'Moving together '- mobile working kit loops as choreographic tools

Whilst working on my research project to develop an arts practice to explore the relationship between the self and outdoor environments, I met Gemma Collard-Stokes and Scott Thurston. Gemma is a dancer and choreographer (at the University of Derby) and Scott a poet (University of Salford). Both had already developed a shared practice for working with movement and spoken language. We discovered together how we could use elements of my ‘mobile working kit’ (MWK) to make large flexible loops that we could hold and move with as a shared outdoor activity. We were amazed how this shared movement practice made us consider our positions in the outdoor world, our relationship with each other and with the ground, the grass, the rocks and particularly the spiky thistles (!) on Bakestonedale Moor. We started to offer such an activity to other people and tried it out with students of the University of Derby - on a very rainy day! We have since offered such activities to groups of people as a way  to discover their connection with the outdoor environment and their own emerging social togetherness.