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INTERFACE RESIDENCY: Resident Artist Doran George

The Mourner's Dance: Forging communities of recovery from bereavement through experimental dance.

  • Introduction
  • Open Discussion
  • Workshops
  • Symposium
  • Call for Papers
  • Doran George Biography
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    • ‘When Dad died last year the potential of my practice came into view. Attitudes toward mortality and bereavement splinter communication and stifle grieving.  You don’t know how to talk to those around you, and they don't know what to say either… sometimes for years, sometimes a lifetime!  Our artform, that works with the physical expression of emotion is primed for the rawness of loss, when words fail.  Coupled with audience practice that procures deep investment in the process we can cut through the alienation of grief by creating a micro-community.’
    INTRODUCTION
    Using experimental dance to work with grief can shed light on a life experience most of us are ill-equipped to face.  When someone dies, we don’t know how to talk to those around us, and they don't know what to say either… The expression of emotion, in body-based art forms, is suited for the rawness of loss when words fail. Through this residency the potential of experimental dance to respond to bereavement will be made accessible within and beyond the dance community by focusing on how emotional recovery is integral to performance, and the call to perform is endemic to the rituals following death.  Artists and non-artists, facing bereavement will work with the creative potential of recovery to develop new performance practices.  We will extend the reach of these practices beyond the rarified world of performance.

    The residency will be located in the dance and bereavement communities, making links with health professionals, relevant voluntary and religious communities.

    It will highlight that dance:

    • taps into the enormous potential of non-verbal expression and speaks to the "lost-for-words" state of bereavement
    • reaches beyond the arts sector to contribute to cutting-edge thinking and professional practice in critical human services and can be used as a vehicle for progress, taking platforms at the forefront of debate.
    • is not esoteric, rarified or irrelevant to wider culture. 
    • that here are traditions of strong choreographic vision in non-dance settings with use of non-dancers and exciting ways to break down the divide between dance as an art-form and a community practice that challenge limited terms like "community dance" and "dance therapy."
    • that there are new ways of collaborating and working with audiences that can sharpen dialogue about practice.

    The residency will aim to establish and disseminate how:

    • movement practice is a tool for recovery.
    • empowerment of the bereaved in rituals of mourning benefits society.
    • ritual is a desirable process in all recovery.
    • and develop a network pursuing concrete possibilities for further development.

    Doran’s methodology will be based on a review of relevant literature followed a period of studio based research with a gathering of a community of artists and non-artists touched by bereavement.  This research will develop ritual through exploration of somatic practice, folk ritual practice (e.g rending of clothes) and working with materials (artistic, domestic and industrial.) The process will be accompanied by journaling, and examine the significance of relationships, personal beliefs about mortality and the affect of the loss.  Some of the participants in this process have already been identified by Doran but he also hopes to meet other potential collaborators through the open meeting on Nov 16th (see below).

    The findings of the residency will be shared with the wider arts community and those working in the health/bereavement sectors through a series of public workshop, a symposium and the publication of a paper on our website and relevant magazines and journals.

    Throughout the residency Doran will be mentored by artist Rosemary and Patricia Repar from the Arts in Medicine Faculty at the University of New Mexico (www.artsinmedicine.unm.edu)
    OPEN DISCUSSION: NOV 16TH 7.30pm
    This is an open informal discussion to look at the potential to develop strategies for emotional recovery by using the familiar realm of social ritual in conjunction with the rarified realm of the artist.  Be it weddings, funerals, even court appearances, when you perform at a social ritual, taking your place in the bigger picture and riding the emotional journey of it can be powerful and empowering, meanwhile some of the most compelling (theatre/art/dance) performances are given by artists who work with emotional recovery.  If the social significance of the ritual were interlaced with the personal and expressive nature of the artists process people facing major life changes, or healing from personal crisis could be afforded a resource to help them negotiate major shifts. Doran George warmly invites people working in social care, art therapists, community art practitioners, artists, and anyone interested in ‘out of the box’ approaches to figuring out human emotional health and growth.  This meeting is a first step in a new residency at Chisenhale Dance Space looking at performance as a vehicle to work with bereavement.

    WORKSHOPS: Reclaiming the Reqium
    Sat and Sun Feb 16 & 17, Feb 23 & 24 and Mar 1 & 2 at Chisenhale Dance Space

    In the grieving process ordinary moments, when they signify the person who was lost, become highly significant: making a particular kind of sandwich, hearing a word, or handling an object can transport those experiencing grief to another place entirely.  It’s no longer an ordinary moment, it’s a deep connection to the lost person, or feelings about them.

    The workshops will introduce performance as a way to work with bereavement. We will explore elevating the private moments of grief, found in ordinary things, to the level of performance or ritual, a process that can change, enhance or stabilize the way we feel, or perhaps just operate as a place for contemplation. 

