Performing Activism

Re-claim, Re-shape, Re-make

Poster design: Fatmagul Aslaner

Performing Activism is a collaborative creative practice research project by theatre maker and scholar Naz Yeni and dance scholar and choreographer Eva Aymami Rene. The project comprises a cycle of three performances presented at the Cambridge Festival: Re-claim (2023), Re-shape (2024), and Re-make (2025).

The project explores performance, movement, and the body as sites of protest, resistance, and social change. Bringing together professional artists, community participants, and audiences, it creates an interactive platform for creative exchange and collective action.

Through performances, workshops, and participatory movement practices, Performing Activism investigates how embodied experiences can generate dialogue, connection, and new forms of civic engagement.

Cambridge Festival iterations

The project has evolved through three annual Cambridge Festival events, each developing a distinct strand of artistic and research enquiry:

• Re-claim (2023): a showcase platform for professional and community dance artists from Cambridge, exploring performance as a space for collective expression, activism, and public engagement. Download the Re-claim (2023) programme (PDF).
• Re-shape (2024): a pilot performance study that informed the development of the international creative practice research project Re-Shaping Landscapes, investigating embodied responses to environmental change and place.
• Re-make (2025): a rehearsed reading and performance event based on Re-making History, exploring how performance can revisit, reinterpret, and share historical narratives through collaborative practice.