Holly Blakey: Dance, the Memory of Pain and the Language of the Body

Send us a message with any of your thoughts, questions and feedback

I’m Fine hosted by Jean Campbell meets acclaimed Choreographer and Director Holly Blakey, whose raw, poetic work explores vulnerability, empowerment, and transformation through movement. This episode explores how the body holds memory, how dance can become a language for healing, and why failure, discomfort, and joy can all coexist within the act of expression.

Holly Blakey is a British Choreographer and Director known for her boundary-pushing work across dance, art, music, and fashion. Her choreography has appeared in collaborations with Florence and the Machine, Rosalia, Yves Tumor, as well as with brands including Gucci, Dior, and Burberry. Winner of the UK MVA Award for Best Choreography in a Video, Holly’s distinct artistic language blends vulnerability with power, intimacy with spectacle. On stage and screen, her work probes what it means to live embodied, to face pain and failure, and to
transform them into beauty.

In this Conversation:

• Holly shares her personal journey that led to the creation of her work ‘A Wound with Teeth’
• How confronting trauma empowered the possibility of rewriting the story.
• How dance communicates as a language beyond words, with shape, nuance and paradox.
• On Redefining Pain: from ‘monsters we live with’ to signals of truth and possibility.
• Failure and Fear is a gift: how mistakes and setbacks can guide authentic creativity.
• Movement as liberation: from daily gestures to cathartic rehearsal rooms.
• Using dance as protest, presence, and a tool for recovery both personal and collective.

About I’m Fine:

"'I'm Fine is more than a Podcast, it’s a service. A space for the millions of people navigating pain in silence, often without the resources or language we all deserve. The world isn’t set up to support people in pain and we want to help change that.” Jean Campbell. 

I’m Fine with Jean Campbell is hosted and created by Model, Writer and Mental Health Advocate Jean Campbell, who has navigated chronic pain since the age of twelve. Through listening and learning to experts and experiences I’m Fine aims to help reshape the stigma around pain - emotional, physical, and mental - and to give a voice to the many who hide behind the words: ‘I’m Fine’. The series features conversations about mental health, identity, resilience, and how we cope when life doesn’t go to plan.

• Technical Production by Copperbeach @copperbeachuk
• Creative Production by Patrick Armstrong @sidekick.prod
• Pre-Production Sophie Tall
• Series Producer Camilla Morton
• Founder and Executive Producer Jean Campbell