    Some of the material we will work with during the workshop will be:

    -Objects things that belonged to the person who has died, or that remind of that person. How to make decisions about what objects to gather. How to work with them, change them and invest in their continuity or the residue they leave behind when we work with them.
    -Activities that connect us to someone who is deceased.  Reminders of the person or a relationship with them, domestic chores, work related activities, hobbies or other activities.  Physical movements, maybe quirks they had.
    -Body Practices that enable us to experience ourselves beyond the familiar as a way to mark or honor the significance of a loss, or change our sense of ourselves.  Stillness, bringing the body into contact with materials, domestic, artistic and industrial, perhaps that have a particular significance with the person who has died.
    -Writing or text, like a list of significant dates, a last letter received, an address, an expression of feeling. 
    -Movement Practices, or ‘active images’ like working with a specific memory, feeling, or question, or something more physical like focusing on the breath.
    -Structures of performance that emerge through arranging, juxtaposing, some or all of these elements (and possibly elements not mentioned here) in relation to each other.  Creating performances that like weddings or funerals, mark a transition in your life. 
    -Audiences as a support to the development of the process.   Do you want one or not, and how to work with them if you do. They can be selected, informed in a specific way.  The relationship of the audience to the work can be structured so that they become invested in the work in a specific way. 

    SYMPOSIUM: The Life of The Mourner’s Dance:  A symposium on using performance practice to learn how to grieve which in turn can teach us how to live. Fri 14th & Sat 15th Mar 08 at Queen Mary, University of London

    A symposium on using performance practice to learn how to grieve which in turn can teach us how to live.     In the wake of loss, contemporary culture that struggles to negotiate mortality can leave the bereaved alienated and confused. Performance practice, rich with tools to work with our bodies and lives, can be a way of restoring meaning in the present.  Bringing together experts in bereavement care, dance, and other relevant professions we will consider how performance can be a catalyst and vessel for emotional recovery through  presentation, performance, film and discussion.

    Fridays program will include:

    John Fox     and Sue Gill ( previously of Welfare State International ) will give an illustrated talk about their new company Dead Good Guides which they formed in 2006 and which picks up where Welfare State International left off.  Mary O’Donnell Fulkerson, will look at the place of the religious and spiritual in performance work that includes bereavement. For the past two decades she has been exploring Gnosticism in her life and visionary work.  Mary has visited 22 countries with her own choreography, solo and group works.  She has initiated dance programs at the University of Rochester, Dartington College of Arts, and co-directed programs for the SNDO, Amsterdam, and the EDDC Arnhem. Jo Clifford will also be presenting and the evening will include film screenings and performative presentations.

    Saturday’s program will include:

    Patricia Repar founder and director of Arts-in-Medicine at University of New Mexico (US) a program of clinical service, research, and education.  She will present her work in this area with a particular focus on bereavement. Rosemary Lee, will talk about walking the tightrope between community and high art in dance. Her choreography is one of the best examples of a practice that located itself successfully beyond the limited terms concert dance and community dance. Robert Pacitti, will look at the socio-political as it interfaces with art, bereavement and life. His critical theatre practice explicitly navigates the socio political with elegant lack of dogma.  Gill Addison will speak about cultural text as memorial in relation to Derek Jarman’s film Blue, and Joan Didion’s film A Year of Magical Thinking. Doran George will speak about The Mourner’s Dance his research project as part of the Interface Residency at Chisenhale Dance Space. Ray Jacobs will also be presenting. There will be further film screenings, followed by discussions with filmmakers.

    Doran George’s     experimental dance/live art practice focuses on the physical, emotional, interpersonal, and cultural body in recovery. His performance work has been funded, commissioned and presented internationally.  He regularly curates cutting-edge performance and events on critical practice such as “Vital Signs: symposium on interfaces between disability politics and contemporary art.”  He has danced for Mary O’ Donnell Fulkerson (Germany) Arlette George (UK), Bock and Vincenzi (UK), Mark Tompkins (France), Oracle Dance (UK) and Yvonne Meier (US.) Doran is widely published, and has taught at NYU, Chelsea School of Art, the University of Southern California Los Angeles, and the University of Marseille.
    BIOGRAPHY: DORAN GEORGE
    Doran George is an artist, dancer, writer and curator. The core concern of his experimental dance/live art practice has been personal/emotional, and community/social evolution, or "recovery:" His own, other peoples, and whole communities. He has worked with grief, transgender, disability, sexual abuse, and abandonment, involving the audience directly in the work such they become a community committed to a "story" of recovery. 

    His ‘live art’ work has been staged across Europe and the US and has ranged from him being bricked up for a working day in the Elephant Castle Shopping Center, to dancing in public spaces. He researches the physical, emotional, interpersonal, and cultural body in recovery and has been supported by London Arts Board, The Arts Council of England, The British Council, Chisenhale Dance Space, Arnolfini, Artsadmin, The Finnish Arts Council, The Arts Council of North Savo (Finland), Stichting Fonds De Trut (The Netherlands) and others.

    He also regularly curates cutting edge performance and events on critical practice including for: ‘The International Transgender Film Video Festival,’ (UK and the Netherlands) and “Vital Signs: symposium on interfaces between disability politics and contemporary art.” He has danced for Mary Fulkerson (D), Arlette George (UK), Bock and Vincenzi (UK), Mark Tompkins (F), Oracle Dance (UK) and Yvonne Meier (US.) He is widely published, and has taught at NYU, Chelsea School of Art, University of Southern California Los Angeles, and University of Marseille among many others.  Doran has a Bachelors Degree in Dance and Choreography from the European Dance Development Center, Arnhem, Holland and completed a Masters Degree in Feminist Performance at Bristol University. His practice is also informed by the years he was employed as a Social Care Worker in London between 1988 and 1999.