Pregnancy and Dance

Maternal mental health is a huge issue, with one in four new mothers encountering depression and anxiety. Hosted by The Republic of the Imagination, Gravida has been operating since 2012 to address this issue through CoArts. In the latest development, Gravida Project explores pregnancy as it relates to creativity: as an aesthetic, as a site of complex discourse and a source of profound insight. Three professional pregnant dancers will perform the findings of the project’s research and development in this multimedia dance piece. The performance is devised by Aleksandra Nikolajev Jones (Dancer, Choreographer, Director and mother of 3) and Jelena Vuksanovic (Dramaturg and Scriptwriter) and draws upon the experiences and testimonies of pregnant artists and performing arts creatives collated through the R&D process. Gravida aspires to nurture a vision of pregnancy as one of the most creative processes, helping everyone to connect to the experience of pregnancy whether in a literal sense or as a metaphor for the creative processes of our inner life.