About
Everyone has a story to tell. Some demand to be heard.
Brighton Oasis Project is a unique substance misuse treatment service in the heart of Brighton. Throughout 2018, choreographer/director Charlotte Vincent worked with Brighton Oasis Project to explore the complex emotional bonds that exist between women in recovery from substance misuse and their children, partners, family and friends.
In this hard-hitting, uplifting and insightful production, real-life testimonies combined with visual metaphor and movement to reveal the physical, emotional and psychological impact of drug and alcohol use on relationships and a feeling of belonging.
Art of attachment celebrated the everyday resilience of women and children overcoming adversity, whose stories demand to be seen and heard.
Art of attachment was commissioned by Brighton Oasis Project, supported by Wellcome Trust and premiered at Attenborough Centre for Creative Arts, Brighton.
See VDT’s YouTube channel for short films featuring the performers, and insights into Charlotte Vincent’s creative process.
Director’s Note
Directors Note, Art of Attachment, Live Production
The performance you see tonight is the result of many hours of talking, sharing, writing, recording, questioning, listening, moving, crying, retracting, redacting, translating, thinking, improvising, trying out, walking out and walking back in again in order to carry on.
After a nine month period of working together, Vikki, Leah, Louise and Annette are carrying themselves and their life stories differently. Well established defence mechanisms, well-worn scripts and high degrees of distrust have been usurped – for the time being at least – by a shared sense of purpose, empathy and self-worth, alongside a visible lengthening of bodies and strengthening of resolve.
Art of Attachment is an extraordinarily honest piece of work – a litany of trauma that no child or adult should endure. Yet what shines through the vulnerability, the violence and the hurt is sheer female strength: the ability to stand up, become visible, carry it all and carry on.
Annette, Louise, Leah, Vikki, Toni, Rob, Anna, Sherryn, Niamh, Alison, Jo: a heartfelt thank you for trusting my process and for your care, peer support, humour, insight, skill, intelligence and sheer bloody hard work to make this happen. Thanks also to the Art of Attachment Project Advisory Group; their interviews with me helped to shape the work.
Whatever happens on the stage tonight, I am deeply proud of everything this group has achieved and thankful to Oasis and VDT for the opportunity to work on such an extraordinary project, with such extraordinary women.
Charlotte Vincent, Artistic Director, 18 October 2018
Credits
Directed 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.
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.
As a freelance performer Robert has worked with VDT since 2011 on a range of projects. Other employments include work with 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. In Loco Parentis is his 7th work with Vincent Dance Theatre.
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.
Understudy
Composer
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.
Production Manager
Mat Ort
Production Manager
Over the past 15 years Mat has worked as Production and Technical Manager for a diverse range of theatre, dance and arts companies delivering touring productions, site specific work, international arts festivals and numerous one-off site responsive commissions. Companies include Salisbury International Arts Festival, Inside Out Dorset Festival, Milton Keynes International Festival, Inside Out Dorset Festival, In Between Time Festival, The World Famous, National Theatre of Scotland, Frantic Assembly, Dreamthinkspeak, AndNow:, Bgroup, Vincent Dance Theatre, Theo Clinkard Dance, Probe, Unlimited Theatre, New Movement Collective, Stan Won’t Dance, Paines Plough and Trestle Theatre.
Sound Design 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.
Additional text by
Lighting Design by
Nigel Edwards
Lighting Design
Nigel Edwards has been working with VDT since Virgin Territory in 2017 and subsequent shows, Shut Down, Art of Attachment and In Loco Parentis. He has also worked with Forced Entertainment for 29 years, Remote Control/Michael Laub for 17 years, The People Show for 7 plus Dessert Island Dances, Dance Dance Dance and 50 Acts for Wendy Houstoun. He has worked as a lighting designer on Lanark (The Citizens) Cleansed, 448 Psychosis (The Royal Court), Crave (Paines Plough), Robert Zucco, Victoria, The Tempest (RSC) as well as The Maid (ENO) and Hansel and Gretel (Opera North). He has also designed and toured with Ryuichi Sakamoto and Carsten Nicolai, Yellow Magic Orchestra, Jeff Beck and Nightmares on wax.
Recent engagements: Lighting Designer The Tell-Tale Heart (National Theatre); Flutter (Natalia Osipova at Saddlers Wells); The Lion and the Cobra (Christeene at the Barbican); Rolling (Michael Laub).
Photos
Six passionately engaged individuals lean forward, gripping microphones, and speaking intensely over a table with papers and bottles. The scene conveys urgency and intensity.
Six people sit at a wooden table with microphones and bottles, in a serious setting. A woman sits on the floor beneath, creating a sombre tone.
A woman with long, light brown hair, wearing a black fuzzy sweater, stands against a plain white background, looking directly ahead with a neutral expression.
Portrait of a woman with medium-length brown hair, wearing a black jacket. She has a neutral expression, against a plain white background.
A woman with long dark hair speaks into a microphone, wearing a black top. The background is plain white, conveying a serious tone and focus.
Four performers on stage, each holding microphones and wearing black, stand evenly spaced. A table with scattered objects is behind them. The scene is dramatic and focused.
A person in a light patterned garment lies on the floor, loosely entangled in a rope, conveying a sense of vulnerability and introspection.
A man in a white shirt and black trousers kneels, placing a doll into a suitcase on a stage. A person lies beneath him. Bottles on a table in the background.
