Positive Altitude

This is a long overdue post-performance post about my take on TAKE – definitely one of the best experiences of my life. I have been so impressed by the tremendous goodwill that has surrounded the project and the generosity of everyone I’ve come into contact with, sharing skills and expertise, food, laughter and arnica cream. My friends tease me for my liberal use of the word ‘beautiful’ to describe everyone and everything (to the extent that they have to put it in quotation marks) but from the rig to the weather, the B word applies. Even our bruises were beautiful.

Working with Blue Eyed Soul has been like breaking into an organic fortune cookie (or perhaps something more wholesome like a flapjack) to find a lifetime of wisdom. Soul food indeed. It’s also been amazing to work with a company who celebrate all bodies – faced with this acceptance, mine surrendered to behaving itself and I finished the shows feeling stronger and healthier than I thought possible – so much so that I’ve signed up for an aerial summer school, to keep up the momentum til the next shows. (Being very careful of course Rachel!)

The performances themselves flew by, caught up in the enjoyment of working together to share what we had made. I did have a (in-retrospect) comedy moment in the first show when the ascent karabiner got stuck in my grigri at the top of the rig and I couldn’t swap ropes to descend the leg. Once the initial panic had subsided, I was just gutted to think I might have to spend the rest of the piece sitting at the top. Fortunately, I had some discreet (I hope!) direction from our rigger on the ground and all was well, lesson learned. Really looking forward to seeing everyone and performing again at the other end of the summer for some more ‘beautiful’ physics in action.

(With thanks to Lewis for the shamelessly poached title of this blog!)

Flurry of blogs

Thanks to Gekko for her review of TAKE; a dance in the park (it's dance in the park not walk in the park by the way, but we don't' mind). I don't think ITV were there (wish they were), but we did have it professionally filmed for a video promo for future tours. TAKE is off to Craven Arms, Lancaster and Preston, Trafalgar Square for Liberty festival and hopefully Washington DC next June.
Interesting comments on the costume, I rather liked the weirdness of the long skirts and hats against the metal, but yes, flying in bloomers makes the movement a lot freer.

Also check out Marttn's blog covering ShiftTime. You can see more of all the other activity taking place alongside.

Still not dared to watch video below.

Video interview with Moya Malekin

The interview that Moya did with Virtual Shropshire is now up on YouTube - Moya gives some background information on the performance, and the video shows some clips of the performance as well.

shift-time photographers

We've been really lucky to be involved with the shift-time blogging project, and to have so many talented photographers covering our performance.
Take a look at Sue Tortoise's photostream, and Marttn's photostream, and an upside down one from Gekko.
I've taken some images of other people's work over the weekend but have been lazy to upload. I promise I will soon!

Dancing in the Park - the big day

All over until the end of August. A brilliant experience,  a steep learning curve and a lot of fun.

Love aerial dance now!  The two shows on Saturday each felt very different. the first a bit nervy and trying too hard, the second more relaxed and really smooth, both very exhilarating and great to have a big and enthusiastic audience.

Loved working with everyone. Bruises slowly fading. Looking forward to the next installment.

Some beautiful photos

Pete Ashton took some fabulous TAKE; a dance in the park photos through his viewfinder lens and posted on Pete's flickr account.
They have a wonderful aged quality to them. I think what resonates for me is that this piece started by viewing old archive photos of performances in the Quarry park a century ago (you can see some in the Sepia exhibition in Theatre Severn Chapel Bar, on til 12th September). They seem to have a similar quality about them, and connects us with the past even more. Almost like we've come full circle.
I wonder how people in the future will view our descriptions and catalogue of the festival.
In fact, Shropshire Archives will be storing a treasure box of our gathered thoughts for permanent record. It's a real honour. You should have a forage yourself, they open again after refurbishment on the 8th July.

TAKE; a dance in the park - report

I'm Rick Mills, management board member of Blue Eyed Soul and computer geek; I've been involved with Blue Eyed Soul since I was introduced to the company by my wife Sonia, who used to dance with them when her health was in better shape.

Today saw a couple of performances of "TAKE; a small dance in the park" as part of the Shift Time festival in Quarry Park in central Shrewsbury - a visually spectacular 30 minute dance piece performed by 3 women dancers and involving breathtaking aerial dance work set around the company's mobile aerial rig (an impressive aluminium tripod dome with all manner of ropes and harnesses attached to it).

The theme of the performance was a history of live outdoor performance in Shrewsbury over a period of 200 years (1809 to 2009); the dancers' costumes reflected this journey through time, with the three dancers wearing period dress at the start of the performance, and gradually changing costume throughout the performance as the show progressed. The performance was accompanied by music and narrative describing both the women through time that the dancers were representing, and the dance moves they were making and the feelings they were experiencing throughout the performance.

The aerial work was stunning, particularly towards the end of the performance, where, freed from the constraints of the restrictive dresses of the 19th century, the dancers were able to move with increasing freedom and velocity.

Shift-Time festival today!

Make your way over to the Quarry today for lots of activity.
Our performances are 12.30 & 2.30 - just look for a big 3 legged metal dome. See a few photos from the dress run on our Flickr page. I love seeing the period costume against such a modern structure.
There are various people commenting on events at the Shift-Time blogging page, check it out throughout the weekend - and indeed the rest of the week.

You can follow Blue Eyed Soul Twitter updates along the left hand side of this page, and respond @moyam. We'd love to know what you think.