At Stopgap, movement is at the heart of everything we do, not just in dance, but in the way we evolve, adapt, and push for change. As we headed into 2025, we made a deliberate choice to slow down, reflect, and take stock of where we are and where we want to go. In this blog, Co-Artistic Director Lucy Bennett shares insights from our reflective start to the year, what we’ve learned, the conversations we’ve had, and how this intentional pause is shaping the future of Stopgap.
Two dancers rest on the studio floor. On the left, Monique, a short statured Black woman rests her head on her arms. On the right, Christian, a white non-disabled man, lays on his back with his left elbow nestled into Monique's side.
We at Stopgap have been taking stock. 2024 was a busy and impactful year for us and towards the end of the year we decided that a collective period of reflection could really support the company to find some time to notice. We quieted our external delivery of workshops and social media flow and for the start of 2025 we turned in on ourselves and considered practice, internal communication, and strategy.
Reflecting vs. Resting: A surprising discovery
The first thing we learned is that reflecting is not the same as resting. In fact, reflecting can feel quite busy.
Therefore we had to find places to actively take time out together. It was through our shared lunches, open classes and coffee breaks that we could ease into a dialogue on our learnings from touring Lived Fiction and our latest work on Access and Advocacy.
Dance Artist Emily Lue -Fong said:
“We don’t often have time to revisit evaluations, we know what we do well and we repeat that, it feels good practice that we now take time to consider how we can do what we do even better”.
A black and white photo of a group of Disabled and non-disabled people in discussion. Some people sit on the floor of the studio and others are sitting in their manual wheelchairs.
Finding Space for Dialogue
Take access for example. Assistant Artistic Director and Future Leader Monique Dior Jarrett made the suggestion that we take a day to fill in access riders with the access workers and managers. This led to Access Artist Lily Norton and Future Leader Coordinator Amy Owen leading a session on Access Rider development for the whole company. Their work brought to the surface clear access actions that Stopgap always offers. Knowing there is a foundation of access built into Stopgap’s working culture says Lily Norton enables us to build a system of transparent access in which everyone benefits from.
Rethinking our outreach for Young People
Considering clarity of access and the feeling of a safe creative space led to conversations around our outreach with young people post pandemic. We asked ourselves if we need to reconsider the kinds of workshops we offer, and what is truly working for young people? Community Engagement Artist Cherie Brennan noted that smaller groups, longer projects and consistency would help build trust amongst young people for whom the large one off sessions can make them feel self conscious.
How we teach our workshops led to a practical session led by Senior Artist Christian Brinklow who looks out for Stopgap’s Artist Development. Exploring contact dance through conversations about our own experiences of being lifted, lifting others and consent. Christian shared ideas for safety drills and tuning in physically before making contact with touch. Again resonating Cherie’s thoughts on smaller groups, longer projects and clear building blocks.
A young dancer with Down syndrome during a dance class, they reach their left arm of their head and their right arm forwards.
Teaching with Inclusion and Rigour
This made it surprisingly easy for us to approach our favourite company wrestle with two words used regularly in our teaching practice – Inclusion and Rigour. Two words that do not seem to sit well together but that are for Stopgap inextricably linked. We are rigorous with our inclusion and inclusive in our rigour. This is a big ask but one that helps Stopgap stay ambitious. Revisiting the feedback from our annual choreography Lab Creative Tank with South East Dance it dawned on us the spectrum of people we engage with and how we need support for that.
As people who trained in dance and not care work, we now need to draw on the support of experts in wellbeing and mental health first aid when opening up Stopgap’s practice to everyone. We reminded ourselves we cannot be everything to everyone and that we now live in times when we can lean on other organisations who offer this kind of support. Isn’t that incredible?
The Industry is Listening: A New Urgency
For me as someone who has worked for Stopgap for over twenty years I have noticed something too. In previous years Stopgap has been far busier than this, but now there is an urgency that cannot be ignored. For Stopgap this nagging urgency is not only the lack of resources, greater digital connectivity and competitive climate that the whole industry feels.
Stopgap has become acutely aware that the industry is now listening, the industry wants to learn from us. This pressure, this alertness and attention is what we have been driving towards for twenty five years. So now finding space to reflect, maybe even rest, does not seem so radical if we want to be ready to share all we have learnt.
Looking ahead
Finally, many of the artists I have mentioned in this blog are also busy penning their thoughts on Stopgap’s reflective January and February. So deeper insights on the above subjects will follow soon.
