Leaving Home is a narrative dance that explores the pain, effort and ultimately the freedom of emigration. It is Jan Bolwell’s tribute to her great, great, great grandmother Jane Broadfoot, who left Scotland as a young bride in 1843.

Seven dancers expressively dance their way through a ship leaving the dock, death of a baby, arrival in a new land, working on the land.  At each stage, they strip off another garment — not to tease the audience, but for practical reasons. As they lose the constricting clothes, so the human bonds grow stronger, and their bonds with the land. The climax comes with the dawning delight of waking to birdsong, trees and earth. Off comes the petticoat and the women dance a wild and joyous polka.

Leaving Home was performed for the first time in the 2009 Fringe Festival show, Choros.