Tamar and Jo are a Hull based dance duo who blend contemporary dance with elements of physical theatre, improvised movement and their own unconventional take on commercial dance styles. Their work is inspired by popular and nightlife culture, their experience as women, and a wide range of artists and musicians; explored with humour, light-heartedness and a surreal twist provided by costume collaboration. As well as creating and performing as a duo, Tamar and Jo work with members of the community, emerging and professional dancers to create performance that is vibrant, bold, evocative and exciting.

Their project Doorstep Dances uses ‘daft dancing’ to really connect with their local community. The show has had many iterations and was performed over 100 times to audiences across Hull, Bradford, and Leeds. Born out of the pandemic and a desire to find ways to connect with people other than via a screen, the show is performed in people’s gardens, front steps and on the streets to audiences who wouldn’t usually get to engage with contemporary dance.

The first version of the show was created when Tamar and Jo decided to make up a dance routine for one of their mates’ birthdays and performed it in their garden. This gave them the idea to spread their dancing joy out into the wider community and bring their flamboyant costumes (usually changed into in their car en route to the next ‘venue’) with them.

They worked with local community groups and organisations to create three pieces for their 2021 ‘menu’ (audiences get to choose one of three numbers to be performed, some neighbours teamed up and booked all three to be performed in their street) with numbers choreographed by the duo and one by guest choreographer Lea Anderson. They have since taken the work to outdoor festivals, where the unpredictability of the audience (for example, a dog licking Tamar’s face as she was hanging upside down on a chair) gives the work an added layer of hilarity. Audiences have described the work as ‘Joyous’, ‘Fabulous’ and ‘funny and lovely and uplifting’.

They are currently planning a bigger, outdoor work in Hull where audience members from Doorstep Dances can perform alongside professional dancers. Yorkshire Dance supported Tamar and Jo in securing funding for the project and invited the duo to perform for our Dance On participants.

Image: Tamar and Jo performing Unseen Beings at No Dress Code at Yorkshire Dance, 2019 © Sara Teresa