All(i)um
All(i)um is a new collaborative project between Katie Smyth (Worm), Naomi Annand (Yoga on the Lane) and Alhoa Shaw.
The body is not a thing, it is a situation: it is our grasp on the world and our sketch of our project - Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex
The first stage of the project is in situ in the Yoga on the Lane window in Dalston. The second stage, a dance film with an original score by musical duo Balledeste – Tara Franks and Preetha Narayanan – is ongoing. What exactly it will look like is still an open-ended question; this is project which is emerging as it progresses. At root it is an exploration of the life cycle and a celebration of the ageing body. As Katie from Worm says, ‘People want to be wise but don’t want to look wise don’t want a wise body.’
But working with flowers has given her a new perspective on dying and the life-cycle, imbued her with the knowledge that there is beauty in all stages of life, that dried dead flowers can be just as good as fresh ones. ‘We start in the earth and end in the earth. When you look at a plant it doesn’t seem so scary. The flower comes quite late in life for a plant.’ It was this sentiment that underpinned the Yoga on the Lane window installation. ‘Onion bulbs have really strong roots and they’re such an everyday thing. All cultures eat them, but they’re always the support act. But. I love the idea of using something so everyday. They are very layered, inner core, skin that gets shed.”
As well as using the skins to create flowers she dyed fabrics with red and yellow onions.
‘They were in my studio old and shrivelled, out of the earth and had no water. And then I came in one day and they were flowering. I was so shocked these old onions were having a late flowering. They’re a wonderful plant. Onion comes from the Latin word meaning unity, oneness, wholeness. I think that symbol of the circle is a symbol for life. And I really enjoyed using the thing that had been shedded to make something.’
These themes of the ageing body, of the beauty of the life cycle, of things that are taken on and then shed are informing the dance piece as it develops. Naomi retired from the Royal Ballet Company almost twenty years ago and, despite having barely danced since, she has taken on this project to dispel some myths around ageing and beginning again. ‘I really wanted to experiment and remember the love and joy of dance as a medium of communication, a song of the body, beyond words and explanation. Over the pandemic my kids asked lots of questions about death. Rather making it a very heavy topic I wanted them to have a visual representation that was beautiful in its own imperfect way.’ As Katie says ‘It’s ongoing conversation. The things we’ve done so far are just the start. I’m thinking of ways that it could be a book. It will keep going. People are joining in the conservation.’