Birmingham City University (BCU) has announced dance artist Mary Savva as the recipient of the inaugural Research in Dance Award (RiDA), a pioneering programme that brings together dance, ecology and community at Birmingham Botanical Gardens.

Developed in partnership between BCU, Birmingham Botanical Garden and dance organisation FARBIC, with funding from Dance Hub Birmingham, RiDA offers a dance artist an opportunity to explore research-led practice.

From the tropical glasshouse to alpine collections, the Gardens will be at the heart of the project as a living research environment.

Mary explained what inspired her project, Intergenerational/Intercultural Botanical Embodiment: “I’m interested in what becomes possible when human and plants are approached as equal.

“Outside the walls of the Gardens, we live in a divided world. But inside, the presence of living ecosystems offers an orientation where co-existence is encountered at a biological level, linked to nourishment, safety and connection.”

“We can, if we want to, recognise ourselves as part of the same breathing system.”

Mary will be at the Gardens until September 2026 to engage with visitors through events and workshops.

She is also launching a podcast called Rooted in Birmingham: Body and Bloom, a community performance in July and a blog documenting the residency as it unfolds.

“What matters is that something remains a shift in understanding, a different way of sensing relationship and meaning that can be carried forward,” Mary added.

“Rather than a fixed outcome, I hope this work opens something that can continue to move, be shared, and take form beyond the research itself.”

The residency is rooted in an approach called EcoSomatics, which explores the relationship between body, mind and the natural environment.

“With the increased awareness of environmental issues, this important work can manifest in lots of different ways – through simple mindfulness and walking in nature, to thoughtful gardening,” said Dr Polly Hudson, Associate Professor in Dance at RBC and project lead.

“The Gardens will host professional dancers as well as RBC students, giving them a space to learn, connect and perform.

“This is a great opportunity for the public to get actively involved with local research by engaging in conversations at the Gardens and contributing to the development of work.

“I hope people will experience themselves and their relationship to nature in a different way through this award.”

About the RiDA  Programme 

The Research in Dance Award is an artist residency programme based at Birmingham Botanical Gardens, offering time, space, and support for a dance artists to explore a research, led practice. The programme supports the artists to investigate new ideas, test methodologies, and deepen their engagement with dance as a site of enquiry, with a focus on EcoSomatics, site , responsive work, and expanded approaches to dance. 

The Research in Dance Award (RiDA), is funded by Dance Hub Birmingham and is a collaboration between Royal Birmingham Conservatoire at Birmingham City University, Birmingham Botanical Gardens and Fabric.

The project lead is Dr Polly Hudson, who said: ‘This important partnership between RBC, FABRIC and Birmingham Botanical Gardens has resulted in the gardens’ first artist in residence. It felt imperative that the project would allow the selected practitioner to devote an extended period of time to their work, and in so doing relationships with both people and place could have a real depth of connection.’ 

This research project builds on a formal partnership between BCU and the Gardens, which also saw a recent event, Sketch & Stitch, involve over 750 people in sustainable arts and crafts this spring.

“Through our programmes we activate the Gardens as a site of cross-disciplinary artistic enquiry, supporting the development of new work and enabling new perspectives to emerge, both organically and by design,” said Jen Ridding, Head of Engagement & Learning, Birmingham Botanical Gardens.

“At the heart of this is a genuine commitment to support the creative ecology in the city and the region.

“The green spaces of the Gardens are an inspirational creative space, being a living archive of stories and a place of exchange- we can’t wait to see where Mary takes this residency.”

RiDA forms part of BCU’s broader commitment to research that connects communities, places and creative practice, bringing the work of the Conservatoire beyond its walls and into the life of the city. Find out more about Mary’s work and the RiDA residency here.

About the Artist

Mary Savva is a UK, based dance artist holding an MA in Dance Pedagogy from Middlesex University. She works across community dance, making, performance art, and embodied research, developing work primarily with children, adolescents, and vulnerable communities. Her latest installation, The Anatomy of Unravelling (2026), bears witness to women facing the injustice of family courts. She trained in non, stylised environmental movement with Helen Poynor, and her practice is rooted in the belief that movement links the physical and emotional self, a vital force for communication and social change.

Mary’s residency traces the subtle relationships that arise when human bodies come into proximity with rooted, adaptive plant life, exploring movement, stillness, and shared presence within the Gardens’ living environment. The work invites visitors to recognise themselves as part of a wider living system, sensing the botanical traces within us through motion and quiet curiosity.

The Gardens hold rare and endangered species requiring care and attention, and Mary’s practice draws on this, reflecting what it means to sit beside living things that have been relocated, re, established, and continually adapted. Her work asks what grounded knowledge might emerge from these encounters, particularly at a time when truth and connection can feel increasingly uncertain.

Mary says: ‘I would like something tangible to emerge from this research, something that can survive time and continue to carry meaning. This could be writing, a sculpture, a book, a dance, a piece of music, or something that exists as an experience, a tale that is told and passed along.

What matters is that something remains a shift in understanding, a different way of sensing relationship and meaning that can be carried forward. Rather than a fixed outcome, I hope this work opens something that can continue to move, be shared, and take form beyond the research itself.’

Get Involved

Mary is keen to connect with visitors throughout her time here. Look out for her story bench in the Gardens, a space to share your own stories and connections to nature and listen out for opportunities to contribute audio recordings of the sounds of the Gardens. Whether you’re a long, time visitor or discovering BBG for the first time, you are warmly invited to be part of this work.  You can contact Mary via: [email protected]

You can listen to the latest episode of her podcast below.

More Information and Socials 

Find out more about Mary and her work at the links below.

• Mary Savva – FABRIC
• Instagram
• Mary Savva – Movement | Education | Therapy