A Pair Of Resting….  is a sort of performance lecture, or maybe a loose, sticky web of 'Humanimal' 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 we do each other…

Since 2017 I have been responding to this over-reaching question, how and what do we dance in the 21st century; 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.

The work began with an inkling - 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 upgrade and I begin to believe we can renegotiate our relationships to power.  

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

There is this guy called Brian, he says ‘When I think of a body and ask what it does to earn that name, two things stand out. It moves. It feels. In fact, it does both at the same time. It moves as it feels, and it feels itself moving. (Massumi, 2002)   

Every day, I wake 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, foal like. I feel like I am in in the presence of 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 and 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. 

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

(Lucy Suggate)

CLICK HERE FOR LUCY & MOLLY’S OTHER FESTIVAL PIECE A GIANT DOG BED / RECLINING DUET

Lucy Suggate is a dance artist and choreographer based in the UK. Making working since 2003, she is recognised for her articulate and engaging solo performances as well as choreographic installations and public scores inspired by change and cooperation.  Her movement practice is an ongoing inquiry into the perceptual and physical expansion that occurs when engaged in long-term moving and thinking. https://www.lucysuggate.com/

Lucy Suggate – Dance Artist
Molly Suggate – Greyhound
Helen McIntosh – Producer
Caitlin and Andrew Webb-Ellis – Artist Filmmakers

Supported by: Creative Scotland, The Work Room, Dance Base, Take Me Somewhere
Photos: Amy Sinead Photography.