Mesh

Beth Cassani’s practice research project MESH asks: What sorts of artist mentoring can emerge to support the choreographic artist when activated from the centre of collaborative creation and performance? MESH is a participatory choreography created by Vanessa Grasse in collaboration with ten dance artists. It is commissioned by the Great Exhibition of the North, Newcastle and produced by Yorkshire Dance and Dance City. It invites audiences and passers-by to join in the making of a public ritual of togetherness. As an artistic response to the divisive global political climate, MESH explores how a participatory choreography for a large group can bring people together. The work is usually performed outdoor in urban sites. The cast of ten professional dancers and local residents weave through the city’s streets and respond to public spaces, creating co-operative, self-organising formations that invite gentle connections and interactions. Cassani uses a practice research methodology to explores strategies for choreographic mentoring including dramaturgy and artist support by way of devising dialogue between project participants, dancers and collaborators Tim Ingold and Philip Ball, and dialogue around the developing practice through a range of lines of communication; in creative meetings with the choreographer, in rehearsal with dancers, in performance with participatory audiences, in marketing with producers and arts organisations, in leading post performance talks. The artist mentor or dramaturg is often someone outside the performance. This research offers new insights from inside the emerging choreography and inside the live performances over a two-year period. As such the practice utilises an autoethnographic approach to reflect on embodied and subjective responses to process and product. This research facilitates the emergence of new embodied mentoring strategies that offers an alternative to traditional approaches to artist mentoring and dance dramaturgy. Insights are gained that could not be accessed by observation or interview. The work was performed twenty-one times at the Great Exhibition of the North, Newcastle and in Leeds City Centre, Wakefield City Centre and at the Hepworth Gallery Wakefield, it has also been performed in Hull, Malta, Bournemouth and tours to South Korea in September. It is funded by Arts Council England. https://getnorth2018.com/previous-events/mesh/ https://meshjournal.wixsite.com/mes