No-How Generator_Graphic by Victoria Ford
May 2025
Just over a month ago, it was really exciting to perform in Jules Cunningham's work Pigeons alongside an amazing group of collaborators, as part of the opening season of Sadler's Wells East on 27 & 28 March.
Thanks to everyone who came to the first performances of my new work Readings of what was never written in November, commissioned by NEUROLIVE, the interdisciplinary research project that I’m artistic director of. It was a total joy to be working with collaborators including dance artists Temitope Ajose, Ben Ash, Iris Chan and Katye Coe and sound artist Joel Cahen. You can read more about NEUROLIVE and this new performance in this Guardian article about dance and neuroscience and in this Dance Art Journal review of the performance.
I recently launched a new stand-alone website for No-How Generator, an online resource that shares the body of research that makes up my PhD, encompassing the choreographic work and the written thesis. The website uses the poem-like concluding words of my written thesis as a starting point for inviting you to unfurl the ideas and references that it weaves together. You can use the site to get a quick introduction to this body of research or, if you choose, you can dive deeper and spend longer with the full-length writing and choreographic work. I'd love for you to take a look! Huge thanks to Victoria Ford for designing the site, and to Midlands4Cities and De Montfort University for supporting me with the one-year part-time Postdoctoral Fellowship that has made it possible.
No-How Generator is a choreographic work and also my practice-based PhD. It had its London premiere at Sadler’s Wells Lilian Baylis Studio in 2022. I also talked about this work and shared some of the practice as part of the 3-day symposium Choreographic Devices at the ICA. You can read more about No-How Generator in this interview with Dance Art Journal.
I'm also excited to continue to be part of the creation of The Last Quartet, a new work by choreographer Seke Chimutengwende. The work is performed by Seke, Temitope Ajose, Charlie Ashwell and I, alongside live music from composer Jamie McCarthy, and will premiere at The Place (London) in October 2025.
I’m slowly giving a long-overdue update to this site and have recently added info about my solo installation performance Loop Atlas for the first time - please have a look.
I’m really thankful to UCLA scholar Kriss Ravetto-Biagioli for recently publishing a paper that talks about Loop Atlas, as well as another that talks about my solo work Riff. I’ve really enjoyed the conversations that she and I have had about these works over the past few years - it really means an absolutely massive amount to me to hear that the ideas from some of my past work still resonate and are remembered and engaged with. It’s so fundamentally important to me that the work that dance artists/choreographers do can keep generating connections across times and isn’t just assumed to disappear without a trace - it keeps resonating and keeps working as compost.
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Thanks for visiting and warm wishes,
Matthias