2022
To EarthJulie Cleves and Robbie Synge

To Earth is a collaboration that invites the audience to join Julie Cleves and Robbie Synge as they weave together physical actions, film and simply fabricated wooden objects to reveal a personal story and offer a framework for broader conversation. Spanning over a decade, Julie and Robbie’s practice is shaped by a friendship and adventurous spirit that explores where and how they are able to share time and space together.
Held as a gathering for a small audience, Julie and Robbie perform a journey at a pace determined by the biomechanics of two very different bodies, embodying cooperation to and from the earth.
Julie and Robbie also facilitate a workshop along touring To Earth
Based on some of the questions and challenges they have encountered through their exploration of accessing different places and spaces together, they will ask, where do our distinct and overlapping priorities lie and where might design and solo/cooperative embodied approaches have relevance?
This workshop is aimed at anyone interested in considering how we might physically cooperate with each other, though not necessarily through close physical contact. An inclusive and considerate approach will be prioritised with sensitivity and respect towards personal choices.
About
Julie Cleves
Julie Cleves is a London-based performance and dance artist. Julie initially studied BA (Hons) Fine Art and MA Art and Design in Leeds. Increasing her physical practice and training, Julie was part of CandoCo Dance Company’s Dance Foundation course (2006/7) and has since worked with a number of dance and theatre companies nationally and internationally including Graeae, Mark Brew, Scottish Dance Theatre and SPINN (Sweden).
Robbie Synge
Based rurally in Nethy Bridge in the Highlands, Robbie Synge creates performance, film and objects rooted in choreographic thinking around the body and its meeting points and touch with people, objects and the natural and built environment. His projects allow social and political themes to arise through circumstance and relationship, often through long-term working relationships with professional or non-professional performers or contributors.
Support
Supported by Creative Scotland, Dance North, Metal and Siobhan Davies Studios.