A lady not called Margaret, Brenda or Margery

My grandma told me a story about going to Morrisons and bumping into some friends - being called Margaret then Brenda and then Margery. Her name is Janet.

A lady not called Margaret, Brenda or Margery is a short film in three sections created in collaboration with sound designer Umesh Mistry. The film really did come about from my Grandma’s story, we spoke a lot about supermarkets, ageing and nostalgia. I think somehow death and grief came into that conversation - there’s something clinical about Brenda, I think that comes from hospital trips.

I think the heart of my work is in trying to make contemporary dance an accessible art form - it saddens me that many people feel isolated by this work. In making this piece I spent a day genuinely trying to capture an essence of how I move, why I move and the specific things that move me.

Matthew is a 20 year old contemporary dance artist working theatrically often targeting politically charged narratives creating a number of works with an LGBTQ+ focus working as a performer and choreographer. Matthew won the contemporary category final of BBC Young Dancer 2019. Recently Matthew has worked for Matthew Bourne’s New Adventures, Kneehigh Theatre, Phoenix Dance Theatre, The Pappy Show Physical Theatre, Vice Versa Dance Theatre and Defrin & Boucher. Matthew’s film work has screened at TW1 Film Fest (winning best film), Queer Cinema Club, Lift-Off Global Network Sessions, Filmed Up, Super! Film Festival, Seyr Festival, National Maritime Museum and Flock Festival.