Body Archive

Dance as an act of joy, empowerment and resistance.  

This work explores notions of belonging and inclusivity, through personal and collective recollections of movement histories and identity.

How can we create a togetherness based upon sensorial and porous modalities of existence, through gender fluid and non-binary value systems?

How can we queer our perception of desire by delving deeper into our intuitive, exploratory, and peripersonal dimensions?

How can we deconstruct a fantasy system that for centuries has catered to the western heterosexual male gaze, and, in so doing, take back and embody our own physicality?

Through collective processes this project asks us to generate an active exchange on the subjects of queer identity and gender politics, historical legacy and archival memory, acting as a public invitation to celebrate our physical history and cultural heritage.

"As a performer in Tatge's Body Archive (2017) I had the pleasure to deepen my own improvisation and performance practice under the care and guidance of an exceptional artist. The theoretical and embodied rigor of Alice’s artistic practice and her depth of reflection and inquiry at a felt-political level made for a deeply necessary, joyful and empowering process. Alice brought her wealth of experience so generously into the rehearsal space; individual creative voices of the cast were nurtured while Alice carefully steered the ensemble pieces also. Her capacity to both support and challenge performers, forms and aesthetics, stems from the ceaseless integrity of Alice’s approach to her practice"
(Alexandrina Hemsley)

"Alice's work explores questions of gender, selfdefinition, the politics of the body, cultural identity and the responsibility of the watcher with sensitivity, compassion, humour and uncompromising honesty, attributes that can be found consistently in all her work."  (Pete Staves)

This project was made possible thanks to the generous support of Arts Council England.