Lucy Suggate

Lucy is a dance artist and Molly is a retired Greyhound, through companionship they evolved a practice of reclining together, it began four years ago as way to bond, connect and commune at a bodily level. During the pandemic the reclining has taken on deeper significance especially in relation to the act and role of rest and why it is so difficult achieve. The giant dog bed is an invitation into a practice that follows the greyhounds ability to translate rest into power. Together they slip into slumber.

This work was made during 2020/21. Filmed by artists Webb-Ellis. produced By Helen McIntosh. Research Supported by Creative Scotland, Sustaining Creative development grant. The Work Room, Surf The Wave, Response Pot, Luke Pell & Dance Base Scotland. Produced by Take Me Somewhere Festival, Glasgow & Birmingham International Dance Festival. Music played by Sarah Davachi, Perfumes II. Lucy’s costume made by Stevie Stewart. Image of Molly and Lucy reclining by Amy Sinead.

A Pair Of Resting…. Is sort of performance lecture, or maybe a loose sticky web of 'Humanimal ' (Julietta Singh) experiences, observations and smells… I’ve found that true love involves picking up somebody else’s shit. And a lot of us love our dogs more than each other…

Since 2017 I have been responding to this overreaching question, how & what do we dance in the 21stcentury; the age of overwhelming crisis, complexity, information and opinion? It's also the year that ex racer Molly trotted into my life - living with Moll feels like a lost childhood teddy bear has come alive.

This work began with an inkling that is it too hard to be human!? Or maybe it’s me and my feeling that I wasn’t designed for life, instead I’m designed to dance, and only when dancing do I feel that I can momentarily up-grade and begin to believe we can renegotiate our relationships to power.

As a choreographer and dance maker I’m attempting to find practices that can metabolise complexity and move us to gather more perspectives.

It is difficult living in a hypocrisy, eventually we all get choked up on the contradictory fumes, and 2020 painfully reminded me that a body is not forever.

Every day, I woke up to the presence and body of Molly, the greyhound. First thing in the morning she’s all Bambi like, limbs tangled up and endlessly folded.

Molly is a mythical creature. Not really a dog, more shapeshifter. Saint Guinefort - protector of infants, a velveteen assassin, that can reach 43 miles per hour in three strides. it’s the softest, furriest relationship I’ve ever had. So much of it relies on our felt/smelt sense of each other and it is a constant negotiation around communication & consent. Molly can never say anything that’s to hurt me and this puts us in a good place, turns out some words bite real hard.

'Dog & human owners bear remarkable resemblance to infant attachment bond: dogs are dependent on human care and their behaviour seems specifically geared to engage their owners care -giving system’(Bowlby 2014)

So, I’m a dog-mother and she’s my dog-daughter and together we make a right pair of anxious, nosey, moody, resting bitches.

Spirit Compass: Where There Is Movement There Is Change.


As we all buckle under the weight of the collapsing system, can we slip through the cracks and re-integrate, repurpose and reorganise in order to be more-than-human?

Spirit Compass is a live dance installation, an island and a temple of sorts which you are invited to inhabit and watch the movement go by.

Made possible by collaborating artists:

Lydia Hartshorn, Annie Hauener, Jamila Johnson-Small, Fernanda Muñoz- Newsome, Steph McMann, Isabella Oberlander, Tom Page, Claricia Parinussa, Rowdy SS

Premiering at BALTIC, this new commission responds to the increasing crisis and complexity of the 21st century. It searches for a remedy or an antidote to the over-complicated, never-ending bureaucracy, and the sedentary environments and technologies that are submerging us.

Commissioned by CONTINUOUS, a partnership between BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art, Gateshead and Siobhan Davies Dance, London

Supported by Arts Council England, John Ellerman Foundation and Creative Scotland

Thanks to Dance Base, Wainsgate Dances, Yorkshire Dance, Cove Park and Leeds Dance Partnership Fellowship

Pilgrim is a physical journey through the mystical sound scores created by Electronic Musician James Holden. It is a reminder of the ancient and enduring kinship between Dance and Music and the deeply transformative qualities of both. The work is haunted by remnants of folk and pagan sensibilities shifting between hypnotic and euphoric states. Lucy’s physical vocabulary is irreverent and eclectic; she guides us through minimal sophistication towards Acid House and  arduous repetition, resulting in a variety of perceptual and physical shifts. Coaxed along by Holden’s beguiling and epic rhythms she is constantly questioning and reminding us of why we Dance? “

