Dens & Signals

Dens & Signals make projects which use imagination and creativity to help our audiences and participants think positively about the future, build connection to nature, support positive mental health, and foster personal and social resilience to the climate crisis. Recently, we've been touring Animals!, a positive and empowering performance for children about wildlife, nature and biodiversity loss, and developing May Wonders Never Cease, a performance event for adults, which explores 'deep time' and how we can be better ancestors to future generations.

Cultural strategy ambition(s)

Carbon neutral - Hastings as a centre of culture-led environmental action.

What did you do/what happened?

We made our show Animals! in Hastings, in collaboration with local school children and ecologists from the University of Brighton. We ran workshops, made films, and tested early ideas for the performance. This development work helped us make the show into what it is. The children we worked with were keen to be part of things, and the performance creates an imaginative space in which everyone in the audience is given the role of an animal, attending an 'Animals General Meeting'.

Animals! is fun, upbeat and emphasises that positive change is possible. Audiences get to think about the world from the perspective of other species, and to think creatively about how humans might help make things better. It celebrates that together, our species has agency to change the future. In 2022, the project toured to schools, community centres and arts venues, including performances for Coventry City of Culture, four Hastings primary schools and Hastings Museum & Art Gallery. Animals! is touring the south east in spring 2023, supported by House Theatre network. The project was commissioned by Coventry City of Culture and Cambridge Junction, and funded by Arts Council England, with match funding from Hastings Borough Council. Touring to local schools was supported by Fonthill Foundation.

May Wonders Never Cease is a new project inspired by the long time lines of geology, ancestry and the future. We are currently developing the project, and this phase of work includes workshops and conversations with the public and experts, testing new ideas, creating new work and exploring new collaborations. The work is happening both locally and nationally. We made an audio walk for SALT+EARTH festival in Folkestone, and a silent disco event for The Golden Key festival in the City of London. Both elements helped us test ideas around deep time, audience interaction, and use of headphones. We will be running local workshops to build audience involvement and test early ideas for the final piece of work. Early next year we will share where we are up to with local participants and partners, before working towards completing the project later in 2023.

Who was involved?

Dens & Signals is led by Hastings-based artists Jane Packman and Ben Pacey. We typically create and develop our projects in collaboration with other people, often working locally and nationally with partners, audiences and collaborators.

We want our work to be relevant and respond to our audiences. In the early stages of making Animals!, we worked with The Baird Primary Academy in Hastings and Chantry Community Primary in Bexhill. We learned about how children felt about animals and what most interested them: the children took part in activities, met a professional ecologist, and helped us make a short film. Later, we tested early versions of the show in schools and with a group of home-schooled children. The children's feedback helped shape the show.

Our team for Animals! included local and national collaborators. Local artist Rebecca Child made the costumes; Colden Drystone painted the backdrop and played the role of "Rabbit". For May Wonders Never Cease we are working with local groups in Hastings to test ideas through workshops, including a Young Adults' Mental Health group, a school, a home-educated group and people who volunteer in the arts. We continue to work with fantastic local creatives. Riz Maslen and Colden Drystone created new 15 minute dance tracks for our silent disco event, and local dancers Izzy Catterrall and Yumino Seki performed in the piece, helping to inspire and encourage our audience to dance.

Why did you take this approach? Was there anything novel in your approach?

Unlike more traditional performance forms, our work often includes meaningful audience interaction which allows people to contribute 'live' to the experience, enriching the work and providing empowering creative experiences. There's nothing particularly novel about this, but we believe that everyone has something of value to contribute to a creative process. As a company we do a lot of listening and responding early on in our making. As our projects develop, we try to make sure that they feel appealing and accessible, even when they are exploring complex or 'difficult' subject matters. We do our best to reach people who don't regularly access arts events. We love meeting new audiences and working in different settings.

When did this happen, over what time period?

The first research and development for Animals! took place in 2018, and the performance took four years to make working sporadically, in stages. This was partly due to the pandemic and partly because - as this is our first show made for children - we were building partnerships with organisations and funders as we went along. May Wonders Never Cease is in development currently, but we have already delivered two commissions as part of the process. We are planning to complete development and start taking the work out to audiences in 2023.

What was involved in terms of logistics, time or resources?

Animals! was made in four stages: Research and development in 2018; making and writing in 2020; rehearsals in 2021; production and touring in 2022. We received Arts Council England funding for all four stages, which enabled us to pay our freelance collaborators properly for their work. We value our collaborators, and operate pay parity across our teams. The company invested unpaid time establishing commissioning partnerships and writing funding bids to Arts Council England, Hastings Borough Council and other local trusts and foundations.

