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Background
I’m curious to know more about where I live, Woolwich. I have lived here with my husband Gav, our pug Tina, and 2 cats, Turner and Tiger, since September 2016, and in the Royal Borough of Greenwich since 2008; Charlton, then Deptford, then Maze Hill. From 2012 to 2018 I commuted away from the borough to Battersea for work, so spending the lion’s share of my week away from the place I am putting roots down. This didn’t sit well with me. I saw the opportunity to stop commuting for two and a half hours a day and I applied to do a PhD with the dance department at Roehampton University. I received a scholarship from the Arts and Humanities Research Council through Techne and started in October 2018.
The research
My research is titled Rethinking Community Dance as a Practice of Care and Place, Woolwich, Southeast London… but the more snappy, public project title is Woolwich Wandering; I am exploring the role an purpose of care in the practice and craft of community dance. (Community dance is a socially engaged, artistic movement practice that challenges perceptions about who dances, what dancing looks like and where dancing takes place…find out more information on the People Dancing website).
One of the big questions I was grappling with is…
Am I wanted here?
How can I work ethically, responsively, responsibly and effectively in the place where I live?
And so I set about to learn more about the Woolwich by walking. In the first year I walked 3 or 4 days a week, taking new routes each day, never back tracking, chatting to other pedestrians, taking time to absorb the ebbs and flows of the wards of Woolwich Riverside, Woolwich Dockyard and Woolwich Common. I had walked nearly every street by the Summer of 2019, by which time I was six months pregnant. In November we welcomed my daughter into the world; I took a year’s maternity leave and continued walking with her. As the Covid-9 pandemic unfolded the walking became less regular and limited by the ‘1 hour a day’ exercise guidelines.
From March 2021, local people* were invited to join the project. During the Covid-19 pandemic in 2021, they walked alone and in their social bubbles, and kept journals, took photographs, created maps, and walk routes to document their relationship with Woolwich, followed by one-to-one online conversations with Lizzie. A few companions met in October 2021 for a wander on Woolwich Common and Repository Woods, followed by a chat at The Woolwich Centre library. Research activities continued into 2022, with four walking-resting workshops across the town centre, Royal Arsenal Riverside, Thames Path, Woolwich Dockyard and Woolwich Common areas. Each workshop closed with the writing of care manifesto statements about Woolwich. The fieldwork concluded with a public exhibition at The Woolwich Centre, November to December 2022, displaying the companions’ contributions, as well as a draft Manifesto for Public Space.
The products emerging from this research process include an Interactive Map; a podcast series ‘Sensory Woolwich; and an Open Letter and Care Manifesto for Public Space, sent to Royal Borough of Greenwich in February 2024. These outputs present the research findings publicly in novel ways.
The final written thesis was submitted for examination in March 2024, with a viva (a conversation with examiners) expected in June 2024. The thesis will be made public after the examination process is complete.
*Local research companions: Alexis Bailey, Anne-Sophie Konan, Bianca Rus, Carol Flint, Debbie Williams (visitor), Duncan Platt, Ian Russell, Karin Tearle, Kate Topham, Lam Truong, Laura Love-Petschl, Lesley Turner, Liz McGine, Lucy George, Lyan Truong, Melloney Richards Tarka, Molly Bateman (Molly Rosa Mariposa), Patreace Parkes, Patricia Roud, Prince O Adele, Seiriol Davies, Sofia Alexandrache, Tyron Woolfe, Anonymous1, Anonymous2, Anonymous3.