Dancing The Land was made by Mary Savva, the Gardens’ first Artist in Residence at the Gardens this summer, as part of her work in the Research in Dance Award (RiDA). This award was developed in partnership with BCU, Birmingham Botanical Gardens and dance organisation FARBIC, with funding from Dance Hub Birmingham.

Dancing the Land is part of Mary Savva’s RiDA Research and takes the form of an outdoor ritual-based movement score created with a group of artists who have come together specifically for this sharing. Their work with Mary has been focused on exploring how the human body enters into symbiosis with plant life, working with principles of embodiment through the skin body, bone body, fluid body, muscle body, and organ body, alongside spatial listening and proximity relationships with one another, the environment, and its histories while also attending to the artists’ own inner environments and personal histories, which shape how each person meets the Gardens, its plant life, and the wider ecological context. The sharing grows from this focused period of exploration and is shaped through non-stylised environmental movement (Poynor) and RSVP Cycles (Halprin), reflecting the findings of the residency and the group’s inquiry. It invites audiences into a quiet, attentive space where human movement and botanical presence meet.

We spoke to Mary and RIDA project lead Dr Polly Hudson to get insight into the project, how it was made and what she hopes to take away from it.

Mary Savva: “There is a moment in the middle section of the film when we turn our attention to the outside environment. We looked at how we can resource ourselves when ecosystems are changing, with disturbance, collapse or polarisation and the piece shifts. The performance began with an ‘arrival’ and a landing in the space, with the sense that we, as individuals, are healthy and emergent; we sense and feel the skin we are in. The skin, as an organ, is where we meet our environment — where the air meets us, and we meet the air. It is and is our container, yet permeable, exchangeable.
We worked with having a clear sense of this individually, so we moved with our eyes closed and with our sensations and touch. We then began to open our eyes and find our roots individually. Roots ground and give nourishment and stability. I thought about plants: if they become uprooted or find the climate too volatile for what they need, how do they meet this to try to thrive or survive? I asked the question: how could humans meet each other in physical contact, to meet equally and with gentle strength and nourishment? I asked the dancers to push, meeting each other’s bodies, each’s skin, but to meet equally and follow collaboratively to explore what comes next. We came to a sort of ‘moving rest’ and expression – resourcing from the push and it then developed into an expression where we were able to separate and come back to our individuality and look to the canopy of the trees, so again the piece shifts, just as we do in life.”

Mary: “The music was created by composer and musician Millicent B James, who is a graduate of Royal Birmingham Conservatoire. Millicent was part of the choreographic and R & D process, moving as a dancer and experiencing and coming into her own body and that of her cello. This informed the way she created the music; it was very process-driven and forever evolving and changing as the days unfolded, from being in the dance studio to then on site with the 6 trees under the canopy of the Copper Beech, the oldest tree in the gardens. There was a point in the section I described earlier when we needed the music to take us into something very visceral, and as the dancers were grounding into their roots and pushing into their movements, the music needed to cue this, so Millicent took two hands to her bow and pressed firmly to make the required soundscape, and we made a rule: no high notes. It was as if Millicent was delving into the belly of the cello and we were delving into our organ bodies. It was not particularly comfortable, and it was at that point I was aware I was seeing the research portrayed in front of my eyes. That was quite raw and bare, so when we came into a lighter melody, there was a lightness; it was relieving and beautiful.”

Dr Polly Hudson: “The sound was recorded live in performance, and then edited to work with the film images.”

Dr Hudson: “Not specifically, but I may be worth knowing that I worked both in filming, and in edit, with an expanded sense of what making dance film is. Meaning that I have developed techniques that come from the same kind of embed attention that Mary was utilizing during the process and development of the performance. Unlike traditional film making techniques I do not work with a story board, but rather, a felt sense of what is needed and an improvisational approach that is akin to the process of making embodied dance work.”

Mary: “What I’ve learned is how the Gardens change me in both tiny and expansive ways. Even if my mind is still buzzing, I notice very consciously that the moment I step through the gates, something shifts. My breathing slows, my attention widens, and I feel myself settling into a steadier rhythm. The place has this way of offering both the smallest details and the largest sensations at the same time: a leaf moving, a colour changing, a whole atmosphere opening. And every time I walk in, I feel that recognition: this is where I should be. The beauty meets you immediately, and you meet it back. Spending time here has taught me to honour those shifts, to really notice them, and to understand how deeply they shape the work I do.

To me, the gardens feel timeless in a way that even though my mind may still be buzzing, I notice my breathing changes to a slow, steady flow. The beauty hits you as soon as you enter.”

Mary: “For me, the relationship between all these elements is deeply interconnected. My work here didn’t begin when I formally arrived at the Gardens; it began over 10 years ago in the non-stylised environmental movement practices I’ve been working with. That way of working, of listening to land and responding through the body, has shaped every decision and choice I make in my life. So, when I came into the Gardens, it felt less like a new beginning and more like a continuation of something I’ve been carrying for a long time. A place where I could finally express it fully. What I notice here is how plants, people, and movement are constantly in dialogue. The plants hold their own rhythms and histories, and when we move among them, whether in forests, tropics, or coastlines, something shifts in us. We’re affected. We respond. And when we live alongside plants, rock, ocean and pay attention to them, they teach us how to move differently: slower, more attentive, more relational.
In the Gardens, that relationship becomes visible. The plants shape the way people walk, pause, breathe, and notice. And the movement practices I bring into the space help reveal those connections. It’s a reciprocal relationship.”

Mary: I think it represents the research in a non verbal, non thinking way. It’s embodied, so you watch it, and then it stays in you. It’s an experience rather than something you analyse. In that sense, the film becomes a kind of forever artefact of the research, which makes me happy. It holds the work in its truest form: felt, lived, carried the way the research has always been for me.

Mary: I’d like people to just watch it and notice what it makes them feel. That’s your answer. It may create a gentle response, or it may do nothing at all, and all of that is valid. I see information that is felt, rather than coming from our thinking, our pre expectations, or our familiar patterns. Felt information is a resource you can use and transform. The work isn’t asking for understanding mentally; it’s asking you to notice what lands in you, and for each of us that is multi layered and unique.

Dancing the Land: a performance at Birmingham Botanical Gardens. Watch the film here!

Six dancers and six trees, under the canopy of a 200-year-old Copper Beech.

Artist & Choreographer:
Mary Savva

Dancers and Trees:
Acer Japonicium
Acer Pseudoplantarus Variegatum: Sycamore Maple
Betula Pendula ‘Youngii’: Weeping Silver Birch
Xujie Chen
Rosanna Cook
Fagus Sylvatica: Dawyck Beech
Brian Garcia Gallego
Rosie Megaw
Nothofagus Alpina (Rauli)
Joel Patel
Prunus
Natifah White

Music:
Millicent B James

Film & edit:
Polly Hudson

RiDA Project Lead:
Polly Hudson

Partners
RiDA with Birmingham Botanical Gardens, Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, Fabric, Dance Hub

More Information 
Find out more about Mary and her work at the Gardens by clicking here.

Click the links below for Marys Websites and Socials 

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