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The
Orchestral
Body
The life-art practice of Lucy Chenery: exploring the meeting of body, Earth and mystery
My Practice
My name is Lucy Chenery (b. 1994) and I am a multidisciplinary movement artist living in Devon—welcome to my online studio space.
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My practice is process-led, grounded in embodied research into the sensuous, the somatic, and the sacred. I experience my body as an instrument, vessel of perception, and meeting place. Through the doorways of my senses—with artmaking as my language—I practice making intimate contact with life.
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I work with a palette of movement, mark-making, found objects, sound, word, weaving, film, and photography—improvisation and performance are central to my practice. Through ceremony and an organic, paced approach to making, I work in alignment with nature's rhythms and the life-death-life cycle. I revere the alchemical intelligence of the creative process and often work within eight or twelve-month containers of time (defined by four quarters and in alignment with the seasons), as a way of inviting a body of work to emerge.
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My practice is devotional in nature and unfolds in close collaboration with place, the elemental, and the other-than-human. Rather than working towards predetermined outcomes, I prioritise experimentation, relationality, and direct experience—creating the conditions for expression to arise through shared encounter, reciprocity, and deep listening. Ecophilosophy, animism, phenomenology, mysticism, and embodied practice form the bones of my research, and I find continual enrichment through an ongoing study of butoh, eco-somatics, contact improvisation, Alexander Technique, Body-Mind Centering® and Somatic Experiencing.
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Creativity has played an essential role in how I’ve navigated health challenges throughout my life, and is entwined with how I continue to live with an invisible condition. Art offers me a way to metabolise and bring presence to my experiences, giving form to the ineffable, the subtle, and the unseen. I describe my practice as a life-art practice because creativity imbues the ordinary magic of my days—extending into my craft as a self-employed hairstylist, singing in The Big Skirts choir, and tending the home. Art is my way of life and is inextricably woven into my way of perceiving, inhabiting, and relating to the world. As Anna Halprin writes, ‘your life informs your art, and your art informs your life’.
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A note on The Orchestral Body: I grew up in a family of classical musicians, and was surrounded by the sound of my mother's harp since conception. I’d regularly attend concerts, where I’d bathe in the vibration of a 100-strong ensemble. I feel the body is an orchestra of sorts—a dynamic composition of sensations, stories, and parts—with myriad ways of expressing. This name is a bow to my lineage, and a way of speaking to the multidimensional, symphonic nature of the human experience.
Current Research
Stonedraw along the silence of stone
— John O'Donahue
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Between Beltane (1st May) and the Winter Solstice (21st December) 2026, I am working with stone. This container was opened in ceremony on West Dartmoor, marked by sleeping out under Hucken Tor on the full moon.
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Over the summer, I will be practising with stone individually and in groups; at the end of October, there will be a sharing of work. To follow my process more closely, feel free to visit my Instagram sketchbook or read my longer writings on Substack.
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A note on containers: When I open a container, I begin by following an intuitive call to work with certain elements, materials, and processes. The cycle is defined by four quarters, akin to the four stages of pregnancy—the three trimesters and postpartum. Each period holds its own distinct energy and array of teachings. The more I apprentice myself to this way of working, the more I am shown that the journey has intentions of its own. I trust the intelligence of the process and surrender to its emergent design, pace, and meaning. I experience this way of working as a collaborative discovery, a kind of excavation; my responsibility is to listen, practise, and allow myself to be changed.
Bodies of Work
Bodies of Water: Every Tear a Small Blue (2026)Programme Description: Bodies of Water: Every Tear a Small Blue is an evolving body of work created in close dialogue with Bidwell Brook, River Dart, Dartington Spring, the human body and the primordial ocean, giving expression to water as memory, mirror and matter. This particular performance—a moment of ripening in the creative process—unfolds as a listening: a weaving of dance, poetry and ritual theatre inviting a shared encounter with the fluid resonance rippling through land, psyche and soma; an embryonic journey into the overlapping waters of the personal, collective and universal.
More documentation being added soon...
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Fieldwork (2026)Programme Description: This performance is curated by Yolande Snaith who writes: Fieldwork is an exploration of what arises out of the empty field of awareness within which we are all present—listening, sensing, seeing, choice making—moment by moment, composing collectively in real time. This diverse ensemble of highly experienced dancers and musicians have come together through several years of open weekly practice at Ashburton Arts Centre, collaboratively excavating the field of possibilities within interdisciplinary improvisation.
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Mark Making
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Collages
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Fine Art BA Degree Show (Newcastle University, 2017)
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Poems and songs coming soon...
