ROCKBOTTOM
Conceived, designed and created by Stuart Waters
Combining bold storytelling with highly physical choreography, ROCKBOTTOM is a moving and incredibly honest self-portrait of personal struggle with depression and addiction from Stuart Waters, a successful performer for 20 years who made his debut as an independent artist with this work.
ROCKBOTTOM is a deeply personal piece, about how Stuart hit his own ‘rock-bottom’ and survived to tell the tale. Despite enjoying 15 years at the peak of his career, Stuart Waters was secretly battling with his own demons. His experience of addiction, mental health problems, and reaching rock-bottom, has been the inspiration for this solo dance theatre work.
ROCKBOTTOM is a warm, gritty story, told with humour and care where the audience can laugh at the tragic, know that’s ok and be free of judgement to pause and reflect on what they are witnessing. Driven by a powerfully emotional narrative based on true events, it fuses physically athletic choreography and a brutally direct script.
ROCKBOTTOM is a physical demonstration of positive health and possibility from the depths of despair.
“Inarguably, this is one brave performance. Waters deserves huge respect for his remarkable commitment to honesty in reliving his darkest moments. But more than that, for bringing himself back from the brink.” – THE GUARDIAN
“Stuart also happens to be a compelling and warmly likeable performer to watch. He has an ability to embrace his audience – and in turn to get his audience to give each other a hug. ROCKBOTTOM is essentially an incredibly humane piece of work.” – DISABILITY ARTS ONLINE
“A painfully revealing, highly physical look at mental health and that sometimes elusive thing called happiness in which he is, by turns, vulnerable, camp, ravenous, sensitive, intense, ecstatic, unhinged and, eventually, redeemed Impressively, he takes us with him every step of the way” – DONALD HUTERA (Dance Critic)
HOW IT BEGAN . . .
As Stuart recovered from being in a coma, he decided that he wanted to create a dance theatre work that could explore the issues and experiences that led to that moment, and mark the recovery that he was determined to achieve. Weeks later, as he struggled to walk out of the hospital, stopping regularly to catch his breath, the dream of creating ROCKBOTTOM seemed almost impossible. But through a year of hard work and focus, Stuart regained his fitness, and began to make this dream come true.
In 2016 Stuart was awarded funding from Arts Council England to complete some research and development. This resulted in a duet with Wendy Hesketh-Ogilvie, the friend who was with Stuart through the highs and lows of what happened to Stuart. It was made in collaboration with composer Andy Pink and with directorial support from Ben Duke. Culminating in a small sharing, the feedback demonstrated that ROCKBOTTOM was a piece that captivated and resonated with an audience in a profound way.
A second award from Arts Council England enabled Stuart to return to the studio to create ROCKBOTTOM in full.
ROCKBOTTOM toured nationally in 2018 and 2019 to great acclaim and had a profound impact on audiences and peers. Post-show discussions involving local Police, Mental Health workers and arts professionals provided an important opportunity for audiences to discuss and debate the content and themes of the piece.
“Our collaboration with ROCKBOTTOM and Stuart Waters enables us to increase our visibility within the LBGT+ and wider community, which in turn creates an environment of openness and transparency.
We want to understand and support all of our communities, we do that by increasing our knowledge of issues such as mental health, addiction and the broader impact of these.
Only through talking, listening and working together can we build a culture of trust between ourselves and our communities.“
Detective Sergeant Christian Owens of Merseyside Police forming partnerships towards change.
ROCKBOTTOM is a visceral, provocative and uplifting solo dance theatre work about surviving ‘rock-bottom’ and the strength of the human spirit.
Formed out of Stuart’s personal experiences with trauma and love, ROCKBOTTOM’s approach and belief is that art has the power to present fresh perspective and enables us to understand and talk about our experiences in a new way.
Whereas the performance is not suitable to audiences under 16 years old – due to the subject matter and adult themes – Stuart’s workshops are richly empowering and suitable for all ages and abilities.
This work is driven by a passion to create awareness and inspire change. It aims to be a working model of best practice, developing strong safeguarding practice in all aspect of this project, including considerations for participants, audience members, the creative team, venue staff, and everyone involved in this project.
This experience means Stuart is well placed to advise on safeguarding practice for organisations and practitioners.
A key agenda is raising awareness about mental health and emotional well-being.
In addition to speaking at events and conferences, Stuart has written a number of articles about his experiences.
Supported by Arts Council England and Dance East
Performances
ROCKBOTTOM toured throughout 2019.
Click below for performance dates, locations, and booking information.