Meet Jane Castree!
Jane Castree is a choreographer and community dance artist working with movement to create open and accessible opportunities. During her residency, Jane has been studying the work of bell hooks, exploring the concept of binary culture and its role in perpetuating discrimination, asking for audience participation and feedback. Her choreographic work invites people to consider ideas and concepts from alternative perspectives as a way to imagine a more open and flexible world. We had the opportunity to discuss her experiences as a Creative in Residence.
Has your practice changed in any way during your time at Modern Art Oxford, or how do you think you practise might develop?
I’m looking for ways for the audience or community group to be involved right from the beginning. This is a change in my practice and a more in-depth collaboration. I’m really interested in the crossover between performance and audience and finding ways to change that relationship.
The issues informing this research are globally relevant, which is why as this develops into a choreographic piece, it is essential that the work holds and represents many voices.
How do you engage with the audience’s reactions and feedback to your work, and how does this impact your artistic process?
Having somewhere I can share my work so people can respond every day for two months is really unique. Normally audiences’ feedback after a performance or an open rehearsal – which is a shorter period of time. Also, with that, I’m always there.
For this residency I’m present for some of the time but also absent. There’s an opportunity for visitors to have more freedom in their response. Visitors can sit with the material – for 30 minutes or more – if they can. I really like that they have direct access to the resources I’m using, due to leaving the books in the space.
What do you personally find most rewarding about being a creative in residence?
Being in a different creative space other than a theatre. Seeing the difference in what the gallery team offers is really rich and the audience being different to a theatre audience. Also MAO’s team have been incredibly supportive of my neurodiversity and have offered alternative ways to communicate which I find really beneficial to my creative process.
Make sure to catch Jane’s next pop-up performance on Saturday 7 October, 12-2pm. Be a part of her ongoing research by responding to her interactive exhibition, on display in the Piper Gallery.
Get a free ticket to Creatives in Residence: In Conversation to learn more about their time at Modern Art Oxford.