DIY: 2019 – Charlie Ashwell & Es Morgan: ANDROGYNY!

A weekend of dance and discussion for anyone interested in thinking about gender through dancing.

Deadline for applications: 2pm, Thursday 20 June
This DIY is supported by Dance4, International Centre for Choreography

Project summary

ANDROGYNY! will be a weekend of dance and discussion for artists who…

Are curious about androgyny
Are skeptical about androgyny
Love dancing but feel self-conscious
Love dancing but feel frustrated with the lack of queer-specific places to dance
Don’t go to dance classes because it means having to decide what to wear
Want to use dancing to disrupt, complicate, resist, or play with the gender binary
Are sick of understanding gender only through language
Want to find a place for gender fuckery in their dancing
Want to find a place for dancing in their gender fuckery

We invite artists of all disciplines to join us to think about gender through dancing. We propose androgyny as a tool to approach gender through movement, action and sensation, beyond aesthetics. We want to challenge what masculine and feminine dancing looks like!

Androgyny is often understood as a “neutral” expression of gender: somewhere “in between” masculine and feminine. However, whilst the gender binary still shapes our lives, we cannot put any faith in neutrality, or any supposed “absence” of gender.

Androgyny, for us, is not something that you are, but something that you do: a flickering, an oscillation, a movement or disturbance. Through developing “androgynous” practices, we refuse a passive, neutral middle ground, and move further towards the unknown.

We will lead improvised movement tasks, to do with others and alone. We will talk, write, imagine, and create, offering choreographic starting points, as well as creating space for artists to follow their own interests.

How to apply

This DIY is for artists of any gender and from any discipline, including dancers and non-dancers. You should be comfortable/ interested/ prepared to work with movement, though you needn’t have any experience of doing this.

We would like to work with people who are already engaged in some way in questioning the politics of gender, whether within their own practice or outside of it.

We will prioritise people who may otherwise feel excluded or alienated from dance spaces or dance training opportunities; whether that’s gender non-conforming dancers who feel uncomfortable in the normatively gendered space of the dance class, or non-dancers who would not normally enter dance contexts.

To apply, register your details in the online application and tell us a bit about why you want to take part.

We want to make sure that cost isn’t a barrier for anyone wishing to participate. We have a small amount of money available to subsidise travel/accomodation for some participants. After the application process we will get in touch to offer what help we can.

Dates, times and location

Dates: 12 – 13 October 2019
Location: Dance4, International Centre for Choreography, Nottingham. ANDROGYNY! Runs alongside Nottdance Festival (9 -13 October 2019).

The artists

Charlie Ashwell is a London-based artist and dramaturg working with choreography, writing and magic as speculative practices. They collaborate regularly with Seke Chimutengwende and Es Morgan, and recently presented the solo work “Banishing Dance” in SPLAYED Festival, with The Place and Wellcome Collection. They also teach dance technique, improvisation and choreography at the University of Roehampton.

Es Morgan is a queer dance artist, curator and writer from Hull, East Yorkshire. Their work draws cues from climate activism, queer culture, and far-left politics, carving out spaces for radically reimagining the future. In collaboration with Joseph Morgan Schofield & Sara Sassanelli, Es curates move close, a queer club night which brings together dancing, experimental electronic music, and unannounced performances from dance & performance artists.

Charlie and Es work together as a choreographer/ dramaturg duo. They have organised and led workshops and events exploring gender, magic, politics and the future.

For questions about this DIY, please contact the artist.