A new powerful and intimate dance/theatre experience on tour this April/May
Mover, maker and mother Deborah Light will premiere her powerful and intimate new solo this April. ‘An Autopsy of a Mother, a Bear and a Fridge’ will tour to eight venues in Wales and England.
You are warmly invited to witness the examination of three seemingly unconnected objects. As Deborah uncovers connective tissue, between mother, bear and fridge, she reveals her own vulnerability, anger, humour and strength. With cold clinical brutality, warm openness and hot feminist rage she exposes both personal experiences and patriarchal systems that place pressure on the female body.
This is an important moment in Deborah’s artistic trajectory: For the past 12yrs she has prioritised her young family, she is now returning to her independent choreographic practice. She is bringing her experience and curiosity together with an extraordinary team of collaborators in the creation of new, mature, female led work.
"I think its important to be putting female led and particularly older female narratives and bodies into the creative sphere" explains Deborah.
"The work is based on my personal experience of being a mother and a woman and it exposes patriarchal systems that put pressure on female bodies and which have shaped my experience. There is anger and rage in the work, that comes from a recognition that many women's experiences are much more brutal than my own and recognition that the same patriarchal/capitalist systems are what is putting pressure on our climate and ecological systems. There is also warmth, humour and care in the work, as well as being about pressure it is also about preservation."
Deborah will be working with a wide range of groups in advance of the production, from running movement classes to providing resources for reading groups around the texts that have inspired and feature in the show. There is also a resource for art and craft groups who might want to be inspired to produce their own work based on the themes of the show.
A script (paper or digital) is available in advance on request and at the performance. This script contains visual reference points and details about the music/sound elements contained in the production.
The creation of 'An Autopsy of a Mother, a Bear and a Fridge' is funded by Arts Council of Wales and supported by Chapter, NDCWales, SPAN Arts, Taking Flight and YMa.
Photo: Kirsten McTernan Photography