How does the Motherhood project emerge?
Helen Hall:
Myself and Linda have both had many years of being part of the Arts and Disability Forum, now University of Atypical for Arts and Disability. We have both worked as artists through that connection.
Damien Coyle, the previous CEO of the University of Atypical, got in touch with us and asked if we would like to work together on a project. And we did talk about working together on a dance which explored the question of motherhood, but the project just never happened. Damien had applied for some funding but for a series of reasons we had to postpone the project, but we are doing it this year for the Bounce festival.
Helen Hall:
We realised when we first discussed the project that it was dance that brought us together, a love of dance, and then when we would meet up we found we were always having discussions about motherhood.
Linda’s kids are a bit older than mine, so there were universal elements in our discussions, and then there were discussions about what I might experience with my kids in the future, because Linda had been through things that I had yet to experience. At one point Linda talked about motherhood feeling like walking a tightrope and that seemed like a really good starting point. So we drew a line on the floor and that was the line that we could balance on, but we would fall off, and get back on, as time progressed.
We thought back over the years about our lives together and how our discussions have revealed all the changes which have taken place in our lives. And some of those discussions will be reflected in the dance.
How long did the concept take to develop?
Helen Hall:
We are still in the process of developing the project. We have had ten days of research and development rehearsals, and we have worked with the sound engineer, but the main bulk of rehearsals will take place throughout September.
We have had to find people for other roles in the work, and in the end we will have 7 weeks of solid rehearsals to bring the project together to be performed in October.
What are the key themes in this dance project?
Linda Fearon:
It is about the ideas of motherhood that we both share. Motherhood can be a real struggle at times, especially if you are disabled. You have to deal with the judgements of other people. You have to deal with all sorts of difficulties.
How do you approach disability in this dance project?
Linda Fearon:
It has to be part of the discussion, but it isn’t the central theme. Disability is part of our lives but the project has to express themes and ideas way beyond just that. For me I can’t hide my disability. It is part of who I am and people can see it. So that will be part of the ideas we look at but as I said not the only thing.
What about contemporary debates around the question of motherhood?
Helen Hall:
We won’t be directly relating to contemporary debates around motherhood but they will be in there in subtle ways. We have talked about the question of disability and motherhood in the sense that people do question your right to be a mother when you have a disability.
When will this show be performed?
Linda Fearon:
It will be performed on the first Friday of October and it will be part of the Bounce Festival and it will be at the Crescent Arts Centre.
Where to now?
Helen Hall:
Well, we are all systems go for this project at the moment but if there are opportunities in the future we would certainly think about but we will be working to make this project the best that it can be for the performance in October.
Information about the Bounce Festival and “Tales from the Mother” can be found at the link below
