Deep Light is a performance and workshop shared by dancers and musicians moving with the deep legacy of dancer Isadora Duncan. And a new legacy, the contemplative feminist dance movement Sanctuary on the Fault Line. Audience may attend the performance, workshop or both.
We will be sharing in the often lost gesture of ‘deep light’, so beautifully exemplified in Isadora Duncan’s dance ‘Ave Maria’. This was one of the first dances Duncan made after she took a break from performing following the tragic loss of both her young children. The dance has the strength of lightness, a surprising steadiness, a deep support, and a glow that is breathtaking in the context. Reminding us that when we keep meeting life’s experience, however challenging, in a contemplative embodied way grace can awaken something steady and shining.
We will remember together that dance is a way to be with life’s experience, deeply, silently and expressively. We will explore that dance is often able to say things we have no words for, hold us, and move us through things we cannot move through alone.
The performance will take place on the evening of Saturday 13 September, 2025, and includes a light supper. There we will share another Duncan dance, ‘Funabre’, which preceded ‘Ave Maria’, in which Duncan had a premonition of the tragic event that was to come. We’ll share a new live music and dance piece called ‘Burial’, which calls in a resolving moment for our ancestors who were persecuted as ‘witches’, calling all their goodness back among us. And we’ll finish with Duncan’s ‘Ave Maria’. It will be a recovering journey of contemplation through music and dance.
The performance and workshop is created by Isadora Duncan Legacy Dancer and Teacher Barbara Kane, Musicians Jocelyn West, Marina Avetisyan and Alistair Simmons, Dancers Rachel Elderkin, Debbie Allan, Betsy Field, and Hayley J S Matthews. And invited and visioned by Dancer, Rolfer and Musician Hayley J S Matthews.
Jocelyn West – Jocelyn is a vocalist, violinist, pianist, harmonium player, collagist and teacher. She worked with David Lynch on an album of music by Hildegaard von Bingen, Lux Vivens. She has made several albums with the renowned medieval music ensemble Sinfonye led by Stevie Wishart. As a solo artist, Jocelyn recorded her remarkable debut album Salt Bird. She is a collage artist, exhibiting in London, and teaches music privately in London. She has been working with ‘Murmura’ in making sound-score ‘Burial’.
Rachel Elderkin – Rachel is a freelance dance artist/maker, writer and dramaturg. She is host at Dance Dialogues Podcast. As a dance artist, Rachel has performed in theatre, film, outdoor and site-specific works. Choreographers & companies have included Sally Marie/Sweetshop Tigers, Sonia Sabri, Watkins Dance Company, Yorke Dance Project, Balbir Singh Dance Company.
Rachel was a selected artist/mentee on the AWA Dance Mentorship Programme 2020, which focuses on supporting the leadership development of women in dance, and a participating artist in SystemsLAB 2018 & 2019 (Freddie Opuko-Addaie for Dance Umbrella). As a dance maker, Rachel has been supported with research residencies at iC4C/Fabric (previously Dance4) in 2020 and 2021, and through Arts Council England DYCP grant programme. She is interested in exploring the meeting point between dance and writing, and works alongside collaborators from the visual arts, immersive theatre and technology sectors.
Alistair Simmons – Al is a drummer, guitarist, photographer. He makes territories of sound, visuals and dance with wife Hayley J S Matthews and collaborators as ‘Murmura’. He is also a passionate fly fisherman.
Debbie Allan – Debbie began her contemporary modern dance training in 1972, at the age of 11. Her love of dance, sparked in Aberdeen, Scotland, has lasted throughout her life. From an early age she was teaching, performing, choreographing, and running a modern jazz dance company. She has performed in both community and professional settings through five decades, and has continued to develop her skills in dance, improvisation, and somatic movement (she is an accredited Somatic Movement Educator in Body-Mind Centering). In 2021 Debbie joined the Sanctuary on the Faultline international dance network founded by Hayley Matthews and through Hayley’s lab, Dancing a Path through the Crisis, was introduced to Barbara Kane and the dances of Isadora Duncan. In 2022 Debbie joined the Isadora Duncan Dance Group (IDDG) finding ongoing inspiration and community, while learning and embodying the artistry and natural movement flow of Duncan Dance.
Betsy Field – Betsy studied ballet from age 5 to 15, before obtaining a degree in Pharmacy. After marrying John and having four children she resumed ballet classes and studied tap, jazz and contemporary dance, performing at various venues (including a charity night at the London Palladium ) and dance festivals. On moving to London in 1999 she joined The Company of Elders based at Sadler’s Wells theatre and performed with several London-based contemporary dance companies including a project with Akram Khan at the Royal Festival Hall. Betsy discovered Duncan Dance through her meeting with Barbara Kane in 2000 and is privileged to have been able to study with her since then.
Marina Avetisyan – Marina Avetisyan is a London based, Russian born singer-songwriter. Her own music is a blend of sweet, mellow melodies that are dreamy and ethereal. Marina touches listeners with her distinctive, soulful voice and heart soothing lyrics . Marina has been working with ‘Murmura’ on bass, percussion and vocals in the making of the sound-score ‘Burial’.
BOOKING AVAILABLE SOON. To register your interest, please email Kate@wccm.org
