Motherland

The chief executive and choreographer for Vincent Dance Theatre, which is bringing its new show Motherland to the Corn Exchange on Tuesday, was hosting a forum with a small group of young women in their mid-teens and was dismayed by some of the stories she heard.

“The sexual pressure they are under as females – there was nothing like it when I was young,” she says. “The over- sexualised image of womanhood is translating into their friends and peer groups who are taking risqué pictures and posting them on Facebook, or taking part in sexual activity they don’t want to do. It’s close to abuse.

“People are still scared to speak out. The classic virgin/whore thing is still there – if a woman sleeps with a man then they’re a slapper, but if a bloke sleeps with a lot of girls then he’s a lad.

“I found it really alarming that young women are having to negotiate this stuff.”

Some of these themes have subtly found their way into Motherland, which was developed by a ten-strong group of male and female performers ranging in ages between 12-and-a-half and 78.

The show follows “tweenager” Leah Yeger as she negotiates both extreme and moving images of archetypes of womanhood being thrust in front of her by society and tries to make sense of it all.

Over-sexualisation

“Having Leah there has anchored the work,” says Vincent. “Whether she gets the adult themes or not she is a really intelligent young woman who has brought a different sense of awareness to the whole production.”

Motherland also features 78-year-old Benita Oakley looking back over her experiences as a mother, in contrast to Leah looking forward to the future, and live music performed by the cast.

“It’s a very simple way of presenting the work,” says Vincent. “It’s funny, moving and visually very beautiful. We use a white space, so the performers can’t get away with anything – everything is exposed in glorious black and white. “The only colour I have allowed into the space is red – there’s quite a lot of blood and soil.”

The only point where the subtlety is put to one side is in Vincent’s tribute to the jailed Pussy Riot protestors.

“It’s the only time we stick our fingers up at society,” she says.

The over-sexualisation of women plays a part in the production, although it has been working from the cast’s suggestions rather than those of the workshop teenagers Vincent has been speaking to more recently.

The media’s sexualisation of women is explored by a male dancer putting on women’s clothes and performing movements inspired by a video by former Pussycat Doll Nicole Scherzinger.

“It’s funny but it’s also asking whether it is empowering or just a licentious version of tits and a*** that young women are seeing,” says Vincent.

The men in the company also explore male archetypes, ranging from very masculine men to transitional men who are unsure how to relate to women or masculinity any more.

“It’s not just women who are facing dilemmas, it is across the genders and sexualities,” says Vincent. “It’s really complex – how you locate yourself in the contemporary world.”

What Vincent has discovered in subsequent workshops has saddened her as a feminist.

“The bottom line seems to be we can’t shake off the desire to objectify women in society,” she says. “There is a new generation of young women who don’t know what feminism is. There is a culture of putting up with it.

“In the piece we struggled to find what hope we could offer Leah – what we could offer as a way forward.”

She is now planning to put together a series of workshops and forums for schools, where young women can talk in safety about the issues concerning them without being judged.

“It feels like young women are carrying all this stuff around all the time,” says Vincent. “It can affect their lives in a serious way.

“In the US there are things like Slutwalk and Hollerback, movements which have grown up saying it is not OK to call me a slut or shout abuse at me in the street. We need an equivalent here, which could be called something less aggressive, but says that it is OK to speak out.

“Doing these workshops has validated a lot of what we have explored in Motherland – we have a generation saying this is real, it’s happening and it is difficult to negotiate.”

• Corn Exchange, Church Street, Brighton, Tuesday, October 23. Starts 7.30pm, tickets £15/£12. For more information and to book, call 01273 709709