With the launch of the Totem Foundation in 2023 we have had more opportunities to partner with charities and community projects. What have we learnt? What have been the highlights?
How can dance and art engage us in a different way?
We’ve had the absolute pleasure of working with the Linden Dance Company for well over a year now, they do breath taking work and the great work of the Unboxed project continues!
A year ago, we were delighted to be working with dance company Linden on a project to bring bias, microaggressions and their harmful effects to life through a different kind of community engagement. After a number of sessions where we explored what bias is and how the brain works, we worked on creating a safe space for people to share their experiences.
The dancers, producers and others involved in the company shared their memories of being judged, treated unfairly and minimised in some way. From racial examples of being followed around a shop and now always making sure they have a receipt, to gender examples of not being listened to and having to fight to not just fade into the background, it was humbling to see everyone listen.
Instead of minimising another’s experience or gaslighting in some way for example saying “they probably didn’t mean it like that,” the whole group simply listened and showed empathy and support. Then they took that into the choreography of the piece.
You can see a taster of the performance here:
I was moved by the piece. It left me with questions like, what box am I in? What box have you put me in? And even if I’ll never remove the box, we can live better by understanding each other’s experiences. Perhaps the most beautiful piece for me, you can see in the trailer video, is one of the dancers walking on the feet of the other – communicating to me that this is about working to truly understand your experience.
How can dance and art engage us in a different way?
A challenge with bias and DEI workshops in companies, is that we discuss these topics and some people get defensive. Could watching something like this create a different response? A different space for reflection?
For Linden, the main objective is to take these thoughts and ideas to audiences who may not be hearing them elsewhere. If you’re not a people manager in a large corporate, how are you being educated on DEI? You might hear a bit about it in the news or on social media, but that depends who you are following. Having the Unboxed performance going on in parks and festivals means that there is access to people who would not necessarily choose to watch a piece on this topic, or attend a training course on it.
And this is where the follow-on work one year on is super exciting.
Next month, Unboxed is touring secondary schools.
And what do people do when they have seen the performance? What if it stirs something in them?
We have partnered with the amazing Chikere Igbokwe of inclucive.co.uk to build short and simple resources on allyship. What can I do? Even if I don’t experience these challenges, what can I do when I see others experience them? How can I be a friend?
Imagine that – school classes discussing allyship, families discussing this after walking past something interesting in the park. Super exciting!