Experience
Solo Performances• Bodies of Water: Every Tear a Small Blue | We Are the Water, Totnes Civic Hall, March 22nd 2026
• A Sharing of Poems & Songs | Buddhafield Festival, 18th July 2025⋅Group Performances• Dancer in Fieldwork | Ashburton Arts Centre, April 11th 2026
• Poet in Overcoming with Roger Hall on double bass | Ashburton Arts Centre, September 14th 2025⋅Assisting, Facilitation & Curation• Assistant for Franzis Salomo | E:MERGE — Dancing Between Land and Body | Dartmoor, August 2026
• Facilitator for Alice To's solo performance | A Black Shell | Totnes, May 2026
• Curator for Sophie Ann Wyth's exhibition | First Solo Show—and Counting | Benk & Bo, London, October 2018⋅Mentors• Alyson Hallett | July 2026 → present
• Yamina Lyara | February 2026 → April 2026⋅Workshops & Short Courses
(as a participant)Present & Upcoming:
• Sensing Creation with Kait Dron (butoh — 1 term)
• The Birth Archive with Yamina Lyara (a group creative incubator — 9 months)
• Entering the Unknown with Seiji Tanaka and Mitsuyo Uesugi (butoh — 1 day)
• Being Moved — The Receptive Body with Natsuko Kono (butoh — 3 daysPast:
• The Art of Receiving with Vangeline (butoh — 1 day)
• EDGES: Practicing Places with Kirstie Simson and Simon Whitehead (dance + ecosomatics—4 days)
• E:MERGE — Dancing Between Land and Body with Franzis Salomo (butoh + eco-somatics — 3 days)
• Me Two with Gemma Mallol and Joanna Hruby (mask making, outdoor movement + performance — 3 days)
• Body Resonance with Yumiko Yoshioka (butoh — 3 days)
• Dancing the Biomes with Stephanie Gottlob (outdoor movement + eco-somatics — 4 days)
• Body-Mind Centering and CI intensive with Mark Rietema (CI — 4 days)
• Fool Expression with Christie Animas (fooling, theatre + parts work — 2 days)
• Open Movement School with Harriet Roberts (CI, performance and contemporary — 3 terms)
• Wintering with Klara Łucznik (CI, performance and improvisation — 3 days)
• OCEANTONGUE with Anna Kushnerova and Zoë Binetti (butoh and eco-somatics — 2 days)
• YAKSTÎ ANATLÂ - The Wing with Carolyn Hillyer and Gabrielle O’Connell (Proto-Celtic writing + ritual — 1 day)
• The Nervous System and Our Senses with The School of Experiential Learning (BMC — 4 days)
• Making Waves with Zoë Solomons (CI and Axis Syllabus — 1 day)
• Making Space with Bela Emerson and Asher Levin (CI and voice — 1 day)
• Moving Between Worlds: Body and Earth with Andrea Olsen and Caryn McHose (eco-somatics + experiential anatomy — 1 day)⋅Qualifications• Fine Art BA, Newcastle University (First Class Honours) + Erasmus at LUCA School of Arts, Gent
• Level 2 Hairdressing Diploma (Distinction)
• Certificates in VortexHealing® and Reiki
• Pause Place Practitioner (coaching, meditation and space holding)
• Safeguarding and Child Protection (Level 3)
• Mental Health First Aider (MHFA)
• Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training (ASIST)⋅Relevant Work History2023-present (Devon):
• Artist
• Part-time Hairstylist — please email [email protected] for bookings (website coming soon)
• Listening Circle Facilitator for Circlewise2021-2023 (Devon):
• Freelance Facilitator, Creative Copywriter and Project Coordinator—selected projects include:
→ Creative copywriting for UBUNTU Educational & Mentoring Services
→ Earth Stories, storytelling/arts workshop, Totnes Library & Paignton Library
→ Samurai Shiatsu, bodywork/mindfulness program, Totnes St John's C of E Primary School
→ Play, Process and Organic Creation, sculpture/improvisation workshop, Totnes Foundation Course
→ Know Your Nervous System, nervous system edworkshop, Jamming Station
• Director, Facilitator and Project Support for Circlewise
• Young People’s Coordinator for Action to Prevent Suicide
• Member of the Totnes Dance Collective Steering Circle2019-2021 (Dorset):
• Practitioner for Dorset Mind's Children & Young People’s Service
• Teaching Assistant at The Forum School
• Admin Assistant for The Art Stable2017-2019 (London):
• Gallery Assistant for Megan Piper, the William Bennington Gallery and Bold Tendencies
• Archival Assistant for the work of Edward Allington
• Ceramics Assistant for Kana
• Learning Facilitator at Somerset HouseImage by Alexander Dodgson at Soma CI's Spring Jam
Contact
If you'd like to reach out, please feel free to email me at [email protected], I'd love to hear from you.
