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Studio Lotusroot

@studio__lotusroot

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@amant.arts Spring 2025 Resident
藕断丝连 movement dreaming towards a webwork of care by @chanfyx. Neurodivergent, queer & POC centred.

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Some photos from 拉手手 — Tracing a Dance to Hold Hands: New imaginations for a queer Chinese dance.

2 video channels, LED scrolling signs, Live DJ set, mylar mirrors, phone tripod, posters

Poster Design, Videography and Install @mitchfielder
Live Set @warpduo

This work has been a brainchild of many iterations over the years with my inquiry in queer movement, bodies and identity, so proud and relieved to have pulled this off. Of course without the great support from @amant.arts staff & curators— thank you for offering a sounding board and troubleshooting during this journey, and for giving me the space to build this world.

HUGE thank you to the NYC queers of the diaspora for showing up and co-building this dance together. Thank you all for dancing. It means a lot to feel the work resonate beyond borders, that we can propose new imaginations for a dance to call ours. I am deeply moved, deeply invigorated, deeply thankful. I hope to see echoes and creases of these moments on a dance floor, sometime, some where. May our seeking towards a dance permeate the ways we move through, rewire & untangle the choreographic scripts given to us.

This is the first iteration of what I believe to be a long standing project. I am really looking forward to continuing to flesh this out and working with this performance / co-choreographing format more.

Thank you @warpduo for building this set of dreams with me and going wild with it, despite how different it is to the worlds of music and sounds yoy wrangle with such mastery. So lucky to be in community and friendship with you both.

Thank you Mitch for diving in after me, whole heartedly keeping me afloat despite the depths of these waters I try to dream in. You sharpen the blade I hold, you believe in my aim (even though I took a year to tell you about my art), and you beam at me when it all unfolds. I could not have done this without you. I have never known such togetherness. You’re my teammate, my ally, my love.

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A big thank you to our Spring 2025 residents Rosa-Johan Uddoh (@rosa_johan), IM Youngzoo (@imyoungzoo), and Chantel Foo (@chanfyx / @studio_lotusroot) for sharing their artistic research with our community through our For Your Reference program series.

📄 For Your Reference is a program series that spotlights our current artists in residence and gives them a platform to share ongoing conversations and research. This season’s programs incorporated lectures, pantomime, video, and dance, offering us entry points into each resident’s ongoing research.

🔗 Learn more and explore photos from this season’s programs on our website.

Slides 1–2: Rosa-Johan Uddoh, Pantomime, Performance Art, and Black Feminism, April 2.

Slides 3–4: IM Youngzoo, Future Trace Practice, April 16.

Slides 5–6: Chantel Foo, 拉手手 — Tracing a Dance to Hold Hands, April 30.

#AmantResidency

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<拉手手-Tracing a Dance to Hold Hands: New Imaginations for a queer Chinese dance>

Really looking forward to sharing this installation/proposition/dance space/collective choreographic scripting with everyone! I’m really happy to be fleshing out previous thinking and ways of working again- and having space and resources to work with the kind of multiplicity I deeply enjoy. The work is very much still somewhat of a test space. I’m at point in the process where words feel mostly inadequate, so I hope you can come to experience it for yourself. I think it’s going to be LOADS OF FUN 🤪

I’ve also invited my wonderfully talented friends @warpduo who will be doing their very first DJ set alongside their signature live distortions and energy… building this set/vibe together has literally been an exchange of a very special sort of gremlin-esque mischief. I think there’s where I make my most meaningful work from… idk if you’re ready 😩

Hold my hands, let’s dance!!! 一起跳起来！#gaguanglssarchive

Géza, 306 Maujer St @amant.arts
30th April 2025
7-8, reception after (drinks, snacks, chats)
FREE FOR ALL, RSVP linked

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About a year ago, I was nominated to apply for the @amant.arts Residency— this nomination came at a time where my art practise was severely destabilised, where I was waiting upon the results of my second visa application after my first UK Global Talent Visa was denied. Future-dreaming and a capacity for hope at an all time low, somehow in my existential limbo, I coaxed myself into practising what I do best, which is pulling self belief out of a fleeting (but present) well within me and applied for this.

