Anthology of Touches – the next stage…

I arrived at Hull Dance early on a Monday morning after a long journey to a warm and wonderful welcome from Keyna to the new studio premises.

It felt great to shed my bags, slip off my shoes, slip on my comfy dance pants and lie down on the studio floor whilst drinking tea and catching up. Arriving and grounding and settling in before the week ahead of moving, meeting and experimenting. 

Effie and I felt so at home in Hull Dance with the generous support of Keyna that we could quickly unload and unpack the materials and movements from our body of work to reimagine them in the space. Remembering what they were before and discovering new information to form what it will become. It felt like a really important time for the work to both settle into itself but also grow new shoots of ideas. 

We had outside eye support from the marvellous Fiona Millward who came to talk to us about the themes in the work and offer some insight into the somatic content of our movement. This felt extremely nourishing for the work itself and our knowledge of the wider embodiment of the materials we are playing with. Our minds were blown by the wealth of knowledge shared and our bodies savoured wrapping themselves round the complex ideas discussed.

We also welcomed local dancers and members of the community into the studio at various points over the week to talk together and move together and witness each other processing thoughts and feelings through our bodies and collective dancing. This is always integral to the development of the work and the richness of information we gather is truly the beating heart of the piece. Tea and biscuits are the best fuel for these matters.

We are so thankful for the generosity of the dancers in Hull and the support of Hull Dance in bringing us together to research something we believe in, and hopefully leaving an imprint of the work behind us

Luke Birch
June 2025