Ecologies of Belonging
| Coastal Landscapes |
Eco-Somatic Arts Residency - Banff - March '25
OPEN CALL!
'Ecologies of Belonging' - an Eco-Somatic Arts Residency will focus on themes concerning 'sense of belonging' while working with guided movement and embodied experience of 'selfhood'.
This open call for self-funded dance/movement and multidisciplinary artists, with special invitation to artists representing mixed/multiple ethnic backgrounds, is an amazing opportunity for low cost (!) professional development (CPD) in creative processes of eco-somatic practices and outdoor filming.
The project will explore the most important connections between coastal landscapes and psycho-somatic wellbeing, as well as ways of healthy belonging through creative expression that affect our sense of belonging. The project is an important step in Dunami CIC's arts-based research on creative health ecology, and problematics of selfhood, and aims to connect the participating artists, often of intercultural background, to coastal landscapes.
The artistic guidance during this residency will aim at inspirations coming from the natural world and the observed processes of creation, destruction, erosion, and transformation. All those processes will help the attendees reflect and negotiate healthy dialogues with the exposed sites of nature, while connecting them to their own roots of belonging and becoming.
We will be working with an artistic medium of life filming, outdoor movement explorations and indoor reflection sessions, guided by Dr Anna Dako with support of invited guest artists. The residency will consist of somatic arts training and environmental explorations in embodied and site-specific dialogue.
Scroll down for more details on this amazing opportunity taking place between 22nd and 29th March 2025 in Banff, Scotland, UK.
accommodation
Headland View Cottage - Banff
This 7 nights long on-site residency, designed for only 8 participants, will be hosted in a beautifully situated cottage on the northern shores of Banff. A shared two single bed accommodation is available, with full access to the kitchen and dining areas. No food costs are included in the cost of the residency, so please plan for self-catering, with comfortable access to local shops and amenities of Banff.
day-to-day plan
Residency Objectives and Artistic Development Benefits
The Banff Residency will bring an exciting group of people together who will be sharing the educational and creative health supporting activities outdoors in nature, sharing about their personal experiences and building new levels of support and artistic openness.
The residency will create new ways of finding connections between people and places, and will explore the therapeutic methodologies of environmentally-aware creative self-care as guided by the lead artists.
As the lead mentor of the residency Dr Anna Dako will offer her in-depth introduction into the methodology of Somatic Felt Thinking - a self-inquiry practice grounded in embodied movement experience. As one of the local pioneers of eco-somatic work, Anna's practice originates in site-specific dialoguing between what is felt and what shapes as a responsive thought, expressed in movement. She will support building your own paths towards ecologically inclusive care for being well with self and other, and discovering many new ways of connecting to the living agency of Nature.
Additionally, with supporting guidance of Dr Marta Bury, the participants will be offered many occasions for translating their movement explorations onto more choreographic outputs, while working on breath-taking locations.
The activities will definitely help the participants cast new light on places they inhabit/embody and grow ways in which they benefit from them, health-wise. The objectives will include addressing issues of seasonal resilience, changeability of elements, embodied memory and imagination, as well as geological adaptation.
Finally, the project will also benefit participants’ artistic experience in being part of a filmed project, and the produced film will create a vivid portrayal of the creative processes experienced outdoors and will consolidate many personal gains coming from the time of the residency.
All movement material will be co-created by the involved artists, with each day helping us explore different aspects of the landscapes. So be prepared to wander about and jump from one location to another, within the Banff area, as much as to be involved in both improvised and semi-choreographed sessions outdoors, as witnessed by our camera work.
Each day of the residency will include 1 guided outdoor exploration/movement session, 1 self-exploratory session and 1 (indoor) reflective session as a group.
sites and facilitators
Banff and wider Aberdeenshire
The residency will be focussed on movement exploration in relation to chosen parts of coastal landscapes, beaches, shores, rivers, ruins and quarries.
We will be exploring the relationship between water, stone, earth and air in self-reflective embodied practice, and the residency will include daily visits to Macduff, Portsoy, Cullen and a few local castle ruin sites.
Arrive well-packed for all weather conditions, with warm layers of water-proof clothing, appropriate footwear and well designed lunch box and a flask.
If not within a walking distance, all transportation between the daily visited sites will be done by car.
Facilitators Info:
Supporting Artists:
Shayne Lilith-Moon (UK)
5-7 nights residency
This intensely immersive residency is designed for 8 artists only.
We only have 2 remaining places available for this special Banff residency taking place 22-29th March 2025, including all the daily guidance, double-occupancy accommodation and day-to-day transportation.
The residency offers some flexibility of dates, and can be planned as a 5 day long participation!
Please be advised we will be hosted by slippy landscapes, so securing your own safety with additional health insurance is advisable.
Self-catering, and communal use of the kitchen and dining area will apply. Shopping within a walking distance is available.
Cost per participant: £549
(with payment options available, please email us for more info)
We will also help you with assisted pick up and drop off if you are travelling via Aberdeen!
Please send your application, including 1-2 pages of your practice description (with relevant links) to anna@dunami-somatics.com. All ages (18+) welcome to apply.
We look forward to receiving your application by 10th March '25 and we will get back to you as soon as we can there after.
Volunteering involvement of locally based artists from Banff is also welcome, please get in touch!
