DITTO is the first iteration of DITTO DITTO DITTO.
DITTO is a collaboration between artist Michelle Duxbury and dance company MeshDance.
Image credit: Niamh Donnelly, 2023
[Image description: a series of three black and white images showing the dancers posing in groups of four in their rehearsal studio. Each group is creating a variety of shapes.]
After spending time with the dancers in their rehearsal studio recording their movement using photography and video, Michelle has created three new soundscapes by converting these images into sound. The soundscapes have in turn been interpreted into choreographed responses by the dancers.
The launch event for DITTO will be held at The Tetley on 22nd March from 5.30 to 8pm. It will feature an installation of work documenting the project by Michelle and photographer Niamh Donnelly, as well as a film created in collaboration with videographer Michael Godsall. There will also be elements of live performance from MeshDance during the evening.
Following on from this event, there will be an opportunity to experience the full live performance of DITTO at a community dance showcase event at the Northern School of Contemporary Dance on Saturday 25th March from 7pm. Tickets for this performance are available online from The Riley Theatre.
About Michelle Duxbury
Michelle Duxbury (formerly known as alabamathirteen) is an artist who is based in Leeds and Wakefield. Drawing on her own experience as a disabled, neurodivergent, working class woman, her work explores how we exist in our bodies, spaces and places. Using photography, moving image, sound and embroidery, she offers a glimpse at her complex and frustrating relationship with an outside world.
Her work with camera-less and unfixed photographic processes challenges our preconceptions about the truth and permanence of images, mimicking the transient nature of our own existence and identity, and the almost imperceptible traces of ourselves that we leave behind. Her practice is informed by process-based research and experimentation, developing a more sustainable approach to creating work, and a desire to contribute to diverse and inclusive narratives around disability.
Image credit: Niamh Donnelly, 2023
[Image description: a notebook on a wooden studio floor. It is open on a page with lots of writing on it. A number of words are visible including ghost, forest, dark, scared, character, creaking door, hypnotised, fantasy, carousel. The word DITTO is circled in the middle of the page. The notes are words the dancers used to describe Michelle’s soundscapes.]
Image credit: Niamh Donnelly, 2023
[Image description: a group of dancers in their rehearsal studio. Some of the dancers are stood up, some sat down, and one dancer is laid on the floor. As a group they are all connected through their hands, hands on shoulder, hands on heads. The dancer laid on the floor has both arms stretched up connecting to another dancer whose arm is stretched out in front of them.]
About MeshDance
Formed in 2009, MeshDance is a contemporary dance company based in Leeds, specialising in providing inclusive and accessible dance opportunities for young people and adults with learning disabilities and/or autism.
A key strand of their work is inclusive arts leadership, supporting dancers with learning disabilities and/or autism to pursue dance and the arts as a career. MeshDance mentor artists and provide them with volunteering and employment opportunities within dance facilitation and choreography.