Presented at Festival Terassa 2013 ( ES) Festival Salmon 2013 (ES) Seoul International Dance 2014(KO) Sonar  Barcelona 2014 ( ES) Bora Bora  2015 (DK) Nottdance 2015 (UK) Teatro Massimo 2015, Sardinia (IT) SoloTanz Festival , Bonn 2015 (DE) Multiverse Festival, Wysing Arts 2015 ( UK) Next Choreography, Siobhan Davies Dance 2016, (UK) Oxford Playhouse 2017 ( UK) Fierce Festival 2017 ( UK) Palais De Tokyo 2018, ( FR) Baltic Centre for Contemporary art Gateshead 2018 (UK) Szigets Festival 2019 ( HU) Lublin International Festival 2019 (PL)

 Concept devised during 2013 Modul Dance residency between Lucy Suggate and Sonia Gomez at GRANER in Barcelona. 

 Produced by Arts Council England and British Council Artists International Development Fund. Festival TNT Terrasa, Marta Oliveres, Modul Dance, Mercat De les Flors, Graner, Bora Bora and Dansehallerne. Special Thanks to James Holden and Gemma Sheppard, Bush Hartshorn and Dance4

After a number of residencies in historical Art Museums I became curious about the choreographic properties present in the role of “Art Handling”. I also noticed the act of “Touch” in the museum space is often forbidden and naturally breeds a lot of fear, unlike in the practice of dance where it is essential. I began to wonder how to re-introduce the act of touching along side such stoic acts of conservation. 

“Human Furniture” is a choreographed journey for one visitor, its purpose is to support looking and alleviate some of the effects of Museum fatigue. We will take your body on a journey through the space, diverting  information away from you eyes and into your body.  We will handle you with care.

Presented at The National Gallery, London. ( UK) Mac Val, Paris  ( FR)and Nottingham Castle, Nottingham.  (UK ) Arken Museum of Modern Art.     (DK)

Supported By Dancing Museums Siobhan Davies Dance and Dance4 and Nottingham Castle.

“OK Future” is a prototype of a future performance space. Devised by Connor Schumacher and Lucy Suggate and tested by you the public. Ok Future is in a constant state of upheaval  and change. It is an amalgamation of many cultural sites and experiences; part installation art, a social choreography,  a movement class, a mindfulness guide…. 

In the beginning Connor and Lucy met during a two year project called Dancing Museums, it was during this project their interest arose in creating opportunities where everybody is invited to encounter work through embodied practices. By activating the sensory self can we redistribute seeing, doing, consciousness and acts of virtuosity through the body, the imagination and can this bring us all closer to transformation? Most importantly what do we do when its all over; can we sustain the flexibility of thought, the energy, the new connections made. 

Presented at The PARADE ( NL) ( Rotterdam and Den Haag) The Dutch Dance Platform Dansdagen Maastricht ( NL) , Dance4, Nottingham, Siobhan Davies Dance London, Yorkshire Dance, Leeds. ( UK)

Ok Future is produced by Dansateliers, Funded by The Dutch performing Arts Fund

Supported by  Parade. NL, Siobhan Davies Dance, Dance4 and Yorkshire Dance.

The dancer of the future will be one whose body and soul have grown so harmoniously together that the natural language of that soul will have become the movement of the body”. (Duncan 1903)

The subject matter of the Future Dancer is turning out to be an epic, unanswerable conundrum and definitely not to be attempted alone.

I realised very quickly that the future is both near and far and intricately different for every living entity.

I realised very quickly the tyranny of science fiction and visions of crap dancing artificial intelligence.   

I realised very quickly I’m not interested in the the body obsolete - I mean I’m sure I’d like the shinny outfits we’d all be wearing.

I realised very quickly that I keep returning back the body,  falling deep into my body whilst casting a glance back to the graveyard of manifesto’s left behind by the twentieth century.

I realised very quickly I am your “Future Dancer” Isadora Duncan - my body and soul have grown so harmonious that they are one and  when I dance I spin a web of complexity and grace, plucked from the depths of the perceptual sea.

So as I cast a glance forwards  and the future Dancer is the epitome of turbo-embodiment- she is a techno-feminist-cyborg-creature who has the the immense capacity to translate, transmit, transform and transfigure. She listens to both the ancient and the brand new and is coaxed out of the body.

My Future Dancer probably doesn't look like your Future Dancer and I think that is a good thing.

Made possible by Arts council England, Dance4, Yorkshire Dance

"The body in motion is an articulation of complexity and grace, a 3 -dimensional model that can  construct, fold, collapse and re position the future. We are Dancing in the shadow of our own humanity balanced precariously between advancement and disaster- the only way to respond is to move, move together like swarms to transcend, transform and rebuild our sense of the communal, the collective body .  Swarm Sculptures interweaves primal, dreamlike and physical surfaces to expand the perceptions and actions of the doer and the spectator. Raising answers to the questions what are we watching for and why do we do?"

