Artist and writer Emma Sporton shares her experience and reflections on nottdance as Place which saw the histories of dance in Nottingham come together directed and choreographed by Alan Lyddiard and Tamara McLorg, taken place on Saturday 25 October.

Being part of the Nottingham Ensemble was a whirlwind of moving, storytelling, and interaction. It was a real privilege to listen to what everyone had to say, and everyone really did have something to say, and were given the space and time to say it. We took our next step ‘as one’, a community of people moving together because, no matter how we got there, we all shared a connection to dance that made us feel united.

Alan Lyddiard and Tamara McLorg, director and choreographer for The Performance Ensemble in Leeds, were skilled at giving every one of us in the piece a chance to be seen both as individuals, and as part of a whole. This was especially impressive as we were a new group that had mostly never met each other before, and they only had two weeks with us. I think the piece is intelligent in the way that the dancers’ relationship with the room we performed in had a sense of fluidity; we moved to and from the windows and exited and entered the main performance space from many directions. The people moving and speaking into microphones was constantly changing, and each person had moments that were powerful that grew and blossomed from the last.

I think something we all valued as part of the ensemble was each other. The piece was thirty minutes long, and built up over two weeks, with lots of changes in terms of the order of the piece, and the cues that we would have to go into the next thing. This meant that we all really learnt to rely on each other, and I think even in front of the audience, that sense of observing the people who we are with was very present. I found myself constantly drawn to the actions and words shared by the people around me, because through watching and listening to them, I was able to carve my own place in the piece and be someone that they watch and listen to in return. It was not only comfortable, but necessary that we smile at each other, and listen to the stories shared as if it was something we were hearing for the very first time. In some ways, it felt like it was.

The Nottingham Ensemble is proof that people of all ages and backgrounds, with and without experience in performance, can work together in a way that feels organic, kind, friendly, safe, and have loads of fun doing it. Throughout the piece, and the process making it, I got to know people as individuals, as movers, as people who are confused because “and then what happens?” and sometimes I would be confused with them. I think what we built, we built off of each other, and this project really provided the ‘clean sheet of paper’ on which we could paint our self-portraits. ‘Here we were, this was us, and we were brilliant.’