Take Your Seats

Before the chair spread across the world, humanity had the greatest repertory of postures of any species. Edward Tenner

Take Your Seats was a playful investigation into the interrelationship of sitting and sitting affordances (notably chairs) to embodiment and wellbeing. It used the manifold possibilities of human bodies in motion and repose to exploring how performance with things (chairs) can promote an understanding of the lived body’s relationship to the wider environment as one of mutual becoming.

A folio reflecting on this practice is available here.

d.i.n.e. (dance improvisation north east) workshop facilitated by Liz Pavey, 2014

We will explore movement and stillness, rest and action, rediscovering how relaxation supports dynamism and experiencing the joy of both surrendering and shifting our weight. The workshop will be inspired by the work of (chair) designer, artist and jazz musician Peter Opsvik. If the weather is fine we will spend part of the afternoon outside. If possible please bring with you some sort of sitting device – deck chair, camping chair, stool, cushion…

Drawings by Angela Kennedy

Take Your Seats on Campus (Dry Water Films: Frances Anderson) https://vimeo.com/184224095

Transformations’ medical humanities symposium, Northumbria University 28th June 2016. An Improvisation by: Grand Gestures Dance Collective, Liz Pavey and Paula Turner. Cellist Caroline Hoile.