Corbin Shaw

Location: Stones Brewery, Rutland Road, Sheffield. A self-reflective performance of myself dancing to music in post-industrial spaces exploring the rave movement of 1989 - 1991. Repurposed empty post-industrial spaces, like factories and warehouses, would host mass gatherings of people. In these gatherings, large crowds would dance to repetitive music and work their body. The repetitive music echoes the same repetitive work as these spaces span generations and hold the history of both work and pleasure. But from 1989, they are reclaimed as the people dance for their own pleasure, not for labour purposes. In my performance I danced on my own in the space to a mix by @luciensylvester of music starting from northern soul to house music to hardcore to jungle etc. The music in the mix is a personal selection of tunes that that mean a lot to me but also tell a narrative of the evolution of dance music. I want to bring to attention some of the post-industrial spaces by dancing on the ruins of our industrial past which is slowly being forgotten. It will be broadcasted live from my phone via Instagram. There is a poignancy to this piece as we exist in a moment in which both space and collective experience ceases to exist. Property as commodity is ever rising and dancing together is prohibited due to the pandemic. The legacy of Margaret Thatcher’s Tory government of the 1980’s lives on stronger than ever as industry is like the spaces-decayed, ignored and isolated. The work is emotionally charged, yet I want it to be a celebration of our history of dance music and industry. This video is segments of the performance recorded by the viewers. I wanna say a massive thank you to those of you who tuned in yesterday to watch me dance on the live stream and your lovely comments. Also wanna say a huge thank you to @luciensylvester for mixing all those tunes. Big thank you to my cousin @robwild74 for lending me the generator. A raver himself in the 90’s. Top lad. Love you mate. Thank you to @brad_cadman for the amp you beauty. Had some of my first nights and best nights out with listening to live music. An shoutout to my mum who helped man the generator from outside.

This conversation with my Dad started a lot of the work I currently make. My Grandad like a lot of men of the time was very emotionally cut off and didn’t show his physical affection for his children. Men of this time didn’t show emotional vulnerability as they feared it would make them look weak, this sadly would eventually lead to his death as he developed lung cancer but kept quiet as he didn’t want to appear weak or in need of help. For that reason I feel so physically propelled to make my work on how masculinity affects men’s mental health and physical health. Me and my Dad looked at the role of masculinity that had been taught and passed down by our fathers and evaluated how some of it may seem out dated or just impossible to conform to. When talking to my Dad he said that he knew that when his kids were born he wanted to give them the emotional support and love that he never received from his Dad. Love you Dad 💗🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