We expect that May Wonders Never Cease will be made in two stages: Research and development 2022; making and sharing the work in 2023. We plan to tour community centres and venues from summer 2023 onwards. For the research and development we received commissions from Creative Folkestone and Coney, along with Hastings Borough Council match funding, and grants from Arts Council England and Unity Theatre Trust. We are currently seeking commissioning partners and funding to support the completion of the project in spring/summer 2023.

Is this a first for Hastings, regionally or even nationally?

We haven't encountered another show for children about the nature crisis yet, and Animals! is receiving interest from programmers nationally. We were delighted to be selected for support from House Theatre for the spring 2023 tour.

We think that May Wonders Never Cease will be a hybrid workshop/performance, with audiences wearing headphones for some of the show, taking part in group discussions, hearing new music and being given the opportunity to dance... which is probably an original format!

Where did you get inspiration / the idea from for this activity?

We're inspired by the often strange times in which we live, and the sense that experiencing things with other people and being able to think imaginatively about the future are increasingly necessary for all of us, as individuals and communities.

Animals! was inspired by the nature crisis, biodiversity loss and environmental activism. We wanted to make a show which leaves its audience knowing they can change things, and that their actions - no matter how small - can have an impact.

May Wonders Never Cease is inspired by what it means and how it feels to be alive as a human right now, in this moment in the long timelines of geology, evolution and human history. At a time of multiple crises, increasing displacement of peoples, and rising uncertainty, precarity and anxiety, it feels vital to bring people together, to foster recognition and understanding, and speak of the need to hold everything and everyone dear.

What difference has this made to your organisation, and the people involved?

Working with local children on Animals! was a brilliant experience, and we loved their energy and enthusiasm for nature and wildlife. We have encountered amazing ideas and creativity, which inspired everyone on the team, as well as the work itself. Making the show light-on-its-feet and able to work in community spaces, schools as well as venues has made a big difference in our ability to reach audiences that might not make it to a theatre.

Developing May Wonders Never Cease is enabling us to get our teeth into big subject matter, to meet and work with new collaborators, and to find out what our audiences are interested in... which is all a delight! It's our first research phase since 2018, and this exploratory making time - without so much pressure to deliver - is regenerative and crucial to our process as artists.

What are your plans for the future?

Animals! is touring venues in the South East in spring 2023, supported by House Theatre. We're also fundraising to take it to more local primary schools. Where possible, we work in tandem with local wildlife charities who deliver hands-on activities with the communities who take part in the show, and we're planning to tour other areas of the country later in 2023/24.

May Wonder Never Cease is due for completion in 2023. We hope to make and share this show in Hastings and then tour nationally, focussing on rural touring networks and festivals. And of course, we have other ideas and projects in the pipeline.

What advice would you give another arts organisation or creative practitioner looking to do something similar / work in Hastings?

Right now, the more projects or artists making work about the climate crisis, nature loss and positive futures the better. Artists and creatives of all kinds can play a fundamental role in stimulating change. We would love to meet you. Get in touch!

How can your experience address commonly encountered challenges to help other arts organisation or creative practitioner working or based-in Hastings?

We love making work in Hastings, and being able to take it out to audiences both locally and further afield. Hastings Creatives is a brilliant network for reaching out, connecting with new collaborators, and sharing things with the local creative community. We work with local artists and freelancers when we can, and try to ensure that we always include local engagement in the projects which we instigate. We are grounded and inspired by our community, and also want to help make new connections and share new ideas to keep things fresh.

Hastings does not have big commissioning partners for performance work, and we often look nationally for support to get our projects started. Hastings Borough Council and East Sussex Arts Partnership grants have played an important role in helping us to secure Arts Council funding for our work. There are lots of brilliant people and organisations in Hastings. We have learned a lot and made some great partnerships by looking beyond our own sector. In a small town when arts funding is tight, people sometimes feel defensive of their field of work... but of course, communities are at their best when everyone can celebrate each other's achievements and get involved. We try to support other people and their work, and to engage with local issues and activism. Things like the rent crisis and the rising cost of living really impact on people's ability to live well and make exciting things happen.

"Animals! is a powerful and interactive piece of work. Engaging with big issues in a playful way making children and families feel empowered, it's a performance that stays with you. Dens & Signals create high quality work with impact and meaning. Open, engaging and a true pleasure to work with, it's fantastic to observe the lasting effect the work has had on communities and schools"
-Hannah Rouse, Green Futures Producer, Coventry City of Culture

"Absolutely brilliant and amazing!"
"I loved getting my own animal to be, and having the picture of it around my neck...I'll remember that forever."
-8 year old audience members

"It was such great energy - honestly an amazing experience."
-Golden Key Festival participant

Organisation: Dens & Signals
Contact: hello@densandsignals.co.uk
Website: http://www.densandsignals.co.uk/