This website will never be up to date.
I have always struggled with websites. My work is designed to be felt not seen. It predominantly focuses on exploring the possibilities that arise when people gather, the beautiful imperfections of live interactions, and the reconnection of our overstimulated minds with our (possibly more) intelligent bodies. Therefore, any exercise that treads close to branding or selling myself triggers a deep resistance.
This aversion stems partly from a working-class discomfort and partly from the sadness of living in a system that now evaluates an artist's work based on awards, outputs, and soundbites rather than their civic contribution.
For over a decade I have been working to build a website that goes someway to translating the liveness that drives me.
Alongside collaborators, I have been exploring ways to articulate this kind of work in a manner that ensures survival in the neoliberal creative industries* while minimising complicity in its mechanisms.
You won’t ever find me calling myself award winning/ multi-award winning - I want you to value the work I contribute to, not the accolades offered by closed networks. If it helps to see a list of things that I have worked on, please check out my CV in the interim.
It is also probably always a little out of date.
Biography:
Emma/Emma Jayne/EJ has been called a dancer, theatre-maker, collaborator, facilitator, movement director, dramaturg, intimacy co-ordinator, activist, organiser, and occasional drag king. They’re not fussed about definitions. They research, think, make, and do - preferably in collaboration.
Their work seeks to bridge the gaps between ideologies and everyday actions, drawing on their somatic training to facilitate organising spaces that drive culture shift through applied practice. By generating tools for embodying aspirational yet theoretical visions of complex concepts like power distribution, sustainability, and equity, they strive to advance anti-capitalist movements and redefine cultural norms. Their work sits at the intersection of invisible labour, direct action, critical thinking, and euphoria, creating a unique and impactful blend of art, activism, and community centred learning.
From a rural, working class background Emma grew up with no connection to the creative industries*, leading to a non-linear work history that is more easily defined as an approach than a list of productions. It always begins in the body but manifests in various forms, tailored to the context it serves and inviting people to participate in a way that is most meaningful to them.
Sometimes watching, sometimes playing, sometimes in conversation.
Emma learns by doing, believes in open source practices and has no interest in selling themselves in response to the demands of neoliberalism. They are driven by everyday pleasure, building meaningful relationships, finding generative way of working and a hunger for liveness.
*Recommended Reading:
Culture Is Not An Industry: Reclaiming Art and Culture for the Common Good, Justin O’Connor
Prefer YouTube? Justin O’Connor discusses Culture Is Not An Industry at Festival of Debate 2024
Prefer Podcasts? Justin O'Connor on creative-industries discourse, cultural industries and culture as not an industry
How I spend my time
This is averaged over a year and is always balanced with questions of financial survival. Not all of my work is remunerated and fees are calculated on a sliding scale, relevant to the resources of those employing me.
Each type of work feeds the next, maintains my curiosity and (hopefully) ensures that my words lead to meaningful action.
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Research and Projects driven by my curiosity. This can be moving, reading, writing or making.
Current work includes:Fallow: Scores for embodying post capitalist desire. Asking questions of class, labour and resistance.
Research supported with a commission from Working Class Artists and Dance Base.Lauded: A performance work exploring failure and shame through the repetative gesture of applause.
Research to date has been supported by Imaginate’s Accelerator Programme, The Work Room, Dance Base, Anatomy Arts, and Creative Scotland.Early stage research in the role of platonic intimacy in embracing embodying more equitable societies.
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Working in various roles, including dramaturg, facilitator, movement director and intimacy coordinator. Current projects include:
- Developing a long term relationship with Lebanon Based Dance Agency Yaraqa.
- Working as part of the creative team for Colette Dalal Tchantcho’s evolving work Dreamer.
- Facilitating artist development programmes and climate justice events with organisations such as The Work Room, Magnetic North and IETM.
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Undertaking sector based research that intersects with critical political issues, usually from the lens of class politics, fair work and sustainability.
A significant part of this work is unremunerated/ voluntary. Previous roles have included activism with Freelancers Make Theatre Work, co-organising Open Space events with/for arts sector peers across Scotland, being contracted as a member of the Freelance Task Force with National Theatre of Scotland. Emma has been an invited speaker/ contributor to Arts Professional, as part of the Culture Collective’s Future Culture Podcast, with the Cross Party Group for Culture and has presented evidence to both the Department of Culture Media and Sport and the Scottish Government.
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With a focus on Class Politics, Climate Justice (through a degrowth approach), Equality, and Mental Health, Emma is a dedicated activist who ring fences one day per week to dedicate to structural change. Some of this work is undertaken through Trade Union Structures, some grassroots organising and more recently as a Trustee of small arts organisations with sector wide impact. Emma is conscious of the cultural capital that can be accrued through association with activism and therefore attempts to ensure the work they contribute to as part of the collective is foregrounded at all times. Over the course of the pandemic Emma committed a significantly higher portion of their time to fair work/ class activism and is currently working to rebalance this. Current ‘official’ roles include as: - co-chair of Equity’s Dance Committee
- Member of Equity’s LGBT+ Committee
- Member of Equity’s Green New Deal Network
- Trustee of The Work Room (full term served 2025)
- Trustee of Manipulate Arts (full term served 2025)
- Trustee of Federation of Scottish Theatre.