“As women, we find ourselves performing all the time to meet society and the culture’s expectations about what we’re supposed to do, how we’re supposed to look, what we’re supposed to think.”
This quote, by Martha Wilson, sets up a series of images that ring true with me, as a woman in her later life, reflecting on her younger self.
I came to work in the arts in the 1990s, feeling constrained by society, into the archetypal ‘Administrator’. I worked as an Arts Officer in local government, with my role allowing me to commission and support some inspirational artists who, I began to realise, lived and interacted with me in a very different way to my work colleagues. I always feel humbled and privileged to be able have this role and throughout my career I learned the deep debt we owe to the contribution artists make in our society. Not only do they see things differently and experiment to produce work that challenges and forces us to look at the world from their perspective, but they also give themselves continually and question most things. It was refreshing, being able to raise questions, give an objective view and help so many people engage and have new experiences, regardless of age.
Leaving the constraints of local government and securing funds to work with people over 60, I also wanted to work with older artists to address several issues.
Firstly, using the arts to challenge what we encounter as we age including stigmatisation, social isolation and loneliness. If you have worked all your life then retire due to age or ill health, finding your way in a fast-changing society can be daunting. Likewise, if you take time out as an older person to care for someone – grandchildren or an older relative or partner it’s easy to lose touch when social networks fold.
I remember speaking to a lady who told me she was so pleased she had come out to a workshop as part of the International Day of the Older Person. She had nursed her husband for over three years as he lived with cancer and gone from being consumed by care, the daily routine of the nurses coming into everything coming to a stop once he died. She was in the house totally alone and had to pick herself up as she had completely dropped out of her own life and then found it difficult to re connect.
I saw her a few months later at another workshop, again she was grateful for the opportunity to get out and join in. Although there are many clubs and societies, it’s often difficult to turn up when you don’t know anyone, lack confidence or feel nervous.
Another consideration was lack of affordable opportunities and places of welcome and understanding. I was also aware of how older people were seen as a drain on health and welfare budgets, overshadowed by more vocal generations and had limited opportunities to voice opinions. Many become silent, lonely and unseen.
In 2017, when working with The Baring Foundation, on a project for people living in care with dementia, the realisation dawned on me the this population in particular had even less opportunity and no choice as what we were taking to them hadn’t been asked for by them.
The care home was very happy to have anything free, allowing their staff a bit of time out. Often, regular routines continued to happen around us as artists worked in person centred care with beautiful one to one intimacy and then it stopped totally once the funding finished.
I felt there must be a better way to work with older people with an aim of helping them to stay connected and staving off dementia by keeping engaged and active. Hence ArtSpeak, a bespoke programme of arts aimed at over 60s materialised.
At this time, I was a trustee of Radford Care Group, a centre offering day provision for older people. I managed to secure Big Lottery funding and used this to set up the project which employed me, alongside Hannah Stoddart as full-time project coordinator and together we started to create this affordable, welcoming, bespoke arts programme for anyone as long as they were over the age of 60.
I met Deane McQueen, when she joined our theatre group Kindred Spirits, she herself is a workshop facilitator, choreographer and movement specialist.
As she is an older artist, we discussed hosting a project that would be an opportunity for our members to come together to experiment, hung loosely on the term ‘dance.’ We also wanted to work at city centre gallery Nottingham Contemporary where, over a few years, we had various discussions about having a group meet in their ‘Space’ a large performance and workshop facility with state-of-the-art digital tech.
So many older people living in and around Nottingham never visit this gallery, which considering their offer seemed a great shame to me. Much contemporary work they exhibit is stimulating and challenging, should appeal to all ages, and it’s free to access. It was always my aim to see older people own an element of what happens there and feel they want to visit because they enjoy and value the venue as part of the city’s cultural offer. We felt working with Deane would be a great way to start something that might contribute to changing this stigma and bring down a barrier alongside an enjoyable element to complement the growing strands of ArtSpeak’s programme.
We established Cool Company as a rolling programme of sessions based at Nottingham Contemporary, as a dance improvisation ensemble for people aged 60+, inviting participants to come together to experience how we imagine, watch, think, share, and move in our everyday lives. Participants needed no prior dance or movement experience to join.
Taking inspiration from Nottingham Contemporary’s exhibitions, everyday movements are refashioned from the 'ordinary' to the extraordinary using a wide variety of simple exercises, imagination and humour. Although radical in method and approach, the key to each session is the integration of social and creative elements whilst enabling participants to support each other, working together to include everybody’s experiences and value differences.
The majority of the group have been female, however there are some men who also come along, and the mix is interesting in terms of everyone’s background and experience.
The outcome from the sessions where Deane sets specific tasks and challenges has been enlightening. She has been able to experiment with ideas developed during the process which change constantly depending on response and regular feedback.
On Tuesday 20 December 2022, there was a performance/sharing on the last session of this phase of workshops and I was privileged to witness a series of individual solos.
Using the exhibition – Hollow Earth and after visiting some caves under the National Justice Museum (all part of previous sessions) - each participant responded to this brief:
You are discovered sitting still, silent at table surrounded by possessions
occasionally lit, revealed through deep darkness. The silence is punctured by
the faint sound of music, changing, fading in and out. Occasionally you rise
to repeat a strange, illogical ritual the purpose of which is known only to yourself.
