ChirpNest

Pilot Open Call

The Place

Where the light is luminous and the nights are still

ChirpNEST is set within 47 hectares of mountain desert nature reserve in the Sierra de Almenara, southern Spain — 600 metres above sea level, just 25 minutes from the Mediterranean coast.

Two houses on a shared nature reserve. A rooftop terrace for yoga and morning practice. Pool and sauna. Rolling hills and olive groves. Terraces with sail shades. Mountain desert landscape on the doorstep.

Up to six guests share these beautifully situated spaces, with a large hall nearby for movement practice, group sessions, and workshops.

The Focus

Where practice meets the ground it stands on.

This pilot residency is interdisciplinary and open to choreographers, dancers, theatre-makers, performers, filmmakers, installation and visual artists, designers, illustrators, and academic researchers.

The core focus is work in dialogue with land — site-specific approaches, landscape as collaborator, somatic practice rooted in place. Roughly half the week is structured shared time; the other half is yours, entirely.

Shared elements include somatic practice workshops in the landscape, sessions on site-specific approaches, excursions into the surrounding area (likely one coastal, one into ramblas or desert landscape), and communal meals. Yoga is available for those who want it. A massage practitioner is on site as an optional add-on.

Travel

The journey slows before you do.

By air:

Alicante (ALC) · Almería (LEI) · Murcia International (RMU)

Once the group is confirmed, we will coordinate ride-sharing from airports where possible.

By train:

From Madrid: 

Direct AVE high-speed train to Murcia, then Cercanías C-2 regional train to Lorca.

From Barcelona or further afield: 

AVE via Madrid or Alicante, then onward to Murcia and Lorca.

Recommended booking: renfe.com
We will arrange a pick-up from Lorca station for all arriving guests.

By car:

We are between Lorca and Águilas, approximately 25–30 minutes by car from Lorca station.

Travel is not included in the residency fee.

Pricing

Priced to sustain, not to profit.

Your Residency Lead

Thirty years of listening to place before asking it to speak

I'm Susanne Thomas, founder of Seven Sisters Group. For three decades I've made site-specific and immersive performance internationally — from the Royal Opera House and National Theatre to warehouses, department store windows and open coastlines. My commissions include English National Ballet and the Mayor of London (Like A Fish Out Of Water, a Cultural Olympiad flagship, Gold Award at World Stage Design 2013), the V&A Museum, and the Ashmolean. I've held senior academic roles at the University of East London, Northern School of Contemporary Dance, and Dartington College of Arts, and hold an MA in Dance & Creative Enterprise, with Distinction.

Across all of it, one thing has stayed constant: a site is never just a backdrop. Studied and researched closely enough, a place becomes an active partner — in developing material, in shaping movement, in composition itself. Somatic practices, including Authentic Movement and improvisation, are how I get there: active listening, sensing, and moving through a landscape rather than simply working in front of it.

ChirpNEST is where that methodology, built over thirty years, becomes something you can step into. I'll be with you for the whole week — leading the somatic and site-specific sessions personally, and selecting each cohort myself, for fit rather than ranking.

If this sounds like the week your practice has been asking for, I'd love to hear from you — apply below.

Photos: A.-K Thomas

Selection is made by Susanne Thomas and Dr Sophie Jump (Co-artistic directors of Seven Sisters Group), based on interdisciplinary cohort fit — not merit ranking. The goal is a complementary, diverse group across practices and disciplines.
Every applicant will receive a personal response. If you are not selected for this round, you are warmly encouraged to reapply for future residencies.