I proposed a research project I wanted to seek answers to, culminating the work I’ve been developing for both myself and my community. A year on— the last year was rebuilding some kind of faith in life/work- and one month into the residency, I find myself referencing previous works and writing, tracing my queerness and my dance, and sitting with the reality that I get to expand these short-lived legacies of my younger mind. In a way, as much as I change, I begin to think I know myself well. I always make with this particular sensibility/feel/就是那种感觉… 真的好久不见。

I’m looking at non-traditional Chinese dance forms, specifically Chinese Square Dances (广场舞 guángchángwû) and the memetics of 尬舞 gàwû, within the context of physical and digital spatial choreopolitics. I’m drawn to these dances as signifiers of contemporary Chineseness– ones that have the potential to infiltrate diasporic Chinese imaginations. I’m hoping to offer/propose/seek out an embodied reference point to what a queer Chinese dance might be, and therefore, what belonging to a dance might feel like.

I’m currently working towards my For Your Reference, “拉手手 Tracing a Dance to Hold Hands: New imaginations for a queer Chinese dance”. I see it as a test space for work I’d like to do more in the future, and a mutual reference point of exchange. I’m hoping to collate an index of gestures (non-prescriptive) for our queer Chinese dance across the residency. I’ll share more on it soon, I’m so excited at everything that’s coming together.

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We’re closing out the Spring 2025 edition of our For Your Reference series with Amant Resident Chantel Foo (@chanfyx / @studio__lotusroot)!

Join us on Wednesday, April 30 at 7pm for 拉手手 — Tracing a Dance to Hold Hands: New imaginations for a queer Chinese dance. In this interactive installation, participants are invited into a maximalist dance space where video collaging serves as both guide and provocation. 拉手手 will be joined live by Warp Duo (@warpduo), bringing us a beat-heavy set, journeying through mandopop essentials, gritty bass, hyper pop, HanMai, and more.

This For Your Reference program is also For Chantel’s Reference—gestures you/we create will be annotated to form a collective index as part of their research project related to queer Chinese Dance, place, belonging, and tradition. Chantel particularly invites kin of the queer and/or Chinese community to partake in this shared movement practice, though all are warmly welcome.

🔗 Learn more about Chantel Foo’s artistic research and RSVP using the link in our bio.

📄 For Your Reference is a program series that spotlights our current artists in residence and gives them a platform to share ongoing conversations and research.

Photo courtesy Chantel Foo.

#AmantResidency

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easy to speak little when there is too much to say

Mapping into my new studio in @amant.arts, a year + since I dreamt up a project I needed answers to, took a leap of faith and fear, mostly because believing in my practise is a practise in itself, and flickering between all extensions of Selves to survive feels like simultaneously playing and dooming all futures constantly just to spark hope in pockets, burrows and springs of sense. Sense I keep seeking. All visibility must be endured, I am learning. How do I perform if I wish to hide? I have safe kept much of my own work and creativity as I spent the past year relearning who I was, and listening to the tremors after the silence of devastation.

I don’t know why I have so many accounts to split up things I do… @studio__lotusroot will continue to be a community resource I hope to build. I will be sharing my research/findings/questions there!

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This is our official event schedule for SENSORIA: OUR HOUSE, 22nd March - 24th March 2024 at @east.london.dance. We are so grateful to all of our collaborators & partners who are supporting us with making this event a reality!

From the Meet The Creatives Fair, led by disabled-led organisations & individuals — to the panel discussions, collective care spaces, movement & music workshops, healers and therapists, and our sensory safe cypher event.

There is so much to explore during the weekender, in the theme of slowness, radical accessibility, and collective care.
We would love to see you there! 🌟🌈

Let us know in the comments below, which events you’re excited for!👇♿️💖✨

For tickets, follow the link in our bio onto Eventbrite 🎟️

Creative direction by @saskiahorton
Creative production by @cleosavva @marenellermann
Marketing by @inderatamara

#wearesensoria
#RadicalAccessibility
#ExpressEducateExchange

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In the lead up to our event taking place at @east.london.dance, we’re sharing more about the amazing artists collaborating with us to create the SENSORIA: OUR HOUSE. 🎶🌈♿️💖✨

From the left to right, meet some of the facilitators of our Sensory Safe Cypher on Sunday 24th from 2-5pm:

🌟 @francescaterberg

Francesca is a cellist, composer & producer known for her unique style which blends Klezmer, Improvisation and electronic synthesis.

“I will be bringing my expertise in improvisation, incorporation cello and electronics and collaborative experience to the mix and am excited and honoured to take part in my first event with Sensoria. Our House is a wonderful, creative and welcoming space to explore music and movement..”

