About
Art Of Attachment on Film explores notions of home, family and belonging and considers the impact of trauma on women and children’s lives. The work makes explicit the devastating impact of physical, sexual and emotional abuse and explores the complex bond between substance misusing mothers and their children, but ultimately celebrating the everyday hope, resilience and resolve of those overcoming childhood adversity. This work was co-created with women whose stories demand to be heard.
Art Of Attachment on film draws from Art of Attachment live production.
Art Of Attachment on film was first premiered at Brighton Digital Festival in 2021 as the main element of a film installation called Home Truths. Art of Attachment film installation also took place in at Arcadia Gallery in Coventry in 2023.
In installation form, the work was screened across two large TV screens, with 5 smaller screens providing further insight into the making process, via interviews with the Artistic Director and non-professional performers involved.
Art of Attachment on film was placed within a constructed wooden ‘room’, filled with props and artifacts from In Loco Parentis (2020), a related VDT work, the live capture of which was also screened as part of the installation experience.
The work on film was viewed by audience/participants seated around a large, central wooden table, on which craft activities, designed to support self regulation were available to work with both whilst watching the work and afterwards. Clay and paper based making tasks were facilitated post screening as part of a discussion / workshop session, along with the opportunity to write reflectively about the production, with the resulting paper houses and clay structures placed in the space as growing ‘exhibitions’ of thoughts and reflections on the work and what ‘Home’ means to you.
VDT signposted participants to local support groups and information about attachment was placed in the space.
Art of Attachment Facilitated Screenings are a currently a more usual method to experience this work. The work is ‘applied’ in CPD and training contexts, in arts and non-arts contexts. It has been used to train social work students to understand more about the emotional labour involved in their work and that of the clients they work with (eg: at Brighton and Essex Universities) and by BA Contemporary Dance students (eg: at London Contemporary Dance School) alongside discussions around Safeguarding, to better equip them to go ‘into the field’ with community dance projects.
‘The stories provided have helped me see that there is a person with their own voice and experiences behind the labels, stigmas and challenges experienced when working with service users struggling
with substance addiction.’ Social Work Student, University of Brighton
Art of Attachment was originally commissioned by Oasis Project and funded by Wellcome Trust and Arts Council England Lottery Funding, with VDT’s National Portfolio funding offering additional funds, supported by Dr Cath Lambert, Professor of Sociology in the Department of Sociology at the University of Warwick, funded by an ESRC Impact Acceleration Award, supported by the Centre for the Study of Women and Gender at the University of Warwick.
The live production of Art of Attachment premiered at Attenborough Centre for Creative Arts, at University of Sussex in October 2018
In 2023 Charlotte Vincent wrote her PhD on the socially engaged practice making Art of Attachment.
Credits
Directed and Designed by
Charlotte Vincent
Artistic Director & Chief Executive (She/Her)
Charlotte formed Vincent Dance Theatre (VDT) in 1994 and has directed all the company’s collaborative work to date, on stage and on film. Vincent has also designed the work since 2005 and performed with the company until 2002. Vincent’s distinctive, contemporary choreography ‘stages ideas’ and embeds her own and her collaborators’ lived experience within the work, raising awareness of personal and political issues, breaking down the barriers between professional and non-professional performers and in VDT’s film installation and engagement spaces, between audience and participant.
Vincent is recognised as a sector leader in movement based socially engaged creative practice and creative health, particularly around her work with care-experienced young people and women at risk, championing gender equality and advocating for best practice to support parents and carers working in the performing arts. Her pioneering work on film ensired VDT were ‘covid ready and able to work through Covid and consequently allows Vincent’s work to be purposefully ‘applied’ in non-arts settings as well within conventional arts venues and settings.
Charlotte is an experienced speaker, lecturer and Mentor, working with early and mid-career artists to develop their creative practice and production work. Vincent has also worked as a director, dramaturg, and facilitator for other artists and companies, most notably Two Destination Language (Near Gone, winner Total Theatre Awards for Innovation and Experimentation 2014), Keira Martin (Here Comes Trouble Sadlers Wells Wild Card and Good Blood) and facilitating early R&D for Sue MacLaine’s Can I Start Again Please (2013).
In the past, Vincent has performed and collaborated with Professor Liz Aggiss as V&A Artefacts, curated an inaugural 4-week festival of experimental performance practice, Juncture at Yorkshire Dance in Leeds and co-hosted The Table, a forum to nurture dialogue across disciplines between established female artists with Dr Claire Macdonald. Charlotte sat on the Artists Advisory Group at Yorkshire Dance for several years and Steering Group for Dance UK’s National Choreographic Conference in 2013. Most recently she has been a driving force behind the development of the London Road Network in Brighton, a collaborative group of organisations and individuals working towards deeper interaction between arts orgs and grassroots organisations in one of Brighton’s more deprived areas.
