Fiery Darkroom | WTF : Thursday at Chisenhale July 3, 2025
Opening reflections from Alan McFetridge and Anna May
We began with watermelon, feta, drinks, and conversation around the kitchen table at Chisenhale Dance Space. I arrived just as a performance was wrapping up—the studio was alive with post-show energy. I knocked on the office door, hoping to catch Sam, Frances or Reece. Happily, most of the team were there. Over the past two years, Chisenhale has opened the dance community to artists of all kinds, putting in the mahi (work) to make this space accessible. WTF: Thursdays are part of that ongoing legacy and here we were about to run one.
I had to remind myself: I’m not in photography land anymore.
Moments later, Anna May arrived—an hour early, entirely on her own initiative (and stayed late to help clean up). We split duties: Anna sliced the watermelon and diced feta, while I prepared the studio. I unrolled a 50-metre butcher paper scroll to start the project archive, cued Marlon Williams’ Te Whare Tīwekaweka (2025), shifted the lights to red, readied my camera, and welcomed each person as they arrived.
What was happening?
Months earlier, the Centre for Ecological Philosophy (CEP) launched an Open Call for Nature(Mother)—a global invitation to explore nature as a nurturing force. After three Zoom sessions, this was the group’s first in-person gathering. The aim: to explore how dance and movement could live within the project, alongside other forms. It wasn’t a rehearsal, but it laid the groundwork—and revealed the generative potential of Nature(Mother) in motion.
The day before, over a beer at the Beehive Pub, anthropologist and calligrapher Dr. Lei Zhou (UCL) asked me about the red light of darkrooms and the deep orange glow of flames. That conversation sparked an idea: to turn the studio into a fiery darkroom—a space of emergence, exposure, and transformation. The paper scroll became part of that setting.
The next two hours unfolded unexpectedly.
Many attendees weren’t part of Re·Volve or the Nature(Mother) network—they’d found the listing on their own, arriving with different expectations. Some thought it was a dance workshop; others expected a talk. The language of the Atlas we’re building didn’t land for everyone at first. One person even left. But about 40 minutes in, something shifted.|
A shared solution started to emerge.
Two people asked if they could just dance while the rest of us continued the conversation. So I played more of Marlon Williams’ album, including Korero Māori, a track featuring a kapa haka choir from a woman’s perspective. It felt right for Nature(Mother).
A Moment of Convergence
The video below captures a first response—an embodied reaction to ancestral rhythms and teachings of togetherness held in Māori musical tradition. In the image, Anna wears black, Princess carries white light, and the room is bathed in red.
At the time, I didn’t realise how symbolically rich that moment was. Looking back, it speaks directly to the heart of what we’re trying to build:
a living, moving, collaborative ecology of practice.
Biographies & Acknowledgements
Dr. Lei Zhou
Poet, designer, and lecturer in Anthropocene studies at UCL Bartlett. Proponent of De-sign, survival-of-the-sophist, and retro-Darwinian mechanisms of suspension and theatre.
Chisenhale Dance Space:
A 40-year-old artist-led organisation, challenging dance hierarchies through collectivist approaches to performance, rehearsal, and learning. WTF Thursday is part of their weekly open programme for low-risk idea generation.
Marlon Williams – Te Whare Tīwekaweka
“Ko te reo Māori, he matapihi ki te ao Māori” — The Māori language is a window to the Māori world. This whakataukī guides Williams' 2025 album, his first in te reo Māori.
Metalabel
A collaborative platform supporting shared creative releases. The Nature(Mother) project and the CEP are building an Atlas of Ecological Thought with Metalabel, releasing contributions that unite art, ecology, and culture in a shared economy.
Closing Reflection
For those who came to dance, for those who came to talk, and for those who left early—the room became a place of crossing thresholds.
We’re learning how to listen, move, and build something that holds multiple perspectives at once.
A fiery darkroom for exposure, transformation, and care.
Upcoming
Nilay Paz - Connections of Colours Workshop at Daisy Green Holland Park. 27 July 10 AM – 12 PM - Only 20 Tickets available - Book Now
𝐂𝐥𝐚𝐮𝐝𝐢𝐚 𝐑𝐚𝐦𝐢𝐫𝐞𝐳 𝐉𝐮𝐥𝐢𝐨 -Imaginary Territory Workshop at Daisy Green Holland Park. 31 August 10 AM – 12 PM
