Traci Kelly

Born in a slum close to Nottingham railway station, I grew up surrounded by the scent of spices, steel bands playing on the street corner and reggae blasting out of windows. At primary school, I was awarded a prize for imaginative story writing, a waist apron with pocket chosen by Mr Smith’s wife. I also won an art competition for painting a Great Crested Grebe on the River Trent. Later in life inclinations for imaginative language and creative out workings began to resurface urgently and I progressed as a mature student through art education, finally gaining a doctorate in collaboration and intersubjectivity. The collaborative project hancock & kelly between myself and Richard Hancock has spanned two decades. Critically acclaimed work features in edited titles by Palgrave Macmillan and Routledge and journals including Contemporary Theatre Review and Dance Theatre Journal. Material is held in several publicly accessible archives: Dance4, Nottingham, UK; Live Art Development Agency (Studies Room), London, UK; John M Flaxman Library and Special Collections, School of the Arts Institute Chicago, USA; Die Schwarze Lade European Performance Archive, Köln, DE. Due to the innovations within my work, in 2020 I was awarded the honorary position of International Associate Research Fellow at The Institute of Drama, Dance & Performance Studies of De Montfort University. In 2023 the university acquired the Traci Kelly Archive and the hancock & kelly Archive, where it forms part of the teaching and research ecology.

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Xenograftie (Artificial sorrow) Photo Credit : Bjarte Bjørkum for Performance Art Bergen