T H E S P A C E S B E T W E E N U S
a process in progress by Jo Fong & Jacinte Armstrong
commissioned by XOSECRET
(Image credits: Jacinte Armstrong, Colin Ricketts)
THE SPACES BETWEEN US is a performative collaboration led by Jo Fong (Cardiff, Wales) and Jacinte Armstrong (Halifax, NS). The work explores themes of belonging told through a combination of performance tools and open conversation in which people practice being together.
process in progress
Brought together last year through the support of Cardiff Dance Festival, Chapter Arts Centre in Wales and XOSECRET, Jo and Jacinte began their process of creating in March 2020 asking themselves:
Where are we and how do we live?
What do we share?
How do we make a connection?
As the pandemic swept through the world, locking down their respective cities, the questions expanded to:
How do we be present for each other?
Do we have to ‘be’ present?
How do we activate space?
And in the wake of George Floyd’s killing, the widespread protests and subsequent focus on white supremacy and racial inequality, their questions expanded to ask:
Who are in these spaces?
Who aren’t?
How do we activate these spaces together?
the practice of being together
After months of discussion, the duo each invited two local collaborators to practice creating meaningful connections.
In Cardiff: Catriona James and Farah Allibhai
In Halifax: Letitia Fraser and Liliona Quarmyne
This core group of collaborators have met for four sessions and their fifth and last session is taking place Tuesday November 3rd, 2020.
Stayed tuned for more on this session.
Who are Jo and Jacinte?
Jo Fong is an award-winning, middle-aged, provincial, international artist.
Her career began in dance and led to collaborations with DV8 Physical Theatre, Rosas, Rambert Dance Company, National Theatre Wales, Welsh National Opera, National Theatre (London), Battersea Arts Centre, National Dance Company Wales, Quarantine and more.
Jo’s independent practice puts difference and ideas around belonging or forming community at the heart of events. Cultivated through face-to-face contact, Jo brings people together, it's about connection and how we communicate or live together. In this digital weariness, Jo is researching ways to preserve intimacy without proximity.
Touring productions include An Invitation..., Neither Here Nor There created and performed with artist Sonia Hughes, The Rest of Our Lives with circus artist George Orange and Ways of Being Together, a mass collaborative project most recently presented at Chinese Arts Now Festival, Shoreditch Town Hall. Jo is a Peilot Associate Artist with Chapter, Associate Artist with Chinese Arts Now and Research Associate with SE Dance. She has presented performances at British Dance Edition and British Council Edinburgh Showcase.
Jacinte Armstrong is an artist based in Kjipuktuk/Halifax, NS. Her work explores embodied practice through performance, choreography, collaboration, and curation, communicating the experience of the body in relation to objects, materials, and people. Her practice involves questioning the ethics of movement in both performers and audience, and aims to create situations of physical comfort in which to ask uncomfortable questions. Her work seeks to create knowledge about the body through performance and give value to that knowledge.
Jacinte is Artistic Director and co-founder of SiNS (Sometimes in Nova Scotia) dance, and performs regularly with Mocean Dance. From 2014-18 she was Artistic Director of Kinetic Studio, presenting an annual season of contemporary dance workshops and performances in Nova Scotia. As an independent artist she has worked with many choreographer/collaborators including Cory Bowles, Tedd Robinson, Serge Bennathan, Danièle Desnoyers, Denise Fujiwara, Secret Theatre, Sarah Joy Stoker and Sarah Chase. Since 2015, she has been part of the 8 DAYS project, an annual gathering of Canadian choreographers (www.8days8jours.ca).
Jacinte received an MFA in Performance from NSCAD University in 2020.
We acknowledge Arts Nova Scotia and the City of Halifax for their financial support of this project.
Special thanks to: Dustin Harvey, Katye Coe, Sonia Hughes and Frank Bock