Late on Monday 6th November 2017 Ana Barbour, much loved, inspirational and guiding presence in the Oxford dance scene, passed away having battled with cancer. Her touching funeral at the home she loved on Sunday 12th November was attended by numerous family, friends, and colleagues, and was a celebration of her life and achievements in speeches, songs and dance. I felt honoured to speak on that occasion about Ana’s work as a dance artist in Oxford, and I am posting here my speech to pay tribute to her. You can also find links below to her own blog Anadances, Cafe Reason of whom she was an integral part, and the DEC Project; and her own occasional writings for this blog. Oxford Dance Writers would really welcome other voices in this endeavour of remembrance, so please use the comments facility below to add to this partial picture your particular memories of Ana. Thank you!
Ana Barbour
When I mounted the Solos Project for Oxford dance artists in 2008 Ana was one of six dancers who showed solos in the Burton Taylor’s intimate studio space. Her Butoh inspired piece Baggage accompanied by the atmospheric music of her long term friend and collaborator Malcolm Atkins was a remarkable episode in which having entered bowed down by a bundle on her back she burrowed into the baggage itself, morphing into surreal shapes and images of confined struggle that were humorous, poignant and dreamlike. It was my first experience of Ana as creative imagination and compelling performer.
Late we worked together with Flavia Coube, Malcolm and Bruno Guastalla on an Oxford Improvisers led performance at St Michael in the North Gate. I discovered what a pleasure it was to dance with Ana, an experienced improviser to my novice; despite our different dance traditions it seemed we could be in tune in our dancing, her generous and open approach enabled spontaneous movement leading us in directions that felt both surprising and right. On that occasion I remember watching open mouthed as she slowly climbed like an insect up the whitewashed wall of the church, unforgettably in the moment and responding intuitively to the unique character of the space.
We continued to work together on the DEC Drawing Dance Project with Malcolm and Bruno and visual artists Kassandra Isaacson, Antonia Bruce, Susan Moxley and Clare Bassett, exploring the interactions between drawing, dancing and music. From a week residency at OVADA came regular sessions at URC, performances in Oxford Improvisers’ Cohesion Festival, the Story Museum and finally a show Luminous Shadows at the Old Fire Station in 2013. I think that I will always be indebted to Ana in what I learned from her as improviser and artist, her ability to conjure imaginative worlds out of a ball of string, a daub of ink, a gesture in movement or music.
But I am only one of many Oxford dance artists she touched; and feel privileged to have the chance to bear witness to some of the many ways in which beyond her special performing and creative relationship with Café Reason she supported and enriched the local dance community. I took my first steps as an improviser at one of the Café Reason Diamond Nights series of platforms of which she was a regular convenor, contributing not just as an artist but tirelessly organising, generously opening out these valuable evenings for the sharing of new and exploratory work to dancers beyond the Butoh group. Ana believed in collaboration both across art form and with other dancers. Her wonderful initiative Choreo Collective at the Old Fire Station provided a welcoming space where all could come and share ideas, skills, try things out with colleagues. It was typical of her; open, informal and deeply fruitful for those attending; generating new work, creating bonds and building a real sense of artistic community.
This initiative had the support of Oxford Dance Forum of which Ana was a founding member playing an important role in its establishment and development over the years. She contributed generously as a long-standing member of the Steering Group where her wisdom, honesty and ideas were greatly appreciated. She herself actively supported ODF initiatives, setting an example of proactive participation by attending workshops and discussions and taking up the opportunities offered; notably resulting in wonderful short films, and her appearance as one of the first artists to perform at the ODF annual showcase which became Moving with the Times. The current series of Choreo Labs can be seen as a legacy of her open-hearted commitment to creating opportunities for artists to, as she herself put it, “explore, challenge, reflect, create, observe, share, play and perform”.
Ana was endlessly creative, always exploring new ideas for dance as a complete theatrical, filmic or site-specific experience, drawing other dancers into her visions. Her work was beginning to gain wider recognition, garnering Arts Council support in 2011, and later she performed to acclaim in GoLive Festival events curated by Donald Hutera in London as well as Oxford. Many of us carry indelible images of her performances unique in their playful magic, her ability to seamlessly wed movement, music, video and found objects – a bobbly rug, hanging ropes, a frock of tissue paper petals – in resonant poetic narratives.
But Ana was also an inspiring and warmly inclusive teacher. As well as Friday Butoh classes for Café Reason her teaching included a memorable short series of classes for the Collective Contemporary Class programme at URC; open classes for Anjali in Banbury for learning disabled adults and children; and for the charity Crisis at the OFS for the homeless and vulnerable.
In talking about Ana Ségolène Tarte said “She always had time for everyone” – and she did, through her teaching, taking an interest in others’ work, coming to see their performances, supporting their projects, writing occasional pieces for Oxford Dance Writers. Not only was her own work of performing, organising, teaching and creating a massive part of dance life in Oxford, adding a unique richness to the mix; her supportive and open personal engagement with others was a major part of the glue that has bound the dance community here together. Here are some of the adjectives that her dance colleagues have used to describe her:
Loving, caring, attentive, encouraging, soulful, cautious, joyful, poetic, mindful, active, diplomatic, full of integrity, courageous, oneiric, present, mesmerising, expressive, humorous, thoughtful, playful – beautiful.
Thank you Ana for all that you have given us.
