Our Bodies as Earth is a vital project for summer 2025, curated as part of Dancin’ Oxford Summer Festival and Modern Art Oxford’s Summer Show Movements for Staying Alive
Our Bodies as Earth showcases long term eco-somatic practice in nature with participants over many years in a series of immersive performances and workshops in public urban space. The free public events explore stillness, movement, and memory—unearthing lost gestures and intercultural choreographies that connect body and land as living archives. This is a celebration of vitality, connection, and nature in the heart of the city, outdoor events are in Headington Hill Park.
2 to 4pm 29th June Our Bodies as Earth – Dancing Drawing Lost Gestures
Enjoy, join in and become immersed in the movement, draw, write or simply watch and picnic, as dancers explore stillness, movement, and memory—unearthing lost gestures and intercultural choreographies that connect body and land as living archives. A celebration of vitality, connection, and nature in the heart of the city. Curated by Helen Edwards, costumes will be available to try out and there will be drawing activities organised by Fusion Arts. Bring a sketchbook, bring a ball gown, bring a picnic, or just bring yourself .💚
2 to 4pm 6th July Our Bodies as Earth – Dancing Peripheral Choreographies Join with dancers and musicians, or just enjoy watching and dreaming in a beautiful urban nature space. Enjoy the developing gestures and peripheral choreographies in this immersive performance sensing into interconnectedness between performers and audience creating a participatory experience for all extending beyond the human.
17th July Evening Workshop at Modern Art Oxford LIVE Event
Remembering Our Bodies as Earth
Authentic movement with drawing and printing. Remembering, sensing, listening, discovering body movements and gestures for staying alive.
2 to 4pm 7th Sept Celebration – Remembering Our Bodies as Earth
Movements for Staying Alive. Open invitation for all to join, immersive public event fo all to join and enjoy dance groups, dancers and musicians as community sharing. Remembering Gestures of Earth and InterCultural Choreographies.
‘Finding Stone’ Movement Performance Scratch Night February 2022 Oxford Dance Forum
Presented as part of a sharing of new work by three locally based makers: Susie Crow, Pragna Das and Helen Edwards, there was lively discussion and fantastic support from the audience who were as delighted as the dancers to be back in a theatre for a live event. Finding Stone was developed for the theatre and brought together innovative new music with long term work exploring the textures and time of stone.
‘Finding Stone’ Recent Embodied Movement Performance Art December 2021 LAPER
Presented as part of young artists residency by LAPER, Oxford. Helen Edwards is an English born visual and movement artist from the North of England. She has danced in nature all her life and over the last 25 years has trained in Japan, Indonesia, Europe and the UK exploring Butoh, Amerta Movement and improvise and environment dance and art. She has shown work internationally in a range of contexts from outdoor wild spaces, to a range of gallery and dance spaces to the Houses of Parliament. Her work explores the dialogues arsing as the bodily senses and imagination encounter aspects of ecology. Having worked in liminal spaces between stone and water for many years Finding Stone presents a small residue of these experience
The practice of embodied movement and dance is a creative and transformational approach to living in a way which engages the body and mind in exploring life’s challenges. This may encourage change through physical experiencing, movement and dance as well as mental insight. Movement may be accompanied by image making. Finding deeper contact with true nature, may reveal self-confidence in daily life and increased self-awareness.
Helen’s approach is founded on the principles of somatic experiencing (body experience), expression and communication through movement and stillness, as well as with words. The central thesis is that of layers of memory (both collective and individual) held in the body at the level of the cells, organs and regulatory systems that may become available through attunement, resonance and dialogue, thus indicating the body as holding a key to further discovery. Attention to this practice may facilitate the integration of thought, emotion, physical sensation and movement by exploring patterns of moving, relating and being. An attitude of mindfulness is cultivated through connection to the sensing and feeling aspects of the self.
Body focused work enables movement through layers of thought, belief and story. There may be opportunity to become aware of habitual movement patterns, muscle tensions and breathing patterns. As these come to the conscious mind there may be room for new possibilities and resolutions to fixed developmental issues, experience and other psychological difficulties, breathing space for growth, creative development and new possibilities. Breath and body awareness may be used as a resource to staying present to whatever is happening here and now. Becoming visible and acceptable to oneself may bring compassion and integrity and healing.
World Environment Day
A Platform for Action
World Environment Day (WED) June 5th each year, is the United Nations’ most important day for encouraging worldwide awareness and action for the protection of our environment. Since it began in 1974, it has grown to become a global platform for public outreach that is widely celebrated in over 100 countries.
Helen has participated in World Environment since 2009 and for the last few years has been a Co Facilitator of the Event for Web Art Garden, an international network of people interested in art, culture and environmental issues and who want to share experiences from their own ecology through artistic activity. Web Art Garden provides an independent forum for ecological dialogue and exchange at a national and international level between individuals, as well as organizations and institutions.
Web Art Garden was conceived in 1997 by Suprapto Suryodarmo of Padepokan Lemah Putih, Solo, Java, Indonesia. Web Art Garden has its roots in non-stylised movement and dance.
In 2016 Helen created a World Environment Day Ritual Dance performed for the peace and harmony of the planet invited artists and dancers to join near the River Thames on Christchurch Meadows in Oxford.
http://www.oxfordmail.co.uk/news/10404465.Art_and_nature_become_one/
Art in Situ – European Artist Residency Exchanges
Helen has worked with many artists bringing embodied movement as an integral part of her artistic practice to artistic cultural dialogues. In 2009 she participated in a European Artist Residency in Oxford University Harcourt Arboretum working with the land to create new work in community.
http://www.art-in-situ.net/realisation_2009.htm
http://www.oxfordmail.co.uk/leisure/art/4498787.Leafing_Through_Art/
