This is a collaborative application between artists Victoria Gray and Roberta Jean. Over two-decades, we have established award-winning practices in our own right, as well as a collaborative relationship in the fields of choreography, film, and performance. We have passionate links to the North-East – Victoria was born in Jarrow (her family still residing there) and Roberta, whilst born in Wales, moved to Newcastle as a child. We consider the North-East “home.”
We would use the funding to create a multi-cast, multi-media, site-responsive performance work for Darlington (location tbc), influenced by Darlington’s industrial heritage. The work would be at the intersection of performance & visual arts practice, and would incorporate a sound score, text, choreography, & film. The film would be incorporated into the performative work and also screened separately to the performance.
Victoria grew up in a Thatcher-era, working-class family in Jarrow, her Dad being a shipbuilder. Her practice is influenced by the way in which the socio-economic impacts of closures left generations of men unemployed. Through choreography, film, text, and sound our project will explore the way in which the psyche, identity, and physicality of those men has been affected in intergenerational ways.
We have assembled a team of collaborators.
5 of the 7 collaborators are from the North-East:
Victoria Gray: Artistic Direction & Choreography
Roberta Jean: Artistic Direction & Choreography
Jonathan Webb: Sound
Sam Williams: Film
Connor Scott: Performer
Mark Greenwood: Performer and Writer
Freya Films / Jen Corcoran (tbc): North-East film production company
The prize will facilitate an important step-change in our individual and collaborative practices, working with new collaborators, as well as “scaling-up” existing artistic relationships. The fund is also timely. Since 2011, we have “daydreamed” of realising a large-scale collaborative work based on these themes. The Dover Prize and Darlington is the perfect context to realise this.
The project is influenced by Victoria’s brother, Anthony Edward Gray (1985 – 2023), a skilled labourer in the North-East industries. HIs life and early death embody the human cost of the post-industrial fall out.
With roots in the North-East, albeit now living in York and Edinburgh respectively, we have maintained a strong connection to our heritage. As artists we have been fortunate to have the opportunity to travel to present our work, and it is notable that being from the “North-East” elicits both positive connotations and reductive stereotypes. As well as class-based prejudice, often elicited on hearing a North-East accent, we have experienced reductive assumptions about the people, given their experience of socio-economic “hardships.”
Our commitment, in this project, is to create a more nuanced “story” about what it means to “come from” the North-East. Particularly, the way in which our industrial heritage is both a source of deep pride, and paradoxically, that which elicits reductive stereotypes. We will challenge these stereotypes by spotlighting the humanity and joy in “coming from” this place.
Core to this is our commitment to work closely with Darlington-based organisations connected to Industrial Heritage to embed the project in the locale.
We would, sensitively, host workshops with families and young-men affected by the themes of the project – post-industrial heritage, unemployment, disenfranchisement, cultural identity – with the view to recruiting 2-3 non-professional cast members for the performance and film components.
Victoria Gray is an artist who has presented work nationally and internationally, throughout the UK, Europe, USA, and Canada. With an initial conservatoire training in dance and somatic practice, her primary medium and material is the body. She works in a site-responsive way, making art works for specific cultural contexts and audiences. In this sense, her work is both auto-ethnographic and anthropological in its approach. Her work includes performance and film, presented in choreographic, museum and fine-art contexts. Notable presentations include 5th Thessaloniki Biennale of Contemporary Art, 8th Poznan Biennial of Photography, Yorkshire Sculpture Park, FADO Performance Art Centre (Toronto), VIVA Art Action Biennale Montreal, Baltic 39 (Newcastle), Royal Museums Greenwich (London). Recent presentations include The Garrett Centre Live Art Development Agency (London), Shape Arts (UK), Nunnery Gallery Bow Arts London & Museum of History Centre for Contemporary Art, Spain. https://www.victoriagray.co.uk/ Roberta Jean is a critically acclaimed choreographer making both film and performance. She works collaboratively with artists and makers from across disciplines to produce dances for a diverse range of contexts. She regards her research and development process as anthropological, and her choreography is centred around inter-disciplinarity and is heavily informed by the way in which cultural changes at large are embodied by and made evident in bodies. Recent presentations include, ‘Ways of Being’ presented at Sadlers Wells (London), ‘Brocade’ presented at Made in Scotland, Sadler’s Wells, Tanzmesse Dusseldorf, Tranway (Glasgow), Nottdance, and ‘Road Postures’ presented at Dance Umbrella (London), Dance 4 (Nottingham), De Montfort University (London), Dance City (Newcastle), Middlesborough Theatre and Deda (Derby). Since 2008, Victoria & Roberta have developed an important collaborative relationship. Notable collaborative projects include Victoria working as Dramaturg and Writer on Jean’s major works including, ‘Ways of Being’ (2024) – a work exploring the therapeutic use of psychedelics, informed by clinical and cultural research, and incorporating text, sound, movement, costume, ‘Brocade’ (2017), ‘Lace’ (2018) & ‘Thread’ – a trio of works exploring the female body in relation to traditional crafts, and ‘Group Hug’ (2010) – a work created for old dance halls, galleries, and spaces where people congregate together, exploring the nature of community and the communal. https://www.robertajean.org/
As artists, we are both qualified to post-graduate level.
