Imaginarium: dancing with Carrington

This chapter explores James Hewison and Michelle Man’s practice-led choreographic research project, Imaginarium (2015), which responded to the work of artist and author, Leonora Carrington (1917-2011). The writing discusses their processes of embodied absorption and translation of Carrington’s literary and painted imagery, and draws on Bracha Ettinger’s notion of carriance in the authors’ attempts to dance themselves into Carrington’s oeuvre. The chapter also references the affective experience of their week-long artistic residency in Crookhey Hall, Carrington’s influential early-childhood home in Lancashire, UK. In doing so, the writing here reflects first-hand on the authors’ nascent rehearsal practices and resultant performance outcomes, referencing in that research journey the impact of drawings, paintings, writings, architectures, chance encounters, and cabbages and things.