DIY: 2015 – Catherine Long and Brian Lobel ‘Working (It) Out with Catherine and Brian’

Fitness for YOU! No really; YOU! We want YOU to work out with us.

Project Summary

Working (It) Out with Catherine and Brian is a series of fitness workouts led by five different teachers from different approaches, followed by a facilitated response/feedback discussion after each session. It will involve a group of up to ten participating artists who each identify as having a body that experiences stigmatisation; to include disabled bodies, bodies affected by chronic or terminal illness, people who experience stigmatisation due to their gender, sexuality or appearance, and people with mental health issues and/or other invisible conditions.

This DIY explores people’s relationship with group activities that are generally designed around the notion of a normative body, which therefore often excludes many people who don’t fit into the model of ‘normativity’. The classes will be taught by qualified teachers in Yoga, Pilates, Zumba, Boxercise and/or Qi Kung.  Every session will be accessible and adaptable for every body involved. The project will raise questions about power, beauty, functionality, mobility and the stigmatised body in the public space while also allowing participating artists a chance to reflect on interactive performance, participation and group dynamics inside of live art practice.

Application Deadline: Deadline passed.

Dates, times, location 

Working (It) Out with Catherine and Brian will take place over the first two weeks of October, in London. Due to the nature of this DIY, we will ask all accepted participants to submit their schedule, workout preferences (when in the day is best for them to exercise), work schedules and access requirements, before building the finalised schedule. We will build a schedule that allows all participants to attend at least 3 of 5 sessions.

The Artists

Working (It) Out with Catherine and Brian comes from Catherine and Brian’s current collaboration on Grinding Thoughts, a new performance based on The Grind, a 90s MTV workout show. This new project sees shows like The Grind, and other workouts as ground zero for societal discomfort around difference and the policing of non-normative bodies. In her work as a dance artist, Catherine’s practice involves translating choreography from a non-disabled dancer to a disabled dancer in a way that does not call upon prevailing ideals of capacity or elegance. In his practice, Brian Lobel creates interactive performances exploring the love of amateur dance and dance as a socio-political tool.