About the sharing: 

Join us for an informal sharing marking the end of a one‑week R&D residency with artist Kelly Ardens, created with movement support from Alice Tatge. Kelly will share excerpts and ideas from her research, followed by a short Q+A.

Following this, the studio will open for movement and socialising!

Kelly will share her work in Italian and will be subtitled. The Q+A will be in English. 

Content Warning: The themes of Kelly's residency include nudity, eating disorders and sexual abuse.

About Kelly: 

Kelly Ardens is a multidisciplinary and performing artist. She is Sardinian, queer and neurodivergent. She describes herself as a diva, artist, witch and self-love coach. She likes to define her art as chaotic and multifaceted: she produces electronic songs in which she raps and sings, she makes short films (one of which was a finalist in a national competition), she creates self-portraits with digital collages (for which she won a scholarship), she tattoos herself, draws doodles, has acted in a film and studied clowning, writes poetry and has collaborated on published books.

She began training in belly dancing from 2011 to 2023 at a school in her city (although not continuously due to her health) and in 2023 she decided to try contemporary dance. She studied performance, improvisation and dance with international teachers such as Bush Hartshon and Sarah Blanc, and national teachers such as Silvia Calderoni, Silvia Gribaudi, Marco D'Agostin, Marta Ciappina, Cristina Rizzo, Valentina Medda, Marta Bellu, Laura Lucioli and Chiara Bersani.

Since 2023, she has been collaborating with Bersani on her performance “Deserters”. She has been a member of the “Al.di.qua. Artists” association since 2021. She recently debuted with her show “Il Margine”, which is her autobiographical story as a neurodivergent person. The concept of “trado”, the Latin root of both “tradition” and “betrayal”, is fundamental to her poetics. For her, “tradition”, form, must be studied and learned and then inevitably transformed, “betraying” it and making it unique. For this reason, even though she does not renounce the key points of what she has learned, she prefers free, expressive and improvised dance.

About Open Dialogo:

Managed by Stopgap Dance Company and commissioned by Arts Council England, the Italian Ministry of Culture (The Performing Arts department), the Italian Cultural Institute of London and the British Council, Open Dialogo promotes a bilateral cultural exchange through the sharing of knowledge and experiences between Disabled and non-disabled artists, influencers, producers, and venues working in England and Italy.

Accessibility:

Please note, we are on the second floor of a warehouse building, accessed by a staircase only. We regret that we cannot currently adequately support wheelchair users and those for whom stairs are a barrier.

We are committed to removing other barriers to access. If you would like to talk to us about your access needs, please contact: sam@chisenhaledancespace.co.uk. Read more about our commitments to anti-ableism as part of our Artist Community Culture Document