Six Tiny Feet to Bring New Dimension to Motherhood Exhibition
On Saturday 4 May, dancers from balletLORENT along with their toddlers will use Katie Cuddon's A is For Alma exhibition at Hatton Gallery as their stage for free performances
Three dancers, along with their toddlers, are collaborating with a local sculptor in a life-affirming finale to her current exhibition.
Newcastle artist Katie Cuddon invited balletLORENT to respond to the artworks in her exhibition A is for Alma at the Hatton Gallery. Katie’s clay forms explore the union between mother and child and were all created since she gave birth to her daughter in 2018.
Choreographed by artistic director Liv Lorent, the dancers and their children will move freely in the space around the artworks, bringing living sculpture to the collection.
The dancers are Natalie MacGillivray and three-year-old Aiden, Alys North and 23-month-old Solmaz and Benedicta Valentina Mamuini and 11-month-old Maverick.
For Natalie and Alys, it's not the first time they have performed with their children. Aiden and Solmaz, alongside their mums, were part of the community cast of balletLORENT's retelling of Rapunzel, which finished a national tour in Derby in February.
Katie said: "A is for Alma explores the private realm occupied by a mother and child as somewhere on the edge of the outside world.
"Working with ballet LORENT, we have come together to explore how dance can give further form to the emotions embedded within this exhibition."
Liv said: "balletLORENT is creating a movement installation to accompany A is for Alma, with mother and child partnerships that make up the company.
"We were fascinated by this opportunity to reveal, through shared artistic expression, the beautiful and shifting existence we go through as we evolve as parents. The changing cycles of our development are driven by our babies and children, and they shape forever our unfolding as artists and people.
"In this collaboration with Katie Cuddon, we had an opportunity to share our experiences as women who are parents and perhaps to reflect back to audiences some of the relatable stories we have shared."
This will be Katie’s first solo exhibition in Newcastle for 15 years. The title, A is for Alma, evokes the ABC books read to small children and in the exhibition, Katie exhibits for the first time a clay alphabet of hand-modelled letters.
Katie’s work has been acquired by numerous private collections and the Arts Council of England Collection. Recent exhibitions include Night Portraits, De La Warr Pavilion (2023), Unearthing: Memory, Land, Materiality, London’s Courtauld Gallery (2023) and the national touring exhibition Breaking the Mould: Sculpture by Women Since 1945 (2021-2023)
balletLORENT is a Newcastle based touring dance theatre company, creating works for both families and adult audiences. Its most recent production, The Velveteen Rabbit, toured the north east as well as putting in an appearance at infamous London dance venues Sadler’s Wells, this spring. In 2023 balletLORENT celebrated its 30th anniversary.
The A is for Alma performances are on Saturday 4 May 2024, which is the final day of the exhibition. They are at 11am, 2pm and 3pm and last approximately 10 minutes. Pre-booking is not required. The Hatton Gallery, part of the University of Newcastle is on King's Rd, Newcastle NE1 8QB.
