My work in improvisation is such that I inhabit characters for a long period of time (LUG is 15 years old) and they become a kind of kinaesthetic conduit for the stories of others. Sometimes these are stories that have been silenced and/or never been told. In this way my practice-based research works as a catalyst for community building within an emancipatory process.
LUG wears a full-length overcoat, felt hat and is weighted by an aged leather suitcase. This character dances stories of arrivals, departures and the liminal spaces between. LUG surfaces stories of belonging and isolation and is often performing for and with communities who are feeling displaced or silenced either culturally geographically or emotionally. This character will lead us through two curricular suggestions based on Karen Levine’s book Hana’s Suitcase and Shaun Tan’s The Arrival. With Hana’s Suitcase you will work from a specific passage exploring notions of material values and ephemeral values. That which we can take with us and that we can leave behind. With Shaun Tan, we explore the tenuous spaces in both arriving and departing from a familiar place and how this impacts our sense of self in relation to the world.