This year we had the privilege of collaborating with the patients and staff at St.Christopher’s Hospice. Choreographer Anita Wadsworth and Dancer Louise Klarnett share their reflections.
Images by Ben Joseph
‘I knew that we had to create something that we could perform, but also adapt to the needs of the participants. I chose to create a solo which was a “curation” of movement each person generated each week. The most powerful thing for me is the way that Louise’s solo can be “read” as a list of names, how I remember the people behind each movement, how the dance is a gallery, an anthology of the joy and challenges we shared together. We’re all excited about exploring this project and seeing how it will develop. The solo is a record of the past and our stimulus for the future‘, Anita Wadsworth.
‘One of our participants sadly just lost her battle with cancer. One day one of those participants was in the cafe, in tears from pain, but insisting she attend our workshop. She surprised carers by standing, dancing, engaging and smiling. This film and the b&w photographs are a beautiful record of how dance and movement overrode her pain and illness offering a new space to explore… The solo dance I ‘performed’ lives on and a version was shared at a recent conference. It is still evolving but it’s core belongs to all of the participants of this project, patients, staff and my colleagues’, Louise Klarnett.
