Dancing with Strangers

The Project:
A research project that focuses on the Culture and history of the Tea Dance and what it used to stand for within the younger community of the 1940’s and 1950’s. West Bromwich Community Centre has 4 afternoon and evening dances a week, which suggests that the Tea Dance is still a popular social event. We propose to collect stories of the local people by going to the afternoon and evening dances and document the dances and the participants stories. To collect further stories we will be setting up a series of provocations in West Bromwich Town Centre: using a market stall - offering tea in exchange for stories- and a partner-less dancer with a sign asking for someone to dance with her. The project will also involve young people from a local school, during these workshops we will ask the children to respond to questions about the Tea Dance and their own social activity. This will give the young people an opportunity to engage with the project and raise questions about social activities today.

The project will culminate in an event to celebrate the Tea Dance, whereby all participants of the project - dancers, young people, those who share stories on the street – to come together, to dance, take tea and chat. All the documentation will be on display as part of the event.

Breathe’s aims and ambitions:
We are interested in finding out how our practice can fit into the community or adapt for a project specifically for a community? We will consider also how our practice reflects back into the community. We want to discover how our approaches and forms of working with different community groups. The research project will provide the opportunity for us to discover how we articulate ourselves and Live Art to non-arts groups.

• Queen Square – Will you dance with me?
In the heart of a shopping centre in West Bromwich, the artist dances alone, with the echo of a small gramophone playing a soft tune. As she turns you see the sign pinned to her back ‘will you dance with me', she continues to dance, will anyone dance with her?
Is this where the Tea Dancers shop? Would anyone want to take a break from shopping and dance?

Longhouse Artist Action Research commission.
Breathe were selected for the Longhouse programme - it encourages the professional development journey of artists by supporting a dedicated period of research. Focusing on the universal themes of People, Identity and Place, artists are encouraged to explore how their practice can impact on communities, environments and the physical, social and emotional spaces in between.