It was whilst studying together for our BA (hons) in Contemporary Dance at Northern School of Contemporary Dance in 2002, that we met and started our formative work together.
Our formative, highly technical, physical training at BA-level is integral to the quality of our work, and our post-graduate training (MA & PhD) has elevated the research-led capacity of our work, introducing critical frameworks and research methodologies.
It is worth noting that all of the places of study listed below are considered ‘conservatoire’ level, which is to say, the highest level of training you can receive in the arts. The institutions of study – Northern School of Contemporary Dance, Goldsmiths University, and Chelsea College of Art & Design – have international reputations.
Our individual qualifications are as follows:
Victoria Gray
PhD Fine Art, Chelsea College of Art and Design, University of the Arts, London
MA, Performance & Fine Art, York St John University (Distinction)
BA (Hons) Contemporary Dance, Northern School of Contemporary Dance
Foundation Degree, Contemporary Dance, Dance City / Newcastle College
Roberta Jean
MA in Performance Making, Goldsmiths (Distinction)
BA in Contemporary Dance, Northern School of Contemporary Dance
Between us, we have received a significant number of grants and awards, and have included an edited selection below:
Victoria Gray – GRANTS
2021 Arts Council England, National Lottery
2021 a-n, Artist Information Company
2017 National Lottery
2017 a-n, Artist Information Company
2016 Arts Admin Artists’ Bursary
2015 Arts Council England, National Lottery
2015 Yorkshire Visual Arts Network
2013 Arts Council England, National Lottery
2013 a-n, Artist Information Company
2012 Arts Council England, National Lottery
2011 Lisa Ullmann, International Travel Scholarship
2010 Arts Council England, National Lottery
2010 a-n, Artist Information Company
2009 Arts Council England, National Lottery
VICTORIA GRAY – AWARDS
2016 Arts Admin Artists’ Bursary
2015 British Council International Award
Roberta Jean – GRANTS
2025 Jerwood Choreographic Research Bursary
2023 Sadler’s Wells
2022 Creative Scotland
2021 Creative Scotland
2020 Dance4
2019 Creative Scotland
2017 Made in Scotland
2017 Creative Scotland & Dance4 & Arts Council England
2014 Arts Council England & Dance East, Jerwood Dance House & Dance Limerick
2013 Arts Council England
2013 Greenwich Dance Agency
2011 Chisenhale Dance Space
2010 Arts Council England
Roberta Jean – AWARDS
2020 Winner of the Bonnie Bird Choreographic Development Award
2019 Finalist at Aesthetica Short Film Festival
2019 Finalist at New Renaissance Film Festival
2018 Finalist for the Total Theatre & The Place Dance Award
Victoria Gray
Her work has been reviewed in the following contexts:
‘Ballast’ reviewed by Viva Art Action [online]: https://tinyurl.com/Ballast-Viva-Festival
‘Welter’ reviewed by Shape Arts [online]: https://tinyurl.com/Welter-Shape-Arts
Her work has been featured in Time Out London, and in biennale catalogues for example 5th Thessaloniki Biennale of Contemporary Art, 8th Poznan Biennial of Photography.
Her work has been written about in-depth in the journals:
Choreographic Practices Journal (Intellect), Journal of Dance & Somatic Practices (Intellect), and REPERTIO: Teatro & Danca Journal, Brazil.
Her work has been written about in-depth in the following edited books:
Experiencing Liveness in Contemporary Performance (Routledge), and Kinesthetic Empathy in Creative & Cultural Practices (Intellect)
Roberta Jean
Roberta’s work has been reviewed in The Guardian, in relation to her work as Movement Director in the production of ‘St Maud’, Live Theatre, Newcastle. Her choreographic work, ways of being, was reviewed in Dance Art Journal, and her work Brocade was reviewed in the British Theatre Guide. Her curated programme of dance at Chisenhale Dance (London) was reviewed in Time Out London.
LINKS
https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2024/oct/04/the-team-bringing-horror-film-saint-maud-to-the-stage-newcastle
https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2024/oct/18/saint-maud-review-rose-glass-2019-horror-live-theatre-newcastle
https://danceartjournal.com/2023/11/14/roberta-jeans-ways-of-being-communicates-hope/
https://www.britishtheatreguide.info/reviews/brocade-dance-base-edi-16363
We have both been selected for national and international residencies.
Victoria Gray
The NewBridge Project, Newcastle, UK
Senselab, Concordia University, Montreal, Canada
FADO Performance Centre, Toronto, Canada
Axis Arts Centre, Manchester Metropolitan University
Grace Exhibition Space, New York
Gresol Art, Girona, Spain
Roberta Jean
2025 Fabric Dance
2023 Sadler’s Wells & Dance Base
2022 Fabric & Deda
2021 DanceXchange (Associate Artist)
2020 Dance4 & Dance Base
2019 Wainsgate Dances
2017 Dance Base& Tramway
2016 Dance4 & Dance City (Associate Artist)
2015 Critical Path Laboratory, Australia & Dance 4
2014 Dance Limerick & Dartington Arts & Dance Base & Dance East
2013 The Workroom & Dance City
2012 Dartington Arts
2009 ImpulsTanz danceWEB Scholarship, Austria
2007 Colina, France
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