Dancing Bodies in Coventry
Podcast Series 

January 2020 - present

The Dancing Bodies in Coventry podcast series has been online since January 2020 and has to date recorded six episodes (with another four currently in pre-production due to be broadcast by early June 2020). Part of the wider Dancing Bodies in Coventry multimedia project looking at dance in Coventry past, present and future, the podcast series focuses on dance and performance practices in the city, site dance more widely and thinking about how we document and archive dance.  

Conversations with Coventry's performers, makers, dancers, researchers and other independent artists 

The podcast series is hosted by artist-researchers Marie-Louise Crawley and Rosa Cisneros (C-DaRE, Coventry University). Each 30-40 minute episode features two guests in conversation with one of the hosts talking about their personal and artistic connections to the city and discussions of how the city has shaped their artistic practice.

Image: Mônica Dantas

Invited Guests

• Artists and academics Natalie Garrett Brown and Emma Meehan
• Maker and director Carolyn Deby
• Independent dance artist Katye Coe
• Artist Anton Mirto
• Academic and architect Sebastian Hicks
• Performers Claire Lambert and Luke Sheppard
• Postgraduate doctoral researchers and artists Erica Charalambous and Charlie Ingram
• Brazil-based artist-researchers with connections to the city, Monica Dantas and Andrea Soares

Forthcoming episodes will feature:

• Choreographer-directors Ashley Jordan and Ben Morley, and Francis Ranford Cultural and Creative Director of the Herbert Art Gallery.
• Rebel Manifesto Aerial
• Krysztina Winkel and Kim Hackelman from the Belgrade Theatre

Image: Claire Lambert by Andrew Moor

Conversation Topics

Topics of conversation have so far ranged from personal histories and what it is to rediscover the city through performance, the body in public space, urban intimacy, flow and drift, re-wilding the city and what the future of dance and performance in the city might look like. An overarching theme of the series is the surfacing of the different hidden spaces, bodies and voices of Coventry, as well as looking in different ways at the city’s emotional, physical and architectural body. 

Image: Erica Charalambous by Marinos Tattaris

Taken together, the episodes begin to gather the diverse and interconnecting stories of Coventry’s dance heritage, past, present and looking towards the future.

Furthermore, in line with the ethos of the Dancing Bodies in Coventry project more broadly, the episodes have started to provide an invaluable document of the legacy and significance of dance and live performance in the city told by the voices of those who have been a fundamental part of it.

Screenshot- Luke Sheppard by Rich Wade

Access the podcasts

The full details about each episode in the series can be found here: https://dancingbodiesincoventry.com/podcasts-2/ 

You can listen to each episode here:https://soundcloud.com/stations/artist/user-566749993