Open Practice 

Open practice is a format for artists to work ‘alongside’ one another: it is a space for individuals and small groups of collaborators to share studio space and to give and receive peer support. Often artists work in isolation, whilst open practice provides affordable or free studio space, peer-to-peer feedback and a sense of community. I first experienced the format in Bristol at the Open Practice sessions run by the artist-led collective Gather Up.

The Open Practice sessions we offer our Candoco Dance Artists apply the format I learnt from Gather Up. The sessions are 3 hours long and are structured around the needs of the people in the room: we gather at the beginning of a session to introduce ourselves and say a little about what we’re working on, to negotiate music or silence in the space and to see if the people attending would like to share something and to have feedback or simply have what they are working on witnessed. We run the sessions on a Wednesday afternoon when we are in rehearsals and when the Candoco Dance Company Dancers have a paid rest day (read Postcard from the Studio – Week 2).

On Wednesday 20 November, we hosted our second Open Practice session and it was a treat to have Candoco Dance Artists Dermot Farrell, Billy Gigurtis and his collaborator Martha Kent share something from what they are working on:

Dermot shared a section of his solo work ‘Still Image’ and his approach to inhabiting the space through imagery. Dermot imagines the surface he might be walking on, be it sand or mud, and use the imagery to inform his movement and performance. He also uses images in his teaching, giving students a different way into dance.

Billy and Martha are working on material for a music video that will be filmed in the New Year. Drawing on Tanztheater methods, they took lyrics from the music track as prompts and created solo material they performed alongside one another. With small shifts in direction and timing, the looping of their material can create endless possible juxtapositions of this material.

It was a real privilege to witness the work being made and to find out more about the methodologies of the artists we have relationships with.

If you have worked with Candoco in the past 5 years as a performer or facilitator and you’ve not received an email from us about the Candoco Dance Artists scheme please don’t hesitate to be in touch with us at learning@candoco.co.uk

Some feedback on the open practice from the artists themselves:

“I loved this afternoon. I had the chance to work on something in an unflustered way”.

“I’ve not had the chance to work on my solo like this [in the studio] before”

“It was a really nice supportive atmosphere. Not too many people and not too distracting.”

“I had a good balance of dancing and writing and thinking.”

“It’s hard to find the right opportunities at the right time. But this feels right for me.”

Citation as a feminist practice:

Gather Up taught me this format of Open Practice, which they say they learnt from someone else too.

Healing Justice London taught me citation as a feminist practice.