Gracefool Do A Pandemic

In March, April and May we mainly sat in our homes, confused, shocked and unsure what to do next. Our finished bid to the Arts Council to research a new work about the end of the world, sat dormant as human existence truly felt like it could be ending. In the midst of an existential panic that had been building for a few years and a few stage shows, we frantically applied for emergency funds to figure out what on earth we were going to do with ourselves. 

In June, we actually had to do something with ourselves, as we were asked to choreograph on the CertHE students at the Northern School of Contemporary Dance. This, of course, meant working remotely over zoom and across countries and time zones. We found we were navigating not only our own shock at global events but how we might make a piece with others dealing with that same shock. We needed to create a fitting alternative to their graduation showcase, something they had been working towards all year, as well as push and challenge their skills and ideas. We had to do this in a way we had never ever made work work before.

We were keen to harness the reality of the situation facing the students and find the beauty, poignancy and humour in our attempts to still entertain and carry on. If keeping our audience interested is what we are trained to do - what happens when we don’t have all the lights, sets, props, costumes - even the choreography, to do just that?

 We decided that we wanted the performers to have the experience of performing live, to an audience, in whatever way they could in this time of physical distance and isolation. It took some resourcefulness and reimagining, but what the students made was magical. Some performed to their family, their friends and neighbours and some performed to cuddly toys, glass bottles and cans of deodorant. There were wacky costumes, insane dance breaks - even lawn mowing. It was glorious. You can see the film showing snippets of the 27 solos here.

CERTHE student Emily, involving her dog and partner in her work.

We were moved and humbled by the dedication and commitment the students brought to the project. Against all odds they managed to achieve something which many artists take years to realise; there is beauty in failure, there is poignancy and humour to be found in struggle, and sometimes chaos is the most interesting starting point. We definitely tried to hold that in mind as the pandemic went on and on and on...

From July onwards we began to set about using our ACE emergency funds to have a whole new website designed by the brilliant Abbas Mushtaq. We rejigged and replanned our dormant bid to ACE to account for Covid changes and restrictions, planned for the future of Gracefool and in September, undertook a very, very mini R&D. This balanced in-person and online working with international collaborators, scratching the surface of what our new work might look like. We did a lot of thinking and talking about the end of the world. It felt by then like we had some practical experience of what this might indeed be like.

In September we curated a series of artist talks “Re-Imagining Liveness” with our wonderful collaborators João Maio and Esther Manon Siddiquie. This responded to the changes in working, creating, moving and communicating that we had witnessed with our art form, borne out of a need to connect through digital means due to the pandemic. We wanted to think through what happens to liveness as we know it -  to the work that exists in the non-digital world and to the human relationships that come with it. 

We brought together a wide group of artists and created a space for conversation, discussion, provocation, innovation and creation, responding to the question; how do we continue to create, cultivate, curate and experience liveness in these times? We were thrilled to be joined by scholar Rebecca Schnieder, who in her own words describes herself as, ‘...a writer and educator interested in life-ways beyond the capital/settler-colonial zombie-making machine’ and artist Zinzi Minott, who is interested in the space between dance and other art forms, with a practice driven through dance, but with outcomes ranging from performance and live art to sound, film, dances and object-based work. They provided us with ideas through which we could frame our discussions and proved to be crucial for our own thoughts about the form or our work in the future and how our own practices could strive to be more thoughtful, ethical, sustainable and equitable.

Esther Manon Siddiquie in piece for a large room, photo by Emma Pratte

Last month, we made a film with the brilliant 1st year students at NSCD. It was the first film we have ever made and, we can’t quite believe they trusted us to do it. Yet again we were working over zoom and across time zones (massive kudos to our Taiwanese students working into the small hours!) and completely re-assessing how our practice and process would work under these new conditions. Once again we were amazed with the bravery and tenacity of the students. They ran screaming through public parks, tipped flour over their heads, thrashed wildly in suits on beaches and climbed trees and monuments, showing defiance and resistance to the end of the world. Yes - we’re still slightly obsessed with the end of the world.

We’re delighted to announce that we’ve received ACE funding to start the official R&D for our new work. We’re of course, still exploring the apocalypse; looking at a sense of impending doom, time, endings, beginnings & apocalypse in light of climate despair & denial. We’ll research what the impact of an ‘emergency narrative’ and a growing sense of despair about our environment, politics and systems has upon us as individuals and society as a whole, and whether this galvanises or paralyses. We have no idea what it will look like yet, but we’ll keep you updated. It’s not the end yet after all....