In Rachel Elderkin‘s notes on disappearance residency, she explores the stories women carry throughout their lives – sometimes personally, sometimes as shared experiences.

notes on disappearance is a project about the stories we don’t tell.

What stories do we choose to share and which stories are never told?
How do those stories impact our lives?
Where do those stories rest in our bodies?

Rachel Elderkin’s personal interest in this research comes from a story her grandmother carried, a story that will remain untold. More than the story itself, she’s interested to explore how those stories affect our thoughts, actions, and feelings.

How do we choose to hold or walk with those memories? What might we learn from our stories about women’s experiences today, and can we find empowerment in that?

As part of her residency, Rachel invited women to connect with the project in a one-to-one conversations or by writing her a letter. She offered a space for women to have conversations and connect with each other – to share their own stories. This early research helped create a solo performance, new writings, and workshops.

October 2020 Residency

Designed for an intimate performance setting, the project draws together practices from dance, immersive theatre, and visual arts to create a performed journey. Elevating women’s narratives within a shared, empowering experience.

Gathering women’s stories through research and interviews, Rachel Elderkin is interested in creating a space that celebrates the different aspects of the female experience. Rachel is intrigued as to how certain narratives, repeated across history, hold repercussions through time. These repeated stories fuel a need to unite and to find empowerment together.

Rachel would like to bring together the struggles, strength and wisdom of women into a performed journey that, through a shared experience, offers hope, healing and empowerment for today.

As part of Rachel’s residency, she held a virtual coffee morning for women to join and share their stories on Tuesday 20 Oct 2020.