Internationally acclaimed dancer and choreographer, Jules Cunningham, will be in residence at Bethlem Gallery – the art gallery based within the grounds of the world’s oldest psychiatric institution – between 19th and 24th February to mark LGBTQ History Month.
Bethlem Royal Hospital patients, staff and members of the public will be treated to free workshops and performances of Julie Cunningham & Company’s new work, PIGEONS, which explores themes of queerness and marginalised identities.
Jules founded Julie Cunningham & Company in 2017 and has built an outstanding reputation for producing award-winning work that combines clarity of form with gender identity and the body. A dancer for more than 20 years, Jules recently premiered a piece of work entitled how did we get here? alongside Spice Girl Melanie C and dancer Harry Alexander at Sadler’s Wells. Jules’ work is also informed by their lived experience of mental illness, disability and exclusion, playing a powerful role in the gallery’s commitment to providing artistic opportunities for patients.
Sophie Leighton, Bethlem Gallery director, said: “It’s an honour to welcome Jules back to Bethlem. Their work provides an extraordinary opportunity for patients, staff and the general public to engage with dance and other art forms in small, intimate settings – in the gallery, the chapel opposite and some of the wards of Bethlem Royal, including the National Anxiety Disorders Unit and the Psychosis Unit.
“Bringing arts into hospital settings provides a distraction from day to day life on the ward, as well as a powerful opportunity to observe, reflect and inspire the development of this new work.”
PIGEONS as a piece of work was first conceptualised during lockdown, when Jules combined thoughts about the music of Julius Eastman – a black gay man from New York who composed minimalist work in the 60s, 70s and 80s, and the way that pigeons continue to move and exist in a world that is mostly hostile towards them.
Jules said: “In PIGEONS, you can expect to see some dancing, some everyday movement. Through the movement we explore feelings of being alone and together, disruption and distraction. In relation to the music, we are moving almost relentlessly, perhaps irritated by our own need to keep going. We’ve thought about the ways that pigeons are repetitive, intent, and experienced, by humans, as a nuisance.
“This mirrors how marginalised people disrupt our lives, showing us uncomfortable truths. Queerness and disability disrupts in a similar way – disrupting the norms by the way we try to exist in the world. And the world chooses to disrupt us back, by excluding, denying our existence.
“Yet we find a way to continue, to keep moving and living, much in the way the pigeons do. We carve our lives around the exclusion and hostile environment. There will be some information at the start about what we’ve been working on and the opportunity to ask questions afterwards.”
PIGEONS will consist of workshops, open studio time, conversation, drawing and performance, and events and activities will be available for members of the public as well as patients and staff. On the final day of the residency, Julie Cunningham & Company will offer a free public performance in the chapel located across from the gallery. There will also be a movement workshop in collaboration with artist Vicky Long using movement, mark-making and printmaking at 11am on Saturday 24th February.
Bethlem Royal Hospital, Monks Orchard Road, Beckenham, BR3 3BX
