A Gathering Place

"You are not the first,
not the second, third…
you will not be the last.
Over thousands of years
Generations of people came to this place." (Anna Selby)

A Gathering Place is a new project in progress, exploring ways of responding choreographically to archaeology and engaging with the question of what archaeology can tell us about human’s changing relationship with the land beneath our feet. How have people shaped the land, and how has the land shaped them? How can we piece together stories in response to archaeological discoveries that can tell us more about what it means to be human and the ways we’ve responded to the world around us over time?

In June and July 2023, we piloted this project working in Dorset (with Bournemouth University’s Big Dig Field School/Durotriges Project) and in Surrey (with colleagues from Surrey Hills Arts and Surrey Archaeological Society) and created 3 films to begin to show what A Gathering Place could look, feel and sound like. 

Please visit our blog here to read more about the research and watch our first 3 test films, including a short 'behind the scenes' documentary filming with the Durotriges Project.

As a result of this research we received a commission from the Chase and Chalke Landscape Partnership Scheme in 2024 to create a new Gathering Place film responding to the Dorset Cursus, the longest Neolithic cursus monument in Britain.

Watch our new film commission, CURSUS.

You can also watch CURSUS with subtitles here.

In 2024, we also received a commission from Arts Partnership Surrey to start developing a VR360 version of the Gathering Place project. You can read more about our progress on that project so far on the company blog.

Project credits

Direction Katie Green
Film direction and editing by Daniel Martin
Choreography and performance for 'A Place of Not Forgetting' by Alice Shepperson and Deepraj Singh (Additional choreography from Megan Griffiths and Emily Yong)
Choreography and performance for 'A Gathering Place' by Ella Fleetwood and Lucy Starkey
Choreography and performance for 'CURSUS' by Chloe Mead and Amarnah Ufuoma Cleopatra
Writing by Anna Selby
Additional writing for 'A Gathering Place' by Katie Green responding to extracts from Judie English
Original music composed and performed by Max Perryment, Lou Vilstrup and Amarnah Ufuoma Cleopatra
Additional sound design by Dave Holmes
Dramaturg for 'A Place of Not Forgetting' and 'A Gathering Place': Tom Six

Special thanks to:

Landowner Rebecca Hill and family in Dorset
The Durotriges Big Dig Team, especially Co-Directors Miles Russell and Paul Cheetham and Megan Russell
Documentary contributors Kerry Barrass, Keir Broughton, Georgia Buckland, Andrea Frankham-Hughes, Will Odling, Lorraine Pither, Megan Russell, Miles Russell, Shelly Sell
The Durotriges project is funded and resourced by Bournemouth University.
Alison Clarke, Anne Sassin, Judie English and Janet Kingsley in Surrey and Mark Beaumont, Hurtwood Ranger.

Our research for A Gathering Place in 2023 was funded by the National Lottery through Arts Council England (as part of the Developing Your Creative Practice programme). 

CURSUS was commissioned as part of the 20-project Chase and Chalke Landscape Partnership Scheme, running 2019-2024 and made possible with support from The National Lottery Heritage Fund. Celebrating the Dorset Cursus, the longest Neolithic Cursus in Britain, which runs for 10 kilometres across the Cranborne Chase Landscape.

Thank you to the local landowners who allowed access to the Cursus landscape on their farm.

A Gathering Place, Holmbury Hill, photo by Annalees Lim; performer Lucy Starkey
Two dancers perform in a crop field in Dorset, the site of a buried Iron Age settlement. They are filmed by a single film director with a camera, Dan Martin.
Two dancers stand back to back, their arms bent in at the elbows but with hands opening out to the sides. They stand in front of a series of wooden posts standing tall at the centre of a Bronze Age pond barrow.
Two dancers perform on a wooded path in Dorset, near the site of a buried Iron Age settlement. They are filmed by a single film director with a camera, Dan Martin.
Two dancers perform at the summit of Holmbury Hill in Surrey, the site of an Iron Age hillfort.
Two dancers perform in a crop field in Dorset, the site of a buried Iron Age settlement. They are filmed by a single film director with a camera, Dan Martin.
Two dancers stand back to back, their arms bent in at the elbows and their hands reaching towards their faces, caught in a moment of contemplation. They stand in front of a series of wooden posts standing tall at the centre of a Bronze Age pond barrow.
An inspired, sensitive and super-professional piece of work that will inform and inspire people well into the future.
Project feedback,
We were completely blown away by your film and dance. Totally summed up and exceeded the feeling and information we wanted to share to give people an understanding of the Dorset Cursus.
Project feedback,

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