Susie Crow
12th November 2017
Links
Read about Ana’s work in her own words on her blog here
Find out about Ana’s work with Café Reason here
Find out about Ana’s work with the DEC Project here
Find out about Oxford Dance Forum of whose Steering Committee Ana was a longstanding member here
Read Ana’s thoughtful contributions to Oxford Dance Writers by clicking on the following links:
Pegasus Scratch Night January 2012
Cafe Reason’s 10th Diamond Night
The Pneûma Project February 2015
Moving With the Times February 2015
Read ODW reviews of Ana’s work as a dance artist, creator and performer, by clicking on these links:
Elizabeth Spight reviews Rope, Rock, R… July 2017
Jess Ryan-Phillips reviews Rope, Rock, R… July 2017
Maggie Watson reviews Women GoLive including Ana Barbour’s Sill July 2016
Barbara Berrington reflects on Women GoLive including Ana Barbour’s Sill July 2016
Rebecca JS Nice reviews DEC group’s Luminous Shadows May 2013
Paul Medley reviews DEC in Luminous Shadows May 2013
Lizzy Spight reviews Moving With the Times including Ana Barbour’s Inertia March 2013
Lizzy Spight reports on Scratch Night works in progress including Ana Barbour’s Inertia January 2013
Lizzy Spight reviews Diamond Night including Ana Barbour’s Inertia November 2012
Oxford Dance Writers 
December 5, 2017 at 6:38 pm
Ana will be so missed by all at the Old Fire Station for the classes she ran, the performances she gave, the collaborations she supported and for her gentle assertive enthusiasm for what we’re trying to do here. And she’ll be missed by me personally for all the dancey moments we shared over very many years. Thank you, Ana.
December 31, 2017 at 5:34 pm
[…] procession to her final resting place. I have posted a tribute page to Ana on Oxford Dance Writers here, with links to writings by and about her and some of her unforgettable […]
January 6, 2018 at 7:42 pm
Elisabeth Spight has written the following:
Tribute to Ana
Susie encouraged everybody who knew Ana to contribute to her memory by writing it down. It is clear from Susie’s article as well that Ana was immensely diverse in her creative activities, all based on her passion for dance, play and curiosity in exploring new expressions. She loved Butoh, and also the connection of the different art forms, music, dance and visual arts.
I have known her for many years although I wasn’t one of her closest friends.
Our paths crossed a lot of times, I have particular fond memories of the weekly workshop for professional artists/ dancers, over a few years, at the URC in Summertown, organized by Susie. Ana and I were both part of that session, among other dancers, and sometimes musicians. It was a creative exchange of ideas and techniques, coming from contemporary dance, Butoh, contact improvisation and other styles.
Ana was always supportive of other artists, curious about their approach, and she encouraged them to find their way and expression, and to perform their work in progress.
When she taught Butoh it was delightful although she seemed to be surprised when she got positive feedback. Meeting and working with Ana was very inspiring. Her ability and presence helped everyone to pay attention to the even tiniest detail in the movement, to totally commit to the moment. She encouraged me to release my deep rooted freedom of expression even more, and the endless, boundless creativity, playfulness and imagination that I so love myself.
I guess Ana was very instrumental that I understood and started to be drawn into Butoh.
Although our friendship was warm and of mutual respect I couldn’t really get closer to her. We intended to meet for a tea somewhere many times to talk about projects and whatever else, but it somehow never happened. My own personal circumstances at that time were challenging which didn’t help either.
At least I was able to write reviews for some of her pieces, which gave me great pleasure. And I enjoyed it when Ana was genuinely happy about my observations.
Last time I saw Ana in October 2017, at the Cafe Reason film night. She was then already very frail, but brave and still full of humour. One tender hug.
It was overwhelming how many people came to the funeral.
You are greatly missed by many.
January 22, 2018 at 11:32 pm
Leslie Tomkins writes:
Ana
Walking by a dress shop recently in Oxford on the High Street I was struck by its window display of a rock hanging from a rope. It reminded me immediately of the last time I saw Ana. It was during a lift back from a Dance to Health session in Abingdon that she’d delivered so well at short notice that we discussed ways of attaching a stone to a length of rope for one of her performances. I believe she went on to perform it later and to some appreciation, although not there to see it I don’t know how she affixed the stone but like to think my input helped in some way.
Along with other dance/movers/musicians I attended many of Ana arranged improvisation meets at Brookes and OFS attic studio. Without question during those sessions Ana held, but not hogged centre stage, such was her generosity of space, time and spirit. Some of the session I can recall had us making guttural noise poetry, crawling about on tarmac, wrestling with a hawser rope and interacting with artist. Such was the unexpected nature of the occasions.
Over the years I shared a beer with Ana and others after sessions in Oxford or afternoon tea with her in Chipping Norton while she waited to collect her son from school. Then over tea we’d talk about dance and general things like travel, culture, family and the Oxford dance scene.
Innovative as Ana was with ideas I will ever remember her lying on a table talking about family things, moving about under a large rug on the floor, or mooching about The Ashmolean museum’s Sculpture gallery with other female performers wearing sack and ashes clothes matched to their streaked limbs and gaunt faces, pasty white under ashen hair.
To say I was shaken when I heard that Ana had died is an understatement as the last time I was in contact with her by e mail about an upcoming performance in Banbury at The Mill she responded with interest and support. And in her reply to me gave nothing that would indicate things with her were other than normal.
For Ana Barbour November 2017
Go you on Ana
With lightness
Of step and warmness
Of heart
Gracing each new space
Where you go
Sparking, sparkling,
Giggling, laughing
Dancing
lwt
June 28, 2018 at 12:30 pm
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