Moving Sideways residency: A Grain of Sand

In July 2025, performance artists Karen Christopher, Tara Fatehi and Jemima Yong, along with their lighting designer Marty Langthorne, undertook our annual Moving SidewaysResidency.

Moving Sideways supports mid-career and established artists to explore work that does not fit typical funding priorities. This residency offers a pause from pressures and deadlines, giving space for reflection, experimentation, and creative thinking – no specific outcome is required. It’s all about breathing, dreaming, and imagining what might come next.

The group wanted to focus on experimenting with lighting their new performance work, Skywater, Facewater, Underwater Waltz. Our technician John worked closely with the group to explore light across the week. In this blog, Karen, Tara and Jemima describe the week. 

How do you make a performance? Take one grain of sand and worry it for a while. Nothing on Earth resists creative development forever – all it takes is time. The time to work on and perfect the reflection of light through a bowl of water (for example) and the conditions conducive for an evocative outcome are priceless. The opportunity to have access to space, equipment and expertise is most readily achieved through dedicated time at an institution or organisation. During our residency at Lancaster Arts our particular focus on lighting was especially encouraged by the willingness and generosity of staff. This moment of working on light reflecting off and through water is emblematic of the clarity of focus we were able to employ during our time in the Nuffield Theatre. 

Skywater, Facewater, Underwater Waltz is a performance which combines movement, text, song, sound and objects to explore flow, adaptation and ways of sensing the world, evoking ideas related to deep sea cultures and the environment. 

The hospitality extended to us throughout the residency gave us context, about the place we were in, about the organisation that was hosting us, about the individuals within that organisation. We were at Lancaster for work but also there as humans – and it’s nice to feel that we were received and hosted by humans too. It was useful to talk about the interdisciplinarity of the piece; where it fits; which spaces are suited for this kind of work etc. Also, it was really good to have an invited, informal gathering to see a full run-through of the performance, plus a post-show reception with time to chat – more around and through the work.

Our time never felt rushed. The abundance of time and space within our residency fostered an environment where we could prioritise the work, leaving us space to experiment, change our minds, stop and ask questions, prioritise clarity in our communication with each other, do it again. We did a lot of work but with barely any stress. 

Skywater, Facewater, Underwater Waltz has been produced by Karen’s company, Haranczak/Navarre Performance Projects, which is devoted to collaborative processes: listening for the unnoticed, the almost invisible, and the very quiet, paying attention as an act of social cooperation. Skywater, Facewater, Underwater Waltz is the first collaboration between Karen, Tara and Jemima, each of whom also perform, write and/or teach in other contexts. 
 
http://www.karenchristopher.co.uk/
www.tarafatehi.com
https://jemimayong.format.com/

Skywater, Facewater, Underwater Waltz is supported by Queen Mary University Centre for Creative Collaboration (London), Arnolfini (Bristol) and Lancaster Arts. The piece will premiere at Chapter Arts Centre, Cardiff, on September 17/18, 2025.