Words by Florence Nicholls.
Romany Dear’s workshop, Constellations of ‘Together-Mess’, was held with Independent Dance on the 13th of December. Turning in the year, the day signified a cathartic farewell to the tumult of 2025, an early reset. The group gathered in the top studio flooded with rare winter morning sun to unwind, rekindle our flames and share in the ultimate pleasure of shared movement. Constellations of ‘Together-Mess’ offered an expansive view into Romany Dear’s ongoing research. We explored ideas of love, tenderness, pleasure, growth and reciprocity to ask the question, “what can we do together that we cannot do alone?”*
I had spoken with Romany the week prior over Zoom. We met up virtually to talk ahead of the workshop and gain some insight into their current practice. I discovered that Romany is a wordsmith, a lover of language and devotee to word play and altered meanings. Fatefully, this tangent of their practice wove its way through the workshop, imbuing simple movement tasks with endless possibility for interpretation and plausible reconstruction. Before the first task Romany prefaced, “this might sound abstract”, but take what resonates and leave the rest behind.
With an easy start and ample time to take in the gorgeous light that beamed golden panels across the studio walls, we began on the floor.
Beginning alone and then in trios – a significant configuration in Romany’s practice – we gave weight to find suspense. Romany introduced us to the “heart over head” exercise that encouraged the body to find small inversions, reorienting the perceived verticality that pervades contemporary dance techniques. We relied on each other for supportive contact as we explored the world of motion upside down. Here, we welcomed a literal change in perspective.
Romany had set up a collaborative playlist, giving us all the opportunity to pick a song that resonated. In the jumble of genres, whatever could come felt right. “If it doesn’t move you, know that it moves someone, and find pleasure in that” was Romany’s sentiment. I found myself part of a group of headbanging strangers, spontaneously synchronising to the Patti Smith song, ‘Land: Horses / Land of a Thousand Dances’. The pleasure in that was sincere, like finding all your friends on a sweaty dancefloor just as that song comes on. Ridding the body of its plea for perfection and instead submitting to the joy of moving is a feeling I’d like to distill.
Later in the day, Romany introduced us to “La Milpa” or “The Three Sisters” method. La Milpa is an agricultural planting technique where crops like corn, beans and squash are planted together to support mutual growth. We explored the roles and properties of these crops through improvisation – once again in the magical trio formation – to bring into the body the experience of interdependence, symbiosis and support. Together, we returned back to the question, “what can we do together that we cannot do alone?” Or, “what can we do alone that we can do better together?”
The workshop was a coming together of elements for Romany. We gathered again for a post-workshop reading from a curated selection of their work. Notes, poems, diagrams and plans sprawled across the studio floor and we read the material aloud. Our voices overlapped, performing a choral translation.
Moving forward, Romany is developing a resource under the working title, ‘What my Body has taught (and continues) to teach me’. It follows on their fascination with things that work in threes, as part of a trilogy of material resources. Romany explored the process of collecting, compiling and arranging documents with us in the reading. This collaboration was yet another way to pour appreciation into our small connections with each other. Romany says about the making of the resource, “[It] has an endless list of incredible friends, mentors, collaborators, teachers, lovers and fellow spillers with whom I thank deeply, for your ongoing inspiration and guidance, with love and deep gratitude to each and every one of you.”
Romany Dear is the Co-Director of a temporary MA programme, Monstrous Futurities: Practices of (un)learning, (un)doing and (un)making, at The Sandberg Institution (Amsterdam). Like Constellations of “Together-Mess”, Romany has presented workshops and lectures between London and Amsterdam that offer a deeper exploration of their ongoing practice. I look forward to seeing how the progression of their hybrid work materialises in the new year.
Header image: Illustration / collage made by Zephyr Liddell. Featuring Juana del Mar, Romany Dear and earth bag (Cove Park,2025)
*Question inspired by workshop with Anya Cloud and Makisig Akin.)