23 - 27 February
Judith enters, slinky evening dress, immaculate make-up, luscious hair trailing down her exposed back. She is carrying a Lidl bag for life. With a soft, fleshy thud she places the bag in a corner. This is Judith of Bethulia, seductress and murderer of Assyrian general Holofernes. Saviour of her city. Returning home in the early hours with her victim’s head.
Across the centuries Judith has be re-presented in paintings, plays, psychoanalysis; pious Christian heroine, dangerous femme fatale, fierce feminist. In this residency Bethany will be exploring early-stage choreographic ideas for a solo that digs beneath this tale told and re-told. Centring Judith the woman and her own desire to be seen or not.
Bethany will work with improvisation to embody Judith’s rage, pleasure, liberation, uncertainty, fatigue; developing a physicality that dances the line between seductive/violent, erratic/meditative. Using the play between movement and language to find Judith’s complex messy humanity. And experimenting with performance forms to ask what is this story as a commercial dance, a tiktok, a slam poem. This is a solo about women, sex and violence. That asks who we are alone in the quiet of the dawn, having just decapitated someone. In her own space Judith can untangle and narrate her own story.
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Friday 27 February | 15:00 – 16:00 | Book Now
About Bethany Edwards
Bethany is a dance artist working across improvisation, performance, teaching, devising and creative facilitation. She is a founding member of bad body chaos code, a pop-punk band working collectively to produce euphoric, surreal performances. In 2022 they took their debut album ‘Headliner’ – a comedic riot grrrl witchy extravaganza – on a European tour.As a performer Bethany has created new works with choreographers including Becky Namgauds, Tim Casson, Tess Letham and Hannes Langolf. Touring across the UK and Europe in contexts as diverse as pubs, galleries, stately homes, theatres and high streets. Bethany regularly performs improvisation solo, in duets and ensemble. She has performed with Collective Endeavours and Something Smashing across the UK. And performed solo at Roadhouse in Leeds and at TicTac Art Centre in Brussels. She also works extensively in inclusive dance, currently as Artist Development Lead for Anjali, a dance company for artists with learning disabilities. Within and beyond the dance world Bethany is interested in bodies as storytellers, working non-hierarchically and seeking out experiences of collective joy. She is currently developing an improvised duet in three acts in which audience input inspires the content supported by Dance Base, Scottish Dance Theatre, TicTac Arts Centre and Surge.