🌟 @margomool

margomool is a musician and creative well-being facilitator based in Lewisham. Coming from a self-taught background, margo has cultivated their practice through improvisational spaces and performing. Driven by a belief that everyone should have space to musically express themselves, margo facilitates accessible sonic spaces, specialising in supporting people who are neurodiverse and or transgender.

Photo credit - @liam_prior

🌟 @studio__lotusroot

Chantel Foo is a Chinese Singaporean artist and dancer based in London. Chantel’s practice is anchored in performance, working with movement, writing, Real Game Play and livestreams.

Studio Lotusroot extends from Chantel’s movement work, with a focus on embodied healing through movement. Studio Lotusroot dreams of a webwork of care, to be a space for embodied encounters and somatic healing through movement, facilitated by Chantel.

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To experience our sensory-safe event, book your ticket via the link in our bio! 🎟️

For all access requirements & questions, we’ll be happy to help: info@wearesensoria.co.uk 📩

#wearesensoria
#RadicalAccessibility
#ExpressEducateExchange

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Genesis 11 Lower (2023) acrylic, oil, zinc oxide and marble lacquer on plasterboard, composited

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Hello ❣️ As part of my residency with @fabric.dance, I am looking for West Midlands-based individuals to share a space with for a creative afternoon, to contribute to the development of my new dance work BRIGHT HOT R-AGE. The piece explores the themes of Identity, Home and Belonging through gestures, movements, and dialogue.   I will be leading the group through an exploration of thoughts and feelings of rage through movement, with participants being invited to take part in the recording of sound samples.   You don't need any dance experience to attend, this is a free creative session. Suitable for those aged 18+, we are especially keen to hear from members of the LGBTQIA+ communities, people with Disabilities & those from the Chinese Diaspora .

The studio is fully accessible; please let us know when booking if you have any additional access needs that will make your visit to FABRIC more comfortable.
 Places are free but booking is essential. Please email helen@fabric.dance  if you have any questions about the workshop.
__

What you can expect:
The workshop is on 17th October 2023, 2-5pm.

This movement-based session is part of Chantel’s FABRIC residency in Birmingham for Autumn 2023, this research will feed into Chantel’s current work.

This is an opportunity to engage somatically with rage and less socially-accessible feelings in the context of Home, Identity and Belonging. The intention is for the workshop to open a co-learning, generative space for discourse, alongside room for exploration and play. Participants can expect a gentle and relaxed setting, with access to a quiet room and a focus on non-hierarchical collaboration. Participants will also be invited to the closed sharing of Chantel’s work-in-progress, “BRIGHT HOT R-AGE” in FABRIC (Birmingham) in November 2023.

Chantel Foo is an experienced facilitator and founder of Studio Lotusroot (London) and has led numerous workshops, and community movement sessions centering queer, neurodivergent and disabled POC. Their background in traditional Chinese dance is the bedrock in which their movement practice extends.

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Appreciations and shout outs to last weeks activities:

I led my first garden tour 🌻 @glengallwharfgarden last Monday, the 28th of August, and read some new poems for Desire Lines by @el_hardwick and @iconsaredead

Thank you to @studio__lotusroot and @curveasc for your beautiful embodied workshops. I left feeling vibratory, calm, and full 😌💖

What a pleasure and privilege to share my abilities and passion for horticulture with a lovely group of LGBTQIA+ people.

And a big thank you to everyone who brought all the delicious food 😋

Image description 1 - The tour looking over a 3 sisters raised bed in the urban garden. A scaffolded tower block in the making in the background, rays of sunlight breaking through the building.

Image description 2 - desire lines attendees surrounding the evening fire 🔥

Video description 3 - attendees moving around like body's weaving through the garden for @studio__lotusroot workshop

Video description 4 - hands holding a tea with bright green sage leave and bright butter yellow flowers.

Image description 5 - desire lines participants gathering around the kitchen table sharing food and having conversation.

Image description 6 - Chalk board of description of the Desire Lines event outside @glengallwharfgarden

#horticulture #glengallwharfgarden #desirelines #lgbtqia #nature #gardening #gays

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my heart & belly are so full after our second irl desire lines gathering on monday 🌸🌀

huge love and thanks to all the queers who came along, carving out a space for collective rest & healing together — and for the delicious potluck meal we all collaborated on! 🥬🍛🥧🍒

so much love to my collaborator of dreams @iconsaredead, @glengallwharfgarden for hosting us, and @pansybbes, @studio__lotusroot & @curveasc for facilitating such nourishing, nurturing workshops 💕

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