T I M B E R

Photograph by Rocio Chacon         

TIMBER by Elinor Lewis,

is a suspenseful balancing act

about managing risk and finding space to flourish within precarious situations. The curtain rises on six, wooden, door-sized frames, balanced upright in a row - waiting to fall like dominoes. Two people defiantly occupy this precarious space, performing a delicate balancing act - knowing full well that one wrong move could bring everything to fall on top of them.

At its core, TIMBER is about reclaiming risky spaces, subverting limitation, and finding space to flourish within prolonged uncertainty. (For more information and footage of TIMBER, click here).

Risk is subjective

What feels risky and uncertain for one person, may feel perfectly safe and secure for another. So, before going into the studio to create TIMBER, Elinor felt it was important to expand her own perspective on risk and talk to other people about how they perceive and manage risk and uncertainty in their daily lives. She was particularly interested to talk to women and non-binary people who had been put a risk by other people in the past, to open up informed conversations about where risk, gender, consent, and control intersect. Elinor was also curious to explore whether past exposure to risk and/or prolonged uncertainty changed people’s relationship with time, space, their bodies, their feeling of agency and their thoughts surrounding self awareness and self care.

Elinor formed a thinktank of 10 women and non-binary people, holding restorative conversations about risk and uncertainty 1-to-1. This thinktank of people all had different lived experiences of risk and prolonged uncertainty, whether it be through their lived experiences, interests, or professions. The people Elinor talked to included an ex-professional snowboarder, a survivor of domestic abuse and an armed forces veteran. Some people she talked to were cautious around risk and others were self-confessed thrill-seekers. These conversations formed an integral part of TIMBER’s creative research, informing how Elinor framed and managed risk and uncertainty during TIMBER’s creative process.

This website houses all of the conversations Elinor had during TIMBER’s creative research and aims to provide an online resource for people seeking to understand and contextualise their own experiences of risk and uncertainty.

Click here to read the conversations 

Throughout 2020 and 2021, most people have been touched by an unprecedented amount of pandemic-related uncertainty. Collectively we are still working out how to process and move forward from this. People who have experience of managing or overcoming prolonged uncertainty (such as people living with an anxiety disorder or people who have overcome drug and alcohol use) have had to develop rigorous methods of processing and navigating risk and uncertainty in order to thrive. An important part of this project has been about working with people to acknowledge their resilience and recognise the wisdom surrounding risk and uncertainty they have amassed through their experiences. Elinor hopes that this website will act to share their wisdom with others, raise awareness about the different types of risks and uncertainties that women and non-binary people face in the UK today, and celebrate the incredible resilience and resourcefulness of all those who took part in the thinktank.

TIMBER Credits

Many thanks to the generosity and openness of everyone who made up TIMBER’s thinktank on risk and uncertainty. The intimate, moving and surprising interviews you gave during the project were integral fuel for TIMBER's creative research. Many thanks also to consulting phycologist- Dr Sophie Jones, Elinor's mentor- Viv Gordon and Consulting Editor- Hamish MacPherson for supporting the interviewing and transcribing process with their expertise.

This project was made possible with support from- The Place, DanceXchange, Arts Council England, Take Art, Pavilion Dance South West, Artsadmin's BANNER Award 2017 - 2018, Taunton Pride, Somerset Lesbian Network, Diversity Trust and Chard WATCH.

Website- Elinor Lewis

Website Photographs- Rocio Chacon

People in Website Photographs- Elinor Lewis, Hannah Parsons and the frames 

Collage Website Images- Elinor Lewis

Mentor- Viv Gordon

Clinical Psychologist- Dr Sophie Jones

Consulting Editor- Hamish MacPherson

TIMBER Creator and Choreographer- Elinor Lewis

TIMBER Creative Contributor- Hannah Parsons

TIMBER Performers- Elinor Lewis and Hannah Parsons

TIMBER Lighting Design- Nao Nagai

TIMBER Costumes- Berthe Fortin

TIMBER Set Design- Hannah Sharp