Words by Tegan Jaimie
Featuring Katie James
with hair by Chrissy Hutton

To take pause and watch Katie James, Scottish dancer and movement director, whimsically perform on our small screen should be taken as a moment of solace. In a world of the 24-hour news cycle and instant hits of information on social media, people are often too busy to stop and appreciate their own bodies. “There is pleasure to be found in a myriad of ways out-with our body but there is so much pleasure to connect within it,” says Katie.

Like many of us, the past year has seen a huge shift in normality for the creative industries. With the closure of venues, the arts have struggled to exist in its previous form. However, for Katie being on stage hasn’t been a focus for her career. “The years of obsessive training that culminated in a meltdown that saw me lose what I thought my career and future would be; but movement is forgiving and loyal, it stays with you. The parameters and composition of it might change, but it’s still there. My fear of being on stage ended up translating to a love of being on screen and performing for small audiences. Instead of wanting to do large scale performances I became drawn to creating intimate moments, collaborating with artists of different disciplines and redefining what performance meant for me.”

Watching Katie rhythmically move, alone, there is a power there in portraying the body in its purest form. We are not distracted by any extravagant production, instead we are left with a reclamation in the strength of vulnerability.

An awareness and appreciation for the body seems to come effortlessly to Katie, however this hasn’t always been the case. Now a qualified yoga teacher and a desire to facilitate other people to connect with their bodies: “I started practicing yoga during my first year of dance school. The suggestion came from my ballet teacher in a moment of concern because I was really pushing myself, probably too hard. The more yoga I practiced the more sensitive I became towards my body’s signals and boundaries.”

Katie’s movement, however, is unwavering in its confident tenderness. Like all of her work, while us the viewer are never sure of her next move, it knows exactly what it’s setting out to do.