For this month’s Artworks, we speak to dance artist and choreographer Lucy Suggate about her work Tender Stones, which will be performed this month as part of the 2025 nottdance Festival.
Tender Stones - the more time I spend with it, the harder it is to explain it. It’s a strange dance performance that gathers performers to construct paper stones. A surreal production line unfolds and explores the mysterious properties of stone and asks how we might begin to move with petrification, heaviness and tenderness. When rehearsing the work, I talk a lot about ‘drift’ and ‘drag’ the strange phenomena of objects being both heavy and light.
Tender Stones emerged in the wake of the pandemic. During Covid-19 I made a series of reclining duets with an ex-racing greyhound and was struck by how they could remain so fast after so much rest. It made me think about how and why we move the ways we do - and how, with so much loss and fear, how we remain moving and proceed.
I’m really interested in how you can stretch movement, and how it connects into other living-practices
As a mover I’m drawn to skateboarding. I’m envious of how it must feel to skate and glide, plus the community, cooperation, and belonging that the culture promotes. My friend recently introduced me to SkatePal: a non-profit founded in 2013 with the aim of developing a self-sustaining skateboarding scene in Palestine. I found this book by designer Samar Maakaroun titled Haraka Baraka (الحركة بركة), which translates as ‘movement is a blessing’, and I think about having space to glide.
Most of the time it is music and sound artists that inspire my work - currently on repeat are Ganavya, Ellen Reid, Sarah Davachi, and Hayden Pedigo. Their spacious work definitely influences the landscape I try to build through dance and choreography. We are lucky to be working with sound artist Tom Harris, who will create live sound for Tender Stones.
I’ve been fortunate enough to be working as a dance researcher with Fabric for nearly a year. I’m really interested in how you can stretch movement, and how it connects into other living-practices.
Part of my work with Fabric has been to share the practice behind Tender Stones, culminating in a one off performance for nottdance this October. I’ve been working with loads of wonderful Nottingham based folk including Cool Company, an improvisation group for over 60s who are based at Nottingham Contemporary.
In the current arts climate it’s so difficult to make live dance happen, so it feels so special to reimagine Tender Stones in such an interesting space and with so many people.
You can catch Lucy’s performance of Tender Stones on Wednesday 8 October at Nottingham Contemporary as part of nottdance Festival 2025.
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