Wondering Heights – Bradford 2025

Image description: A riso print collage in blue and orange made from half of the faces of Emily Brontë and Kate Bush looking straight at the viewer.
Map
Dance
Create/Share
Access

A Map… An Invitation…

A joyful micro-pilgrimage. A mass dance meditation for every body.

Wondering Heights was a playful, participatory invitation to think about and be with the beautiful moors around Bradford, with movement, imagination, and creativity in mind. Inspired by Kate Bush and Emily Brontë’s creative works, this project was available to explore at the participant’s own pace, wherever they were, in whatever way worked for them.

People joined in from the moors, their bed, garden, workplace – whatever way felt right.

Wondering Heights was originally funded as part of Bradford 2025 UK City of Culture.

Most of the images on this page are responses that were received while the project was running during summer 2025. The video below was also created by dancer Izzy Brittain (one of the dancers who worked on the Wuthering Heights dance demonstration videos ), working with a Parkinson’s UK dance class in Halifax to create their truly Wonder-filled response the project.

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The Map

The map created for Wondering Heights by Chris Goddard. It features details and hand drawn routes for three interlocking walks around Thornton and Thornton Moor. Route and historical information is around the map, plus some sketches on Ogden Kirk, Thornton Viaduct and other points of interest.

At the heart of Wondering Heights is a beautiful hand-drawn map by Chris Goddard, designed to inspire exploration, imagination, and joyful movement. The map is available online and continues to be there for you to use however you like.

Use it as a guide for a walk on the moors, a prompt for a dance, or a spark for something entirely your own. Let it lead you on a micro-adventure from your home, your garden, or deep into the landscape.

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The Dance

Shots from the Wondering Heights dance demo videos with one or two women posing in the act of dancing while wearing long red, floaty dresses. In two images they are seated on a bench outdoors, in the the others a single person is in a doorway or crossing a stile on the moors.

At the core of Wondering Heights is a joyful, inclusive dance inspired by Kate Bush’s iconic Wuthering Heights routine. You can learn the moves by watching our demo videos, available in both seated and standing versions.

Whether you choose to perform the dance on a moor, in your kitchen, from your bed, or with a dramatic tea towel in hand, the aim is simple: to create small, beautiful moments of movement, imagination and shared silliness.

Past Workshops

In July 2025, we held free dance workshops in Bradford, open to all ages (7+), with a focus on access and fun.

  • Photos and video from the workshops will be added to the Project Gallery soon.

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Create & Share Your Wonder

Use our Creative Prompts:

Download our PDF of creative prompts to guide your own response to Wondering Heights. These prompts are designed to spark your imagination, whether through movement, art, writing, or simply wondering.

The prompts include:

  • Write about embodying an elemental force. Imagine you are wind, or lightning, sunshine or thunder. How do you move? How do you feel? What can you taste?
  • Art prompt: Make a weather map of an emotion. Rip up magazine, doodle, scribble with charcoal. How would you represent an emotion as weather?
  • Are you cultivated or a wild unclaimed creature? What kind of landscapes or animals would you be? Think sensations – smell, sight, sound – what would give you away to others?
  • Windows are an important theme in the book – inside and outside. Using the window outlines draw/make (or write) what is outside/what is inside. What happens when the wild is inside?
Response to the project creative prompts as created by Lucy Barker. Sketch books open to show water colour images and collage work including strips of small cut up text.

We’d love to see what you create! You can share your response with us at any time:

  • Send your response as a file via our jotform – access it here. It’s kept private unless you give us permission to share it, and it can be whatever you want! A dance, a collage, a recording, a photo or a video of you doing whatever it is that you are able to do, wherever you are…
  • Tag us on social media.
    Instagram: @bucylarker
    Use the hashtag #WonderingHeights
  • Pass it on.
    Share the map, the video, this page, or just tell someone. The more people taking part, the more joyful and collective this becomes.

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Access

Wondering Heights is designed to be open, flexible, and inclusive – a project for every-body. There are many ways to take part: through movement, imagination, walking, resting, or simply dreaming.

The dance has both seated and standing versions, and you’re warmly encouraged to adapt it to suit your body and needs. The map offers two different walking routes across the moors, with route info available to help you decide what works best for you, or you can engage with it from home, your garden, or anywhere you feel connected.

We believe access is not one path, but many, and what matters most is choosing the one that’s right for you.

Thanks to access consultant Kelsie Acton for helping shape our thinking around access.

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Stay in Touch

Want updates, inspiration or just a bit more red dress energy?

A sheet of information on how to participate in the Wondering Heights project.

“…research demonstrates that simply imagining rhythmic movement triggers physiological responses similar to actual dancing, including changes in heart rate variability and respiratory patterns.”

Dr. Peter Lovatt, Dance Psychologist, University of Hertfordshire

“Gatherings have the power to temporarily transport us to a world created for a specific purpose—where we feel we belong to something larger than ourselves.”

Priya Parker, The Art of Gathering

This project was conceived by Lucy Barker and delivered with a brilliant support team.