Vincent is Safeguarding Lead for VDT, trained in Trauma Informed Practice, Mental Health First Aid, therapeutic parenting, and First Aid. She completed a Clore Leadership Short Course (2010), the Clore Programme for CEO/Artistic Directors (2011) and Clore Brave Conversations Programme (2013). Vincent is also trained in FA Football Coaching.
Vincent has written chapters and been written about in several Routledge Publications (resources) and PhD’s, and her work Art of Attachment lies at the heart of Dr Cath Lambert‘s imminent publication Troubling Adoption.
In 2023, Dr Vincent gained a PhD in Performing Arts from Canterbury Christ Church University, reflecting on VDT’s socially engaged practice, supervised by Professor Angela Pickard, Director of the Sidney de Haan Centre for Arts and Health.
Dr Charlotte Vincent lives in Brighton with her son, who loves mountain biking, fishing and gaming.
Film Maker
Bosie Vincent
Filmmaker & Photography
Bosie has been making films, documentaries and television programmes for over 20 years for the BBC, Channel 4, Sky Arts, PBS, Discovery and National Geographic. His work covers a diverse range of subjects including science, art/design, music as well as wildlife and adventure and it has taken him all over the world.
Working primarily as a self-shooting director Bosie has found himself in many extraordinary locations and situations. In the last couple of years he has camped in a cave in Borneo for four days in search of rare wildlife, filmed historian Michael Wood in China for BBC2’s The Story of China, followed young black Americans tracing their cultural roots on a religious pilgrimage to Nigeria and followed scientists working on an erupting volcano in Hawaii. He has also shot/directed programmes on architecture, fashion, the development of modern music and the stories of the world’s most notorious art heists.
Bosie has lived in Brighton for over 25 years. He once worked as the council’s ‘Video Worker’ making films with disadvantaged members of the community. He has made a short film about Brighton’s enduring mod scene and has showcased the work of local artists and photographers.
Soundtrack by
Jules Maxwell
Sound Design
Jules Maxwell has composed music for a wide variety of choreographers over the last 20 years, including Wayne McGregor, Dog Kennel Hill Project, Jasmin Vardimon, Jane Mason, Cathy Marston, Charlotte Darbyshire, Theo Clinkard, Filip Van Huffel, New Art Club, Laila Diallo, Charlotte Darbyshire, Hofesh Schecter and Jeanine Durning.
His background is in theatre and he regularly works at the National Theatre, The Young Vic and Shakespeare’s Globe. He also has a long standing relationship with artist Mark Storor with whom he has created many small and large scale promenade and circus pieces.
He composed the soundtrack to Tim Loane’s Oscar nominated short film Dance Lexie Dance (1996).
As a musician and song writer he has collaborated with Dead Can Dance, Foy Vance, Iain Archer and Duke Special.
He has recently co-written a collection of songs with Lisa Gerrard for a forthcoming album by Le Mystère des Voix Bulgares.
At the heart of his music and practice is a curiosity to find links across theatrical disciplines. He is as interested in drama as he is in sound. He cannot avoid hearing music in movement and light and language. He is drawn to the truth found in flaws and scars and people singing badly.
Since moving to France he has begun presenting monthly solo concerts of his own songs in the Café Gallery where he now lives.
Text by
Performed by
Antonia Grove
Participation Producer (She/Her)
Toni is a choreographer, writer, filmmaker, facilitator, lecturer and award-winning performer with over two decades experience leading Contemporary Dance and cross-artform collaborations. As Artistic Director of Probe (2004-2018), Toni reshaped the industry with ‘boundary-blurring’ (The Times) multidisciplinary & experimental productions, devising and performing work commissioned by internationally celebrated choreographers, directors, writers and cross artform collaborators.
As a performer she has worked in prestigious companies including Rambert Dance Company, Walker Dance Park Music, Company Wayne Mcgregor, The National Theatre, Bonachela Dance Company, Teac Damsa, The Cholmondeleys, Charles Linehan Company, Clod Ensemble and Vincent Dance Theatre (VDT). Performing physically & technically demanding contemporary dance repertoire (Merce Cunningham, Mats Ek, Christopher Bruce, Jiri Kylian, Richard Alston, Siobhan Davies, Ohad Naharin etc), alongside cross artform dance and theatre work (Lindsey Kemp, Lea Anderson, Michael Keegan-Dolan, Wendy Houstoun, Matthias Sperling, New Art Club etc).
