PRESS RELEASE

The Body As Data: People On The Move

Thanet, Dover, Folkestone

 

Kent based dance artists Sidonie Carey Green and Tom Tegento are excited to announce the successful funding of its participatory performance project The Body As Data, working with local communities and artists to explore personal narratives and experience of borders. 
 

Re-imagining Borders and Technology 

 

Through a series of creative movement workshops, site specific walking events, and filming using surveillance technologies, a film will be created exploring how the ‘body-as-data’ can draw its own border by re-imagining the potential of drone technology and the power of walking practice. This project will connect local communities who have experienced forced migration and we will come together to mobilise the border of the Kent coast from Margate to Folkestone.  

 

The Body as Data workshops and walks are set to begin on Saturday 1st June in Margate and will run through to Sunday 30th June in Folkestone. Attendees are invited to join by the location they live at, and are very welcome to join the locations at Margate and Folkestone. 

 

01/06/24 - MARGATE: Crate Space workshop with Tom Tegento and Surya Chandra

02/06/24 - Walk from Margate Beach with Tom Tegento and Surya Chandra

 

07/06/24 - MARGATE: ARK workshop with Falle Nioke and TBC

08/06/24 - Walk from Walpole Bay Tidal Pool with Falle Nioke and TBC

 

12/06/24 - DOVER: Samphire Project workshop with Farida Yesmin and Surya Chandra

12/06/24 - Walk from St Margarets Bay with Farida Yesmin and Surya Chandra

 

19/06/24 - DOVER: Napier Barracks workshop with Farida Yesmin and Josephine Carter 

20/06/24 - Walk from The Warren with Farida Yesmin and Josephine Carter 

 

29/06/24 - FOLKESTONE: Open Quarter workshop with Tom Tegento and Josephine Carter 

30/06/24 - Walk from Folkestone Beach with Tom Tegento and Josephine Carter 

 

Each workshop and walk is facilitated by a team of local artists with lived experience of forced migration, and we invite anyone who has experienced forced migration to join our workshops and walks. We also invite expressions of interests from people whose values align with ours and would like to be involved.

 

We still witness division and unease surrounding the narrative of migration, and this project seeks to provide a space for conversation within communities and multiple narratives to be heard. From the walks, a film will be created using drone technology to capture local migrant and community participants drawing their own border across the Kent coast, to highlight how the border is constructed, offering an alternative mobilised version of the border which was created by those it denies. 

 

This film will be screened in September and October 2024 in the spaces it was created.

​

Tom & Sidonie

 

In 2022 Sidonie and Tom developed a collaborative practice, exploring Tom Tegento’s experience as a refugee arriving from Eritrea and researching what role surveillance technologies could play in performance to provide agency for othered bodies. This culminated in a durational solo performance on Margate beach captured by drone. 

 

The themes explored of reclaiming space and mobilising borders across the Kent coast are as prevalent as ever. Tom and Sidonie have built a collaborative trust through conversation & debate, and by including a broad range of individual thoughts & perceptions, challenging themselves and one another. They believe it is vital to continue this work, but also to expand it in a way that choreographs space for many marginalised people across the Kent coast.

 

Get Involved

 

For more information or to get involved, please contact The Body As Data team at bodyasdata@gmail.com or connect with us on Instagram @thebodyasdataproject, and in 1 or 2 sentences stating why you would like to be involved with this project. We are looking forward to an exciting journey with you. 

 

Thank You 

 

Thanks to Arts Council England and Counterpoints Arts for the generous funding of this project. Thank you to the community and participation groups at Napier Barracks, Glenwood House, ARK, and The Samphire Project. 

 

**End of Press Release**

 

**NOTE TO EDITORS**

 

Tome Tegento and Sidonie Carey-Green are independent dance artists based in Canterbury and Folkestone, dedicated to bringing inclusive dance, movement, and creative opportunities to the community.

 

For further details about the Body As Data project, how to join activities and get involved, please contact producer Jodie Cole / 07818006947 / bodyasdata@gmail.com

 

For more information on Tom Tegento and Sidonie Carey Green: 

https://www.thebodyasdataproject.com/artists-1

 

Website:   https://www.thebodyasdataproject.com/

Instagram: @thebodyasdataproject

Email:  bodyasdata@gmail.com

​