Dancing as Pandemic

The Glue Factory

Glasgow

2021

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The dancing plague of 1518 took place from the end of July to the beginning of September in Strasbourg, and in that short period of time it took hold of around 400 people in the town. For some, this unflinching need to dance, had devastating effects, as their feet blistered and bled, with these moments of uncontrollable dance being their last.

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As we found ourselves in the pandemic of Covid-19, we entered a new dialogue with our bodies and with others. We moved in new ways to accommodate for social distancing, a new choreographed dance as went about our daily routine.

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For this body of work Duffy has drawn on references from the dancing plague of 1518, Hans Christian Andersen’s fairy-tale ‘The Red Shoes’, choreographer Busby Berkeley, a new film by John Glazer, the development of rave culture since the 1980’s, and our new way of moving in a time of covid-19. All in an aim to demonstrate our bodies unquenchable need to dance is perhaps heightened in times of crisis.

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The work features sculpture, film, text and print.

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