Underfoot is a site-specific project that considers the performance of intangible heritage at a site of archaeological interest in Northumberland National Park. Developed from the research conducted in component A, this portfolio considers how a dance performance could be realised at Brough Law Hillfort and presented at the permanent Breamish Valley Archaeology Exhibition in Ingram, with concern towards the aims and future research outlined in the existing archive document of Ingram by the Northumberland National Park Historic Village Atlas project. To further envision the project, the portfolio uses Hunter’s Model of Influence (2015: 36) to directly intersect archaeological elements and notions of intangible heritage with the development of the performance, as well as present a timeframe for the devising process. This framing statement summarises why the specific site was chosen and its relation to intangible heritage; key decisions about the proposed work; and how it relates to the local community and suggested audience.
Brough Law Hillfort is identified as an Iron Age site of cultural heritage importance (The Archaeological Practice Ltd., 2004: 23). It is significant among a collection of hillforts, as identified on the hillfort trail map shown in Figure 1, which is a well-known walk for local people and tourists. I have followed this trail repeatedly over a number of years, and therefore experienced Brough Law in differing weather conditions, seasons, and changing circumstances. My nostalgic memories of the site felt important when considering a project that intertwines an archive of human lived experiences alongside non-human archaeological elements. In the phenomenological sense that places are defined by ‘their relationship with the particular subject who experiences them’ (Trigg, 2012: 29), the presented performance defines the heritage site through my personal encounter and the choreographic process. Fundamentally important is site-specific work to be ‘generated with and for a site’s ecological and historical cultural systems and patterns’ (Kenney and Holmes, 2018: 32), and therefore my embodied knowledge of the landscape would be a discerning factor in choreographing the work.
Fig. 1. Ingram Hillfort Trail map. Photo taken at the Breamish Valley Archaeology Exhibition.
Component A began to explore how heritage can be expanded to include memory and identity in its definition. A significant factor in the process of situating the project at the site, memorial traces and emerging sensations ‘enable us to make sense of our place in the world and in relation to the places we encounter’ (Hunter, 2019: 143). Memory is multifaceted: ‘our individual memory gives us our personal past, and our shared past gives us our collective identity’ (Millar, 2006: 125-126). The project connects the memories and perspectives of three dancers, including myself, to develop a multifaceted view of the site and its heritage through the devising process. The other two dancers will be local to Northumberland in order to address aims of the Village Atlas: to reinforce the ‘existing sense of place and belonging of individuals’ within the community; and ‘provide a springboard for future community-led initiatives’ (2004: 7). Connecting with the local community will also be an important part of the research process, through the sharing of memories and archives to develop a collective and understanding of the importance of the landscape’s heritage. Further, this will help to ‘build the foundation we need to look to the future and see our connections with the larger world’ (Millar, 2006: 126), allowing the project to address social, community identity and wider cultural values.
Considering the logistics of performing Underfoot at the hillfort, filming the work will provide greater accessibility to a wider audience. It also allows for capturing of the immaterial, creating an archive of the lived experience of the dancers at the site. ‘Both performance and archaeology work with fragment and with trace’ (Pearson and Shanks, 2001: 55), leaving prints of the body on the landscape and stone (2001: 135). Figure 2 shows initial embodied research at the site, working with imprints and shadows on the stones. Devising a performance comprises an assemblage of these fragments and traces, presenting a documentary of memories and narratives to the viewer. The filmed work will be displayed as an archive in the context of the archaeological exhibition.
Fig. 2. Embodied movement research at the hillfort.
The proposed project will be presented to an audience consisting of the local community and tourists. Rural areas in Northumberland are predominantly at a distance to theatre and performance spaces, and therefore a large part of the local audience may not have regular access to dance. This prompts the question asked by choreographer Siobhan Davies: ‘what happens when we discover dance where we don’t expect to find it?’ (2002, quoted in Brown, 2010: 50). This opens the possibility to generate new audience perceptions and enlighten a willingness to engage with the site’s more-than-human elements, including its intangible heritage. Making the project as accessible as possible will aid another of the Village Atlas’ aims to facilitate greater understanding and preservation of the site, in order to value and care for it further (The Archaeological Practice Ltd., 2004: 7). Therefore, presenting Underfoot in the archive gallery will immediately contextualise it to the heritage and archaeology already discovered at Ingram, rather than performing live at the site where the audience reading may be without relation to the site’s heritage and its archive.
Rather than being an isolated project, the work aims to connect three Northumberland dance artists with the local community, the collective archaeological archive, and the intangible heritage at the site itself, devised to connect the past and present, revealing new perceptions and hidden narratives. To quote Northumberland topographer George Tate, whose writing is exhibited at the Breamish Valley Archaeology Exhibition,
‘Facts such as those elicited by our excavations may by themselves appear insignificant, but when viewed in connection with more extended observations, they acquire a meaning which enables us to gain glimpses into the history of the past’ (1863, quoted in Frodsham, 2005).
The proposed performance is an excavation that may notice something anew through acquiring dance as a vehicle to discover and connect ideas that will help to progress the community’s and audience’s understanding of Ingram’s rich heritage, and the need to preserve it.
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