05/05/2026
I started off 2026 in conversations with The Wellcome Trust about bringing to life a new project that supported the wellbeing of parents/carers and their young children with somatic practice inside the museum setting. It’s been a really beautiful 3 months at STAY PLAY CONNECT using movement, awareness, breath, rest and play that grounds and restores adults whilst also stimulating baby’s development.
Myself and producer Rosie Watts were inspired by the London museum’s exhibition "Expecting: Birth, Belief and Protection" which explored the protective practices and beliefs around pregnancy, childbirth and infertility that existed in medieval times and continue through to today.
At the heart of the display is a parchment scroll produced in England around 1500 CE.
We’re at the half way point now where I get to hand over to and support a small number of skilled somatic dance practitioners whose work I admire. It’s been a journey of discovery, for both myself as a facilitator and the wider team, as to how we might create a space that offers growth and nourishment to both adults and young children; how we make such a space safe; and how to support attention, presence and connection.
I have asked participants to attempt what I have never had to in my practice: to pay close attention to their vulnerable young one whilst paying close attention also to their inner worlds, a dance between the inner and outer so that they might discover new strategies of wellbeing and connection through this new relationship. What I have learnt is that it can be done, if we accept our edges and breathe compassion into everything we are noticing, as we move and attend, moment to moment.
https://wellcomecollection.org/events/stay-play-connect
Photo by Ben Gilbert for Wellcome Collection