Participants were asked to curate the following:
- An item of clothing
- A book
- Uncooked ingredients of a favourite meal
- A secret in a box - something you regret
- A map marked with significant places visited/ events
- Your favourite song/ music/ sound effect
- A photograph
- A piece of fabric impregnated with your smell
- Your favourite shoes
- Something that is very precious to you.
The work had been inspired from ‘Invisible Cities’ by Italo Calvino published by Vintage 1997. Deane used this as a starting point and Cool Company members could pick from the above list of items to generate rituals.
Marcia is a Brazilian artist who has been working with Deane to visually catalogue each session. She takes photographs, sketches and video. Some of her images and photographs, of this session and others can be seen on our website: www.artspeak.org.uk/cool-company-dance
The sessions have not been set up to teach or recreate/learn dance steps or routines - it’s a much more radical approach, using contemporary methods externalising thoughts, memories and ideas. This might sound scary to participants, complex even, but Deane is asking them to recall their own experiences and not become someone to whom they cannot relate.
Each session is managed delicately, with attention to the group as well as individuals and their needs. The main aim for each session is to integrate a social and creative element while at the same time enabling individual participation. This allows participants to support each other by working together and include collective experiences and differences. Thus, each element becomes valued, all learn new skills and build their experiences developing confidence, sharing of life experiences and building positive relationships.
We have worked to ensure the space is safe and the environment is closed and comfortable. No one is asked to dance, although some members move more than others in what is seen as a contemporary dance style. However, the major factor is the performances: some simple, others more rhythmic and complicated, but always from the heart, leaving an emotional mark regardless.
Many participants have been emotionally moved while others are complacent, but there is always a joy and contentment within the group, a willingness to learn and a state of eagerness for the next session.
The feedback we have gathered is an excellent testimony to what we set out to achieve with the project. Many of the participants stay after the session to have coffee, lunch or both before leaving and some have formed new friendships. A similar story comes from several when speaking, themes of loss, death, caring and lost youth, but it’s always uplifting to learn what they have gained from being able to be part of the group.
Here are some participant comments gathered from evaluation:
“The sessions are perfectly and inclusively paced, with a lot of encouragement and opportunities to work appropriately to each person’s needs. Including a time to sit and draw our responses and feelings about the dance is a very welcome part of the morning”
“Deane’s effortless, strong, witty and gentle leadership gets a whole room of non-dancers, dancing without them even realising!”
“Dance has brought sheer joy to my life since I was affected by a life changing serious illness some years ago. My body stopped working in a way that was very hard to navigate and dance was part of my recovery. I have never taken the sheer joy of being able to move for granted since. So, the opportunity you have given me to share this joy with others is priceless and I am hoping there will be more like the sessions with Deane”
“As part of Cool Company, I could, at last be myself in the company of others and freely express myself. For too long I had lost myself in illness, grief, pain and recovery. My identity had been wrenched from me and here was the space I needed to reconnect with myself. I cannot intellectually explain the effects of the light, the room, the music, the calm instruction of the leader, the presence of 16 others, but they all came together to create a safe, creative and supportive space where I could find some healing. I realise now that I had instantly signed up for this course weeks ago because I instinctively knew it is what I needed; it was an atavistic urge to move my body to music in a safe environment”
“Deane McQueen, the choreographer is fantastic!! She is considerate, passionate, understanding, imaginative, encouraging and FUNNY!! Brilliant how she puts all these sessions together. At times I have experienced these sessions emotional as it awoke me with different feelings."
We have also gathered visual images along the way as each participant has been given a sketch book at the start of the sessions to make markings from work they do. Some have found this an excellent way to document their feelings and work they have achieved during the workshops. We have a body of images that underpin the work developing and in March 2023 some members will contribute to a retrospective exhibition that Deane is putting together about her work over the course of her career.
For ArtSpeak, Cool Company embodies the ethos of what we set out to achieve for the whole project. The participants have become co-creators, investing in a creative drive and energy they never imagined they had, and this has been shared. Deane acts as a facilitator, mentor, friend, collaborator, and it’s been beautiful to watch. The Company has grown together, in their confidence and have found comfort from being in a group of older people. The sessions have given them the opportunity to create with honesty by exploring their thoughts and feelings of life and its complex layers. They have been challenged in a way that has opened doors for them that growing older closes. During the sessions they have had permission to reflect on subjects, emotions and elements of life that too often become taboo. The outcome has been enlightening.
I believe there is something very special that has been harnessed by the work in the sessions and I know it’s not something that happens every day or by accident. We have been gifted to have this opportunity to work with Deane. It’s magical.
Info
Deane McQueen
Deane is a professional director, choreographer, producer and retired Head of Performing Arts, Leicester College. Founder member of Dance 4, interdisciplinary performance, immersive theatre and live art projects have been funded by Arts Council of England. Productions have toured nationally, and live artwork has been televised, performed in galleries and selected for festivals. The Houdini Club is her professional identity and is a Backlit Gallery Collective.
Sharon Scaniglia
Art’s programme manager ArtSpeak – part of Radford Care Group.
Image credits
- Drawings - Cool Company Project. Credit: Marcia Porto
- Headshot. Credit: Sharon Scaniglia.