Dancing Notes (2021)

Wanting to better understand the forceful disconnection from reality through Shell Shock I am researching the various therapies conducted on soldiers returning from the trenches during WW1. Visiting Flemish, Scottish and French historical sites, tracing the trenches of the Great War and the scars that still litter the landscape. But also diving into the archives of war hospitals, looking at the diagnoses of Neurasthenia (‘weakness of nerves’) and the early experimental treatments like ergo therapy, healing through work, movement, drawing… and dancing.

I imagine scores of soldiers, with various degrees of hysterical dysfunctions (now commonly diagnosed as PTSD) being treated with social interaction, music, drawing and being invited to practice dance routines. The highest degree of such experimental treatments were conducted at the Craiglockhart Hydropathic hospital in Edinburgh, Scotland.

This series of photographs and archival material revisits these warsites in Belgium, Scotland and France and collects data as a visual archive. It includes a maps and ’dancing notes’ illustrations, i.e. the outlining of dance moves for a certain musical piece to practice cognitive functions at the Craiglockhart. Ball booklets or ‘Engagements’ in which these men noted their dancing partners for the evening, as well as images of tunnels, remnants of bunkers etc. The work explores the contrast between extreme violence and the healing power of dance. It explores isolation and detachment from reality and the road to mental recovery through strengthening human connections.