romany dear

Romany Dear is an artist, teacher, dancer, performing artist, activist and social worker. She works with choreographic and corporal practices within the context of the arts, education and the community. Her research approach is based on dance as a practice of collectivity and social action. Her philosophy is that everyone is a dancer and we are all experts at moving, approaching the body from a transfeminist and anti-ableist perspective. Her work's research is based around questioning the ethics and practices of care, exploring the frictions and ficciones between what could be described as a futuristic ecosystem that searches for ways to collectively connect, care and communicate. Romany´s most recent work “Especies de Compañía - Companionship species” is centered around the cultivation and application of radical care practices between species, exploring the different relationships and forms of relating that exist between bodies and their diverse practices. Drawing upon somatic body techniques, quantum physics and BDSM, her work explores the queerness of nature, the development of techno cultures, the erotics of touch and the intelligence of body photosynthesis and vibration as forms of communication. Romany is fascinated in exploring how we can navigate consent, participation and care from a body based perspective.

Over the last four years, Romany has also worked collectively with “La Compañía” with dancer and choreographer, Juana del Mar, a multidisciplinary group based in Bogota, Colombia. As a collective, they employ a mixed media aesthetic to interrogate the construction and deconstruction of the many multiple identities and constructions of identity that we inhabit. Thinking about identity not as an isolated construct but as a relationship about who we are and all of the fragments that affect how we relate to one another. Our latest project, titled “Divide x 2” explores the relationships between language, cross cultural identities and political body mapping in which we develop questions around the notion of “home” and “place” within what we may imagine as both the individual and collective body, playing with the strength and exhaustion of the body in relation to the electronic music scene.

Romany has extensive experience in inclusive dance and education and has worked with integrated dance companies such as Indepen-dance (UK), Con Cuerpos (Colombia) AXIS (USA) over the last 7 years. She is one of the co-founders of the organization, Glasgow Open Dance School (G.O.D.S) with Ashanti Harris and Julia Scott. Over the last 8 years, Dear has presented her work at La Cinemateca, Mapa Teatro, La Casona and El Parche in Bogota, Colombia. She has also presented her work at Siobhan Davies Dance and The Swiss Church in London as well as The CCA, Market Gallery, Tramway and The Mackintosh Gallery in Glasgow. The DCA in Dundee and the RSA in Edinburgh. Romany has just finished a Masters degree Live Arts, with electives in Disability Theory and Gender and Feminism Studies at the National University of Colombia.