Looking back at 2021: Q&A with our Artistic Director

2021 has been a transformative year for Dash Arts and we are so proud of what we’ve been able to achieve these 12 months, despite the challenging circumstances we found ourselves in. We caught up with Artistic Director Josephine Burton to ask about her reflections on 2021 and why she feels it’s been Dash’s most fruitful year ever.

Dido’s Bar creative team at Dido’s Bar rehearsals, Finland. Photography by Maarit Kytöharju / Our Festival.

What are some of your proudest moments from this year? Do you have a favourite?

“I think my favourite moment from the year is spending the week on Dido’s Bar in July. Marouf, Dido’s Bar composer, and I were invited to be to be part of an artistic residency embedded within Meidän Festivaali this summer, and we brought with us our playwright Hattie Naylor and three others: Samira Brahmia, Tuukka Leppänen and Riku Kantola.

Tuukka Leppänen and Samira Brahmia at Dido’s Bar work-in-progress performance, Finland. Photography by Maarit Kytöharju / Our Festival.

The six of us were in residence for a week on this beautiful lake just outside Helsinki. It was delayed from summer 2020 for a year, so it was quite sought after and longed for, but it finally happened this year and it was incredibly productive – we wrote most of the first act in a week, in the rehearsal room, and it was amazingly creative, productive and fruitful. And then we shared it as a ticketed event on the last day. The Finns, who were watching it in their second or third language, were really moved and bowled over by it, so to share the work to know how strong the show is and then to see the response – I was so proud.”

Does that audience response in Finland make you more excited to see the response to the final show next year?

“I just can’t wait for the full show… They only got a little piece of it!

Mariana Sadovska, Sveta Kundish and Yuriy Gurzhy in Songs for Babyn Yar, 2021. Photo by Ira Marconi © Goethe-Institut.

Another huge proud moment was doing Songs for Babyn Yar. To make up a show and do it during Covid, to know that its something extraordinary and see the response of the audiences internationally and for it to be able to translate across language. I was proud to have directed something so beautiful and to see the whole creative team – the design, the digital, the lighting, the amazing use of captions – all of it came together so well.

If I can give you one more, it would be that I’m proud of the organisation. It’s not easy to work remotely, its not easy to grow as an organisation during this time when we are all separated. I’m proud that we’ve actually grown and are bringing in new people and had a very successful year of fundraising. It’s been an amazing year… probably Dash’s most fruitful year ever.”

What surprised you about this year at Dash?

“I think every time we managed to get together at all to do anything, whether it was a workshop, or a live gig, or a gathering of funders, or international travel – that was a surprise!”

Mariana Sadovska and Josephine Burton at the curtain call in Kyiv, Songs for Babyn Yar, 2021. Photo by Ira Marconi © Goethe-Institut.

That’s why it was so impressive you managed to pull off Songs for Babyn Yar in three different locations.

“It was so phenomenal, every time. My poor team… we had to leave everything to the last minute because we were never 100% sure we would get there, we had to do a whole lot of antigen tests… and then suddenly they changed the regulations so we had to get a PCR test! We had to be so responsive and so flexible, so going back to the first question – I’m proud of the team who managed to pull that off.”

What have been the biggest challenges in 2021 for Dash?

“I think the biggest challenge has been moving from doing very little other than podcasts at the beginning of the year, with the occasional workshop, to the autumn where we had a whole series of Dido’s Bar events this autumn in London and Oxford, we made and premiered Songs for Babyn Yar in Berlin and London, then I was in Finland, then this month, we were in Ukraine. Given the challenges of the time and not knowing whether a lockdown was coming – it was surprising and extraordinary that we managed to pull everything off. We have, as an organisation, the ability to pull off extraordinary international work and we can do it well.”

Samira Brahmia and Marouf Majidi at Dido’s Bar work-in-progress performance, Finland. Photography by Maarit Kytöharju / Our Festival.

With Covid-19 in mind, how will you progress into the new year?

“We’ve learnt to have Covid policies in place and have precautions and back-up plans at the heart of all our work. That’s the main thing we’ll do moving forward. Its so hard to tell, I think we assumed we wouldn’t have to worry about Covid for 2022, but who knows now.”

What are you most excited about in 2022?

“There’s so much to be excited about, I can’t give you one thing! All of it. I need to take a break, but I’m excited to get stuck into these two shows that I’ve been dreaming about for so long: The Great Middlemarch Mystery in April, and Dido’s Bar in the autumn.”

Alongside our two major productions of The Great Middlemarch Mystery and Dido’s Bar, we will continue to bring you a wonderful programme of podcasts, workshops, Dash Cafes and more.

We want to give a special thanks to our audience this year for continuing to support us in celebrating and uniting diverse cultures, communities and art forms. Here’s to another spectacular year at Dash Arts!