Swarm Sculptures is a movement installation based around bodies constructing a specific sculptural form. Using a choreographic score they explore how simple patterning can encourage the transformation of the human form.  With an interest in adapting  Swarm principals for live performance and  looking at the body as sculpture. Swarm Sculptures is a return to simplicity to communal activity that produces mesmerising actions and patterns.

Presented at.  Dancing Museums Vienna ( AT),  The Grand palais,Paris.     ( FR) Bonn Festival for Dance ( DE), Nottingham contemporary, Next Choreography Siobhan Davies Dance, NN contemporary gallery, Northampton ( UK )

Supported by National lottery Arts council England. Co commissioned by Dance4 produced by Dance4, Dancing Museums, Dance Base, Festival Bonn, Juncture Fesitval and Yorkshire Dance, Nottingham Contemporaray, NN contemporary Northhampton, De montfort university, Leciester.

“Consciousness is awareness of stimuli and reactions in the moment. Consciousness is acting with awareness, presence and memory. What is learned is retained and retrievable. Information, knowledge of events, feelings and experiences can be brought forward from the past to the present….Humans have ideas. Ideas drive consciousness forward to new perceptions and perspectives.” (Pauline Oliveros, 2003)

In this first experimental outing of their new work, synthesizer guru James Holden provides improvised hypnotic devotionals whilst dancer, choreographer and Shaman-figure Lucy Suggate leads an interactive exploration of sound, movement and trance states. Listen deep and dance free to uncover new folk trance rituals for the modern age.

Preview presented at DIG 17 ( Dance international Glasgow)

Dancing Museums is a new partnership project bringing together five European dance organisations and eight internationally renowned museums to explore new ways of interacting with audiences and five dance artists to explore new ways of being, moving and looking in gallery context.

Lucy Suggate along with Siobhan Davies Dance and The National Gallery, London were the UK team of the project.

The residencies were undertaken with the following participating museums: Arte Sella (IT), Museum Boymans van Beuningen (NL), Gemäldegalerie Wien (AT), Le Louvre (FR), Mac/Val (FR), Museo Civico (IT), Museo di Palazzo Sturm (IT) and The National Gallery (UK) 

Image Credit. The National Gallery, London and Dancing Museums 

“I use the idea of surfing as a metaphor for trying to really and truly dance my heart out. In this work I am searching for my ultimate dance- to enter the realm where codified and embodied knowledge collide, explode and thrust the person/performer to new physical heights, exhilaration and possibility.”

Dry Surfing is my ongoing practice based research. It stems from my daily practice called ‘Give me my daily dance” my approach to training and dancing and currently the foundation to many of my solo’s, it’s through this daily practice  that bubbles of thought rise to the surface and provoke questions and ideas’.

I became  interested in discovering my own  movement blue print , to understand further my  physical intellect, notice how my knowledge and experience of dance collide with my curiosity and the unknown,  the not yet learnt. How do codified and embodied knowledge integrate, hold hands, support one and other, or is it  an act of sabotage and repeating pesky habits. I want to share these “attempts” in  a performance context, hence the deliverance of “Dry surfing”

Presented at ES Terni, Festival ( IT) IETM 2012 ( DK) Kédja Nordic Baltic Platform (LT) Prato Festival ( IT)  Stary Browar, Poznan (PL) SMåk Pa Dans, Malmö ( SE) Saddlers Wells ( UK)

“Give us our Daily Dance” is a form of training and simultaneously a process of expansion, discovery and hopefully  continual feedback. I acknowledge that Dance is in a consistent state of flux and embrace the playful existence of codified and embodied movement and all of the in-between and unknown. I feel more than ever the importance of reconnecting to why we dance? To unleash the full potential of the dancing body on a daily basis.

For the last seven years, through practice I am exploring the link between dancing and thinking. When I dance it’s not only an articulation of thought, it also creates thought, like bubbles that get shaken to the surface. These pockets of thought  hold information questions, possibilities and impulses that go on to inform my choreographic and performance work.

The practice consists of guided exercises, departure points and lots of flamboyant dancing  cultivates a playground of possibilities, entering into realms where perceptual possibilities clash with our physical limitations and deliver us into new forms.

Haven't quite found the words to describe what happened at Daghdha in Limerick, Ireland,  partly as it no longer exists, but fair to say my time there working with Michael klien and all had a profound, life changing  effect and continues to resonate today.

Photos Connor Buckley, Marie Falconer, Daniel Alonso Van Camp