Social performance project
Dusking is a newly invented tradition, conceived as the counterpart to the morris dancing that takes place on 1 May marking the arrival of summer. Taking place instead on 31 October, at Dusking we ‘dance the sun down’ while honouring the equal gifts of rest, reflection and replenishment associated with the darker months of the year.
A performance by Lucy Wright and Libby Bove, 2023, Halsway Manor (National Centre for Folk Arts)
“Anyone can go out Dusking. In fact, you don’t even have to go out to take part, if you don’t want to. You can Dusk in your living room, or back garden, or wherever suits…You can dance alone or in a team, by the book, or however the mood takes you on the night… it’s all down to you. The main thing is just to do it: to honour the darkness as well as the light.”
On 31 October 2023, approximately 100 people across the UK and beyond took part in the first ever ‘Dusking’ tradition, sharing their performances and other creative responses online using the hashtag #dusking23.
Selected Dusking performances
Katherine May (author of ‘Wintering: the power of rest and retreat in difficult times’, Penguin, 2020)
I was delighted this morning to be tagged in to Lucy Wright’s invitation to undertake ‘Dusking’, a practice she’s developed to mark this ancient moment, and a rebalancing of the English folk year…it feels like an invitation for us all… What will you be doing to mark the transition into the dark half of the year?
