#180 Rosie Kay Is Here To Stay

FiLiA

"I didn't know what personal persecution felt like before. I could imagine, of course. But there is something very physical about those experiences of being hounded or being piled on by a mob that feels very visceral."
Rosie Kay talks to FiLiA's Raquel Rosario Sánchez about how she came to be forced out of the dance company that she founded after bullying from inside the organisation and a targeted campaign to ruin her reputation. The controversy arose from opinions, expressed inside her own home, that biological sex is real, material to dance and that these conversations must be had openly and without abuse.
She will not go quietly. On the contrary, she has decided to push back bolder and louder than ever before.
Rosie Kay is an experienced choreographer and accomplished dance professional. She graduated from the London Contemporary Dance School in 1998, founded the Rosie Kay Dance Company in Birmingham in 2004. Her productions have been acclaimed for their creativity and their sensitive treatment of topics such as sexual violence, conspiracy theories and military intervention.
Since leaving the Rosie Kay Dance Company Rosie has launched a new dance company called K2Co, which is preparing to delve into the sex and gender debate, exploring it through dance. “K2CO will create, produce and tour three new works over three years as a ‘Trilogy of Sex’ exploring themes and ideas around sex, identity, technology, bodies, women’s history and literature,” the company states in its mission statement.

You can read her first-person essay ‘My body will not be erased’, which she wrote for UnHerd. And you can donate to her legal fees to help her move forward.

Learn more about K2Co Dance Company on their new website. Rosie can also be found on Twitter at @RosieKayK2CO.