Spiderflower
CENTRE FOR EARTH-ENGAGED PERFORMANCE RESEARCH
Tongues in the Flowering Tree
Research & Presentation Site
HANNAH AUSTIN
Dancer / Researcher / Contributor
My name is Hannah and I am British. I am also a traveller, a teacher, a dancer and a storyteller.
My ancestry is Polish, Russian, and English. I have been following the stories of my people on and off all my life. I have an intense fascination for knowing about the paths of my family and their associated communities. As a history undergraduate, my research focused on the experiences of diasporic people - people who have left their homeland and lived their lives in places other than where they were born. Indeed, my final work was a collection of oral histories of a diasporic community deeply connected with my familial roots.
It is not so surprising perhaps, that I too have been a traveller for most of my adult life, beginning with Japan when I was 21, then Australia at the age of 25, and now Sweden, aged 33. Experiencing life as a foreigner has been a defining force over the last 12 years, giving me a unique perspective on what it is, and isn’t, to be me.
For the main part of my life and travels, I have been a teacher; first of English, then of history and and finally, religion. I have taught in the East, the West and Down Under, and I have taught the tiniest tots to the tallest teenagers in both private and public systems. For now however, classroom life has come to halt, whilst I take the time to digest the stories I have made and gathered on this part of the journey.
Here in Sweden, I support the spiritual journeys of many hundreds, if not thousands of people as they pass through the course and festival centre that I live and work at. Through this work I have been able to take the time to develop parts of myself that until now have been left undeveloped, and sometimes completely undiscovered. Dancing is one of those things. In 2016, I joined Spiderflower for the first time, and since then have continued to reap the benefits that this unique dance form allows.
One of the rediscovered arts that I have enjoyed reconnecting to is photography. As a child and teenager, taking photographs was as natural and essential for me as breathing. 15 years on, I have finally reentered the world of film, and am expanding this, my original storytelling medium, to include video, and am proud and excited to be working with Spiderflower to capture the journeys of my fellow dancers, musicians and artists that also tread this path of expansion, expression and discovery.