Reflecting on: Collective movement and action

20 October 2025: Activists, artists and community organisers gathered at Woodlands Community Development Trust in Glasgow to explore how collective choreographic practices can support the climate movement.

We collaborated with Penny Chivas and Nicolette Macleod, experienced freelance artists working and living in Glasgow, to develop this Green Tease exploring how collective choreographic practices might support and contribute to the building of the climate movement.

Choreography is the practice of organising movement in time and space. Collective choreography is collectively exploring, negotiating and organising group movement.

Movement building is growing and sustaining networks of people, communities and groups to mobilise around a shared vision for transformational change. The climate justice movement seeks to address the root causes of the climate crisis, as well as building collective power and action to transform the systems that are devastating life on earth.

Collective choreographic practices

The morning of the event begun with an invitation to walk around the space. Penny Chivas, dance artist and choreographer, guided this walking exercise. Starting with a focus on the body and expanding awareness to the surrounding environment and other participants, the walking practices and prompts built a connection between inner and outer landscapes.

When the sun came out, the Green Tease moved outdoors where participants explored collective movement practices. Penny led a ‘sweep’ where participants walked together in a line to establish a shared movement. A series of invitations – where individuals could stop at any time and change their individual pace – created an ever-changing wave, where individuals who had stopped or changed rhythm were ‘swept up’ by the collective. This gave participants the experience of being as one in a changing environment.

Reflections from the ‘sweep’ included:

• A feeling of resistance to disrupting the shared movement by stopping or changing the pace.
• The embodied discovery of how the group moves as a more coherent whole when movement isn’t restricted or governed by certain rules.
• The joy of shared movement.

Participants were considering how these embodied practices could manifest at larger scales in our communities and climate movements. Discussion mirrored a September 2025 article in Dance Magazine:

‘Every situation we find ourselves in is shaped through choreographic decision-making, the ways we organize ideas physically—for example: how and when people move and speak, how space and time are arranged, or how attention is directed.’
Dana Caspersen, dance artist and conflict mediator

Meditation

Nicolette Macleod led a guided meditation that encouraged participants to listen to their breath and body, the immediate environment, as well as to imagine sounds inaudible in this context.

Participants then drew the soundscape. The internal sounds or things they heard nearby were placed at the centre of the drawing, imagined or distant sounds were drawn at the periphery. This deep listening acknowledged the liveness in and around us, while drawing the soundscape encouraged participants to consider the relationship between internal states and external conditions.

Movement building

Freya Aitchison, Oil and Gas Activism Officer at Friends of the Earth Scotland, connected the choreographic and meditative practices with her experience of the climate movement.

Freya described the emotional toll of activism and fear of protesting, particularly at a time of increased criminalisation of non-violent protest, where UK police arrest environmental protesters at nearly three times the global average rate. In her experience, the emotional intensity of activism, protest and movement building requires embodied regulation to sustain and replenish individuals. Practising agency – knowing when to step forward, take a step back or pause – in the collective choreography and deep listening exercises is essential to sustaining a movement.

‘An essential part of building social movements is building a sense that we are in this struggle together. Physically showing up and showing solidarity by moving together can have a profound effect. Research shows that worldwide, the majority of people support climate action but most people don’t think others care as much. Seeing hundreds or thousands of others all showing up to stand together creates a powerful sense of hope that this better world IS possible.’
Freya Aitchison

Further resources

• Read a reflection of Scotland’s climate march on Saturday 15 November, the biggest climate march in Glasgow since the UN climate talks in 2021.
• Listen to GROUNDWORK, an eight-part podcast series produced by The Work Room. Each episode explores embodied approaches to responding to climate and biodiversity crises, from the perspective of independent dance artists.
• Read about the role of practising community and moving together in an embodied way in ‘Building Brave and Beautiful Movements’ by Farzana Khan for Healing Justice London.
• Visit Resistance, a photography exhibition at the National Galleries of Scotland. The exhibition builds a complex picture of how liberation movements in the UK have often built solidarities across struggles and learned from their predecessors. The exhibition is on until Sunday 4 January 2026.

About Green Tease

This event took place as part of the Green Tease events series and network, a project organised by Culture for Climate Scotland, bringing together people from arts and environmental backgrounds to discuss, share expertise and collaborate. Green Tease forms part of our culture/SHIFT programme.