Our Story

How it all began…

Following an open invitation in 2015 from Cerin Richardson, the Festival Theatre’s then Learning and Participation Manager, requesting artists to contribute to their then newly developed (and continuing) programme of performance-orientated arts which involve people living with dementia, dance artist Janice Parker was given the opportunity to create something new. She inherently wanted to develop something different, not to replicate an existing formula, but to offer a fresh and unique opportunity. This freedom enabled Janice to cast as wide a net as possible, incorporating two mediums she adores, dance & her love of Variety Theatre.

Finding what she suspected was an inauspicious place to think and imagine, the Festival Theatre’s Empire Rooms, whose walls are filled with playbills, promo shots and photographs of the shows and performers who had once trodden the boards of the then Empire Theatre’s stage, an idea began to mull. These first few months of dropping by, being greeted by the various members of staff who were passing through, and being surrounded by the foundations of the theatre’s history, the flowing motions of those dancers, entertainers and pioneers before us who built these stages, whose memories to this day illuminate the theatre’s history – these were the people Janice would reach out to. The walls of the room were calling out for a revival

With the support of Paul Hudson (now Paul Matthews) Festival Theatre’s Forget-Me-Not coordinator, a call went across Edinburgh looking for performers who at one time or another had performed on the stage of the old Empire Theatre. It took time, and time is all that was required for the right people to express an interest in meeting with Janice at the Theatre.  To begin, in March 2016, June Don Murray’s sister Sylvia got in touch. Then in April, Marie Duthie’s (née Pyper) daughter voiced an interest. With two dancers in the frame Janice then invited young dancer Katie Miller to join the troupe. Doreen Ward (née Leighton) joined the ranks in October, introduced by her long-time friend and colleague, June always a woman in the know, June would later introduce Janice to Doreen Ward, née Leighton, and then in 2018, the women were listening to a feature on The Janice Forsyth Show on BBC Radio Scotland which starred Betty Clarkson, prompting Doreen to send an invitation to Betty inviting her to join the troupe.

The only ‘D’ word here, is Dance

Despite the origins of An Audience With… emerging from the Festival Theatre’s Living with Dementia Programme, the key objective was never to reminiscence or to be concerned with wellbeing. The women involved were not all living with dementia, nor did any of them or their families identify as such hence our only ‘d’ word being dance.

Turning the tables, what originally began as a participatory and engagement project evolved into an intergenerational, ongoing work, led by the women who shared skills and knowledge, histories and craft, past and present. We danced, soaking in the culture and history of this industry while looking to the future and to a new generation and this is what we stood for.

What we’re all about

In our four years of working together we performed two live shows, made a film, published a book, recorded podcasts, led workshops, taught classes, performed at festivals and hosted events, discussions and welcomed the many folks who dropped by, spontaneously or through request. 

Now we have created this website, a digital home for our collection of photos, film and memorabilia, our knowledge and history, our stories, and a testament to our responsive and open-ended way of working together with equality, agency and autonomy flowing between us.

We met regularly and weekly, to dance, talk about dance, and share practices and ways of dancing then and now. We talked about the past, and the present, and how we might contribute to the future. We documented as much as possible, both material and memory, in the body and on the page; and we captured as much of our histories, stories, craft, skills and knowledge as we could manage. We discussed society’s and our own expectations of older dancers, what it feels like to be one, how an older dancer dances differently from their younger self, and what value that continues to contribute to teaching and performing. We talked a lot, laughed a lot, shared a lot and danced a lot. We also ate a lot of biscuits. 

Our quiet radical act was always to continue with our work together for as long as the spirit was willing, and the desire was there. In early March 2020, we had many plans, even though we had lost our founding member June Don Murray. The last diary entry was the last time we met together pre-Covid and the global pandemic. We were in Doreen’s kitchen, (check this) our temporary home at the time, having transported our tap boards there and calling ourselves The Kitchenettes. Of course, like us all, we didn’t know just how long the pandemic would go on for. In the intervening years Betty Clarkson, Doreen Leighton-Ward and Marie Duthie joined June in the “big cabaret in the sky” (their own words!) What a loss and what a blow and this website has now taken on even more significance. 

It has a profile page for each of the women profiling their work and contribution over their lifetimes, and a separate Gallery page of photos and images for each of them. There is also a diary section that charts our four years together telling our story, sharing how we worked together, how things unfolded, and shining a light on our many different events and encounters. We’ve also included press reviews, previews and features from our four years together (Are the performance programmes anywhere?) as well as a link to further resources that may be of interest resources and of course acknowledgements and thanks to our many supporters. Finally, we’ve recently been able to add links to film, videos and podcasts that we made so you can hear the women in their own voices and watch them dance. 

There is of course still much that could be added. Notebooks of scribbled handwritten notes of names, performances and half a story, all waiting to be followed up with detail and delight. There’s also information on work we did on Festival Theatre’s archive – the one on the walls of the Empire Rooms where it all began – naming people and wee anecdotes about them if they were known personally by the women as many of them were. It is worth saying here that each of the women have something personal to them on these very walls. You can find out what in their personal pages. (Can they?!) Perhaps it is always so, that it is never possible to collect and document everything. But we have come far and are very glad that we did.

An Audience With… advocates for the contributions of older performers, living with and without dementia. We want to contribute to the current climate and attitudes towards dance by placing centre stage those dancers who have an untapped history and who continue to deserve a place in the spotlight. We want to open this world of dance and the spirits of these women to as many people as are interested. Designed to tell the stories of the four women this website is a testament to their contribution, passion, skills, knowledge and love of life and dance.

We hope you enjoy

A Special Thank You…

An Audience With… wouldn’t be here without a tremendous amount of support, passion, and love from a wide circle of colleagues, friends, funders, and supporters. Please follow the link below to find our Acknowledgement and share in thanking the people who valued the careers of these women and a love of Variety Theatre.

Acknowledgements.  

Janice & Katie

An award-winning independent dancer and choreographer, based in Edinburgh, Janice Parker works locally, nationally and internationally conceiving, creating and supporting collaborative performance and ways of working with people from all walks of life. She works across art forms, always in collaboration, to create small and large-scale productions, live performances, film and installations, publications and site-based choreography; and is actively engaged in mentoring and nurturing artists, and organisations in supporting future generations of dancer-creatives. 

Janice advocates the contribution of diverse voices, body types and backgrounds to dance as an art form and works to promote and sustain new practices that empower people and their communities.

For more information see: www.janiceparker.co.uk

Katie Miller is a dancer, and dance teacher from Glasgow. She trained at the Dance School of Scotland, after becoming a Scottish Ballet Junior Associate there. Katie also went on to train with Rambert School of Ballet and Contemporary Dance.

Katie began a partnership with Janice Parker Projects in 2016 as a Dance Artist in Residence, utilising her experience with and learning from the other dancers.