A man in a white shirt and tie cradles a baby doll tenderly against a black background, conveying a sense of care and introspection.
A woman in a white dress urgently reaches out toward a seated man on stage. Dimly lit figures and a long table form the backdrop, conveying tension.
A bald doll dressed in white sits on a stage facing scaffolding, surrounded by scattered paper. The scene conveys solitude and contemplation.
A woman kneels with her eyes closed, holding a microphone to a doll, assisted by a standing man. The scene is serious, with a focus on the interaction.
Seven people in dark attire sit at a long wooden table on stage, surrounded by wine bottles and papers, conveying a theatrical scene with dramatic gestures.
Six performers sit at a long table with microphones and bottles, while a seventh person stands off to the right in a theatrical pose. The stage is set with a dark curtain backdrop, and paper is scattered on the floor, conveying a dramatic and intense atmosphere.
A man in a white shirt and black tie stands center stage with outstretched arms, evoking emotions. Behind him, five people sit at desks on a dimly lit stage.
A person lies motionless on a stage, surrounded by six seated individuals at a long table with microphones, suggesting a dramatic performance scene.
A man energetically dances in front of a long table where five seated individuals watch. The stage is decorated with bottles and papers, conveying a lively scene.
Three performers in black clothing are on stage; one stands, one sits with a microphone, and one lies curled up on the floor, conveying drama and emotion.
A woman sitting on a chair accepts a handshake from another standing woman in a white shirt and black skirt. A table with bottles is in the background.
A person in a white shirt and black trousers stands while another in a matching outfit leans on one hand, reaching out. A table with people is in the background, creating a dramatic, intense atmosphere.
A performer dressed in black stands on stage beside a wooden crate, emotionless, with a doll wrapped in white lying on top. The scene is dramatic and intense.
A woman on stage, wearing a black and white outfit, stands beside a wooden crate holding a baby doll. Her expression appears intense and serious.
A woman with a long braid stands thoughtfully on a minimalist stage, wearing a textured dress and sneakers. A wooden table with bottles is in the background.
A dancer carries another in an embrace on a dimly lit stage, with four seated performers at a long table in the background, creating a dramatic scene.
A couple dances energetically onstage, wearing formal black and white attire. In the background, six people sit at a long table, creating a lively theatrical scene.
A man in a white shirt sits on a stage surrounded by broken wooden furniture and papers. Two microphones stand nearby, set against a dark backdrop.
A dimly lit stage features six people in varied poses at a long table with papers and bottles. The scene conveys a dramatic and tense atmosphere.
A man and a woman dance energetically on stage, both wearing white tops and black attire. Background features seated people at a table, set in a dark space.
A man and woman in formal attire dance intensely onstage, conveying tension. A dimly lit table with people and bottles sits in the background.
A man and woman perform a contemporary dance on stage, dressed in formal attire. The woman leans back as the man supports her, conveying tension and grace.
A woman in a black sweater stands on stage holding a microphone against a dark background. Her expression is focused and serious, suggesting a speech or performance.
A woman stands on stage against a black background, holding a microphone. She appears focused and composed, wearing a long-sleeve dark top.
Five people gather around a table with microphones, looking intently at the camera. The table holds objects like a baby doll and bottles. The mood is serious.
A worn-out baby doll with a bald head sits in an old, wooden box. The dim lighting and dusty setting convey an eerie, abandoned feel.
A woman in a white top is sitting at a wooden table, gesturing with her hands while speaking into a microphone. Shoes and bottles are on the table. The setting appears casual and informal.
A woman with long hair is leaning across a wooden table, reaching out with one hand. Her expression is focused. A bottle and a microphone are on the table.
A person speaks into a microphone at a wooden table with a first aid case and bottle in focus. The setting is relaxed and casual.
Bottles and shoes on a wooden table, with a woman speaking into a microphone in the background. The setting appears casual and conversational.
A person with short hair, wearing a black and white jacket, stands against a black background, looking slightly upward with a thoughtful expression.
A woman with long braided hair stands against a black background, holding a microphone. Her expression is serious and focused, wearing a dark dress.
Six people seated at tables with microphones in front of them, staring intently. A woman sits on the floor, looking contemplative and reserved.
Six people sit behind a long wooden table with microphones, wearing formal attire. Items like bottles and papers are scattered. The mood is serious and focused.
A woman with shoulder-length brown hair wearing a black shirt and a necklace with a purple pendant. She faces the camera against a plain grey background, with a serious expression.
Portrait of a person with chin-length hair wearing a black jacket over a striped dress. They stand confidently by a wooden table, with a neutral expression.
A woman in profile with long, wavy hair stands against a white wall. She's wearing a black dress with lace details, conveying a serene, vintage vibe. A wooden chair and table are partially visible.
A woman with brown hair stands against a textured white wall, wearing a black blazer and white top. Her expression is calm and neutral.
A person with short hair and a neutral expression faces the camera against a textured white wall. They wear a light, patterned shirt.
A man with short hair and beard looks at the camera with a neutral expression. He wears a white button-up shirt, standing against a plain light grey wall.
Press
“There is no sentimentality in this piece, 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. There are no quick fixes nor inevitable outcomes.”
By Rachel Thomson CIRCY at Sussex, 21 October 2018
“it is clear from the outset that an alternative version of these stories is going to be told – one that is agonisingly visceral, and often beyond words...But this is also a piece about love as an enduring source of hope.”
The Psychologist, 22 October 2018