy in these contexts, they needed to work with these themes not just in movement practice, but through working methods. This led to the creation of a Pastoral Care Offer, Public Dance pack and a talk which can be read about in more detail here.