FROM

just above the Arctic Circle
Rotterdam
Brussels
Prague
Freiburg
Paris
London
Vitry-sur-Seine
Barcelona
Lille
Bassano del Grappa
Torino
Slovenia
Nottingham
etc.
etc.

The Zoom frame indicates that 39 people are online on this Monday morning 8th March.
9 countries at least are represented for this first session of the week.
3 of us are wearing a yellow jumper.
1 of us seats against a purple background.
34 women are part of this group.

CHANGE

In 2019, the opening picture of Dancing Museums showed thirty seven people smiling happily under the sun in Nottingham, celebrating the start of the project.
Here we are two years later, back in Nottingham, but from home.

In the meantime, what has actually changed?
Since spring 2020, the Dancing Museums workshops have been happening online, where we find ourselves together but apart. It has been a while since most of us have taken a plane, crossed a border, traveled, met with our families or friends.
Museums are still closed in certain countries, as well as dance centres, and it has been several months since we have been able to go to gather at a live performance or a festival.

Some political, social and cultural shifts happened. More are expected, desired, dreaded, or needed.

So, back in Nottingham on International Women’s Day, what has moved within the frame of this project, what feels different, where is it moving as we speak?

Eleanor Sikorski, Dance4, Nottingham City Museums & Galleries & Nottingham Contemporary are proposing CHANGE as our subject for the week.

When is change possible?

How is it possible?

Can we recognise it when it happens?

asks Eleanor in her opening words, to welcome us all in this space of action and reflection.