Toni has worked with VDT since 2015, performing and collaborating on: Underworld, Virgin Territory, Art of Attachment and Hold Tight.
Toni was a winner of the first Place Prize by Rafael Bonachela, has been nominated 3 times for the Critics Circle National Dance Awards- best female dancer (modern)- and a Time Out Live Award. Awards for Probe include: Guglielmo Ebreo Award & London Theatre Award nomination. After six full-length touring productions with Probe she now leads projects under my own name.
Toni regularly leads, facilitates and designs trauma-attuned creative spaces for marginalised, mixed ability and multi-generational groups and individuals to find artistic expression through art/dance with safety and access at the core.
Toni recently obtained her MA: Creative Practice from Trinity Laban, researching relationships between female hormones and creativity. She has 3 children and is an activist for mothers working in the Arts.
Photo: Jo Thorne
Robert Clark
Artistic Associate
Robert Clark is a contemporary dance performer, choreographer and teacher working across Europe and the USA.
Robert worked with VDT since 2011 as a collaborator on many of our productions. He became Artistic Associate in 2022, faciltiating workshops and writing resources, also working as Rehearsal Director on PLAY in 2024.
Other companies include: Charles Linehan, Fevered Sleep, Sasha Waltz and Guests, Cie Felix Ruckert, Cie Soit/Hans van Der Broek, Le Grand Jeu/Louis Zeigler, Lisa Torun Dance Company, Barebones (Rui Horta and Garry Stewart/Australian Dance Theatre), Ben Wrights Bgroup, Alletta Collins and Troika Ranch amongst others.
Robert’s choreographic work has been recognised through a number of awards and prizes including the Simone Michelle Choreography Award and selection for the “Escalator Dance” programme, becoming a supported artist in the Eastern region of England. Robert has been; a Work place (associate) artist with The Place, London; a Resident Artist with Greenwich Dance, London; and an associate with Dance4 in Nottingham, England.
Robert regularly undertakes commission work. Recent commissions include work for Mapdance (University of Chichester), Wellcome Collection, Academy of Dramatic Art Zagreb and Koreokroj (Croatia).
Robert initially trained at the Laban Centre London BA (hons), before going on to complete his training at London Contemporary Dance School with EDge.
In 2024/5 Robert shifted his focus to pursue a career in Paediatric Physiotherapy in London.
Videos
Explore this production
Photos
A collage of nine images showing musicians and performers in expressive poses, using instruments and gestures in a bright studio. Emotions range from intensity to contemplation.
Vincent Dance Theatre’s Home Truths. Copyright VDT / Credit Art of Attachment – photo credit Bosie Vincent
A solemn woman in black sits holding a potato in front of five people behind tables with microphones and wine bottles, set against a white background.
A man and woman in white shirts and ties dynamically dance against a white background. The scene conveys energy and movement, with a focused, intense expression.
A woman in a white shirt gestures expressively with her hands near a microphone, focusing intently, set against a plain light blue background.
A man and woman in white shirts engage in a playful mock fight in a minimalistic studio setting, exuding a dynamic and energetic atmosphere.
A person in a white shirt and black tie holds a damaged doll while cutting a rope with scissors. The scene conveys tension and urgency.
A man with a thoughtful expression holds his face and a wooden pipe. He has a beard, wears a white shirt, and seems deep in contemplation.
Art of Attachment Film Installation, 2021
Art of Attachment Film Installation, 2021
Art of Attachment Film Installation, 2021
Art of Attachment Film Installation, 2021
Art of Attachment Film Installation, 2021
Art of Attachment Film Installation, 2021
Art of Attachment Film Installation, 2021
Art of Attachment Film Installation, 2021
Art of Attachment Film Installation, 2021
Art of Attachment Film Installation, 2021
Art of Attachment Film Installation, 2021
Art of Attachment Film Installation, 2021
Art of Attachment Film Installation, 2021
Art of Attachment Film Installation, 2021
Press
“Agonisingly visceral, and often beyond words… a piece about love as an enduring source of hope”
The Psychologist
Audience feedback
“There is no sentimentality… it does not ask us to judge or to pity – but allows us to witness the exhausting labours involved in experiencing, acting out and recovering from trauma”
Rachel Thomson, Professor of Childhood and Youth Studies, University of Sussex