Week 4 - Body Politics / the Political Body - by Anna Seymour

Anna writes about week

April 7th – 11th 2025, Brecon, Wales. 

Brecon is a small town in mid Wales, and is the gateway for the Brecon Beacons National Park. Brecon has an army base, and a strong Nepali community. It also has a lovely river with some swim spots. 

Most of the first morning was spent catching up on industry goss, who is doing what, what’s being made, which projects are brewing. 

Then we opened the starter. 

It was a challenging topic, a dense week but also a lot of joy. It’s ironic how we struggled with this topic despite working with the body as our living. 

Is my body political?

I’ve never thought deeply of my body as political. Is that privilege? 

I have the “idealised” dancer body – white, petite, able-bodied. I feel my body is quite boring and doesn’t have much to bring in the current climate and context.  

We talked a lot, did some moving improvisations, and a lot of walks to the town as our working site for the week.  

Some definitions that helped us …

Bodies are not neutral, power controls bodies, resistance through the body, intersectionality, reflects the structure of society. 

“Dance reflects, reinforces, and resists societal ideas about the body, identity, and power. Dance is a powerful space to challenge political and social norms.” 

Whose bodies are seen?

Who controls this space and narrative? 

We noticed that the images in the starter didn’t have any black or brown bodies. Was this intentional? We talked about how bodies and which bodies can be safe, vulnerable, unburdened in public spaces. Is that even possible?

We visited the local football pitch, did some pole dancing, resting next to a discarded Pepsi fridge, standing in a muddy pit, placing ourselves in front of the ‘home team’ and ‘away team’ doors with migration implications. Who gets to stay, who is being kicked out?

We had our collective class with some dance artists from Impelo. The topic for our class was POWER – PRESENCE – BODY. It was a lovely communing of bodies and sharing our thoughts around body, power, protest, body dysmorphia. 

We went to town with these questions: “what happens if we do what we do in the dance studio in a public space? How do the behaviours of the dance studio translate to public spaces, and how will that be received?”

A highlight was Jo and my duet in front of Greggs where we drew a group of teenage boys who showed a lot of curiosity in what we were doing. 

A snippet of our conversation:

“What the fuck is that?”

“They are having a scrap!”

“Oh, they are dancing”

“Are they lesbians?” 

Jo: “Thanks for watching”

Boy: “Do it again”

Jo: “Where do you think we should do this?”

Boy: “In the middle of the road. Stop traffic!”

Jo: “We are dancers. We have been working/thinking about the body and interrupting spaces”

**confused looks**

Jo: “We also have been thinking about young men [Adolescence] How is that going?”

Boys: “Not good, not good”

** uncomfortable looks **

Anna: “Do any of you dance?”

Boys: “No!”

Another boy: “Why the fuck would you ask if we dance??” 

Another highlight was Jo in conversation with a biker guy, and them doing a slow dance together. 

Summarising this week feels mammoth.

I’m sure it will spill into next week in Cardiff for week 5. 

Written by Anna! Image by Full Mongrel.