P L A Y T I M E

A ten year dance project about Play & Motherhood.

Is play the solution to parental burnout and isolation?

Playtime is a ten year project asking the question: Is play the solution to parental burnout and isolation?

After a year of having had my second child and become a mother in 2021, I want to create spaces where being an artist and a parent isn’t dissociated.

The project started with a work-in-progress solo performed at The Autumn Festival Dance into the Fall evening of performances. The piece is about motherhood and finding playfulness amidst the chaos.

I am in the process of developing the piece while having my children in the studio. I would like to perform the piece every year for the next ten years questioning:

What happens when children come to create alongside us?
What can children teach us or open in our creation process?
Can they help us with being present, playful and wilder?

Follow the process

2/3 parents are burned out.

What if, as parents, we had spaces where all our needs were met and play could be at the center of it. A place where our children could freely and safely be, from their deepest wild grace. A place where as mothers, we could lie down and learn from our children, truly play with them and why not create with them.

As a movement artist, I don’t want to wait until my children are older to create. I also don’t want to pretend they do not exist. So I am taking them with me to the studio. I want to create alongside them, they are physiologically part of me and will be part of my work too. Why not make it visible?

Project Phases – YEAR ONE

R&D

We are now in the Research&Development phase. We are interviewing mothers about their experience. We are testing strategies in the studio, talking to other artists and delivering workshops for movers and their children to co-create.

Research and Documentation will be available in the Process section.

Follow the process

Creation

Continuing the solo piece, I will be joined in the studio with my two children and creative collaborators to create an interactive performance piece.

Performance

The main outcome of the project will be:

An interactive performance including a 20 minute performance and 30 minutes of free play for parents and their children to join the performers.

The piece will be growing with us and will be performed every year for the next ten years or for as long as it wants to go on for.

WORKSHOP

FOR PARENT ARTISTS (& THEIR CHILDREN)

Tuesday 16th of January at Sadlers Wells, Studio C, London.

If you are a movement artist and a parent of small child(ren) and would like to come together as a community to share experiences, this session is for you. Part workshop and part discussion, Playtime is a two-hour session where we explore what it means to be a new parent and an artist. Children are invited to play with us in the studio to enable us to experience and reflect on creating while parenting small children.

Playtime is a relaxed and welcoming space for artist parents to explore, experiment and move together while talking to one another as well as sharing the space with their children if needed and/or desired. Bringing your children is non-compulsory but a curiosity about working in the studio with children of any age is necessary.

You can join the discursive part of this session remotely via Zoom at 11:30 on Tuesday 16 January for those that cannot attend in-person or would prefer to join online. You will be sent a PDF in advance outlining activities, that you are invited to do at home before or after the session. Please click here for further information and how to book.

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