Ways of Being by Roberta Jean is a cosmic adventure and love letter to those who have experienced depression and struggled with suicidal thoughts. Informed by historic therapeutic practices and future healing modalities, the work is a tender and euphoric dance full of hope, inviting the audience to go inwards and reflect on their own thoughts and memories.
Roberta Jean is an artist and choreographer whose work and life has been shaped by her experience of a neuroendocrine disease that impacts mental health. Ways of Being draws on a rich multitude of adjacent source themes, from psychedelic therapy and witchcraft to botanics and the interplay between the brain and hormones. Featuring an ensemble of extraordinary dance artists that include long term collaborator, Stephanie McMann as well as Katye Coe, Maëva Berthelot and Nicole Nevitt.
“Investigative somatic-based movement, an atmospheric visual landscape by Hollie Miller, and Jude Christian’s poetic narrative incorporated into Jonathan Webb’s soundtrack tells Jean’s remarkable story, of living with this debilitating condition: the failed conventional drugs, the descent into dark places and the discovery of alternative healing methods.” (Dance Art Journal)
Ways of Being was presented at Tramway (Glasgow) and Sadler’s Wells (London) in late 2023.