Patua Dance final show

Last Satuarday saw the final phase of this project with a workshop and performance at Powys Dance Centre in Llandrindod Wells.

The workshop was held for a group of 20 adults from a local day centre and other local dancers.
Before this workshop could even take place I had an epic journey to get there. When I arrived it became obvious there were no taxi's to take me to the venue. I began to push myself as I thought it was not far to go, I was very wrong...I had to push myself about three miles uphill and when I arrived I was told I was in the wrong venue. After a phone call and a lift from a member of staff I finally arrived in the correct place.

The workshop was great fun we explored tasks we used in the piece. This proved to be a great interest bringing in more people to the performance which took place shortly afterwards. I was paired up with a lovely young woman called Sarah,we had great fun improvising together.

We only had about an hour between the end of the workshop and the show. The venue technician was new and had a very hard time learning all our lighting and music cues. This was quite stressful for us all. Consequently we had a few problems throughout the show but I feel I dealt with them very professionally. It was really nice performing in such a small intimate venue.

I feel I learned a great deal about the different ways Choreographers work in the studio and about what it takes to deliver such a large project.

I am particularly pleased with all the photos taken of the show. I will look at them with found memories in the future.

Patua Dance

What an incredible two weeks I have just experienced!!!

I have experienced an amazing cocktail of emotions during this project>i have found it frustrating not being able to update my blog daily but I have not had internet access whilst i've been away.

Some of the challenges I have faced are these:

• Losing one of the dancers after week one



• having accommodation away from the other performers which wasn't very accessible to wheelchair users



• Managing my tiredness and fitness during long physical days in the studio



• Company politics

On the other hand, I can take so much away with me from this project. I was able to find new ways of working through new improvisation techniques. I particularly enjoyed using song and vocal techniques. I was lucky enough to sing part of one of my own songs as well as sing parts of other well known ones.

I enjoyed demonstrating to the others ways to improvise with my wheelchair and I also loved improvising from other styles of chairs. There was an real international theme going through the cast.I am English, one dancer was Welsh, another from Finland another from Brazil and we had a student on placement with us from Argentina...There were many different languages spoken every day which created a lovely rich environment to work in..I now can speak about 5/6 spanish words....JUST!!

As part of our residency in Cardiff we visited a special School on Thursday morning to show a section of the piece and to deliver a workshop to an inclusive group.The children really loved the dance asking all kinds of questions at the end . Eeva and I each sang a few lines from one of our songs.We used some of our improvisation tasks from the piece with the young people.This workshop was a little chaotic as it was a large group but everyone seemed to be able to participate and have a great time.

One of my favourite moments of the whole project was when we were doing an improvisation during week one. We were using movement, voice, and props,we used fake flowers.There were a few magical moments when everything clicked into place i chose good songs to sing and it all seemed right...we ended and Fernanda said..."that's it, we have our piece". because this improvisation worked so well we re -worked it and put it in the piece....its a really goose bump section and I love it.

Due to the re furbishment of Chapter Arts we were working around the builders noise, mess and schedule every day.As a result of this we decided to recognise it in the piece by coming onstage with florecent jackets and hard hats on.

Finally the day of the first show came around and I woke up with my heart pumping and images of the show in my head. We were a little disapointed at the lack of numbers in the audiance for this show however Satuarday night was almost completely full.

I am both excited and sad leading up to our next performance which will be our last.We are performing this saturday at Theatre Powys in Llandrindo Wells as well as delivering a workshop.

I have included some images in this Blog of our show on Saturday and next time I will provide a link to footage on Utube...enjoy the photos.

In my second month now!

Well hi. Miriam here.

I'm in my second month now at Blue Eyed Soul Dance Company. The members have really welcomed me... and my coloured pens!... and the amount of fantastic experiences I have had here already is incredible.

Has it really been only one month?

Do I really only work 25hrs a week?

Incredible.

My first month has seen me enagaging in a variety of different aspects of the company's work:-

Working as Sally's support at the Liberty Festival where I was thrilled to watch her first ariel dance performance, SUGAR. We really bonded that day and our working relationship has been building stronger ever since. In fact, during my second week, upon one of my unpredictable breaking into song moments I was thrilled and relieved to hear Sally say...

'Phew, you're totally bonkers!... Just like Rachel!'

Co-choreographing a performance with Sally and the Contact group for the AGM. This group have been working together already for many years and the high standards, strong levels of commitment, deep bonds between dancers, and ability to create high quality dance performance is clear and humbling. I have really enjoyed working with this group and getting to know them- and their laughter and joy- through the themes of the performance- Introductions: Who Are you When You Dance?

I have also had the pleasure of co-delivering with Sally some one-off workshops such as 50Ways to Lead a Workshop where I have had the truly precious experience of seeing workshop participants arrive looking at the floor with their arms folded.... and leave with their heads held high, giggling, with their arms around each other.

All this combined with getting to know the company's contacts and developing their extensive education and training programme.... newver mind finding out where the nearest shos are!... has been a whirlwind of brain and heart activity! Nearly all my telephone conversations have at the heart of them the trust and connection people have for the company from their past relationships and projects together and everybody asks after Rachel Liggitt and send their love to her and her new baby.

I feel I have been given the job of foster parent to a beautiful precious dancing child who has been brought up really well so far with the exact amount of love, care, attention and strictness required; and every day I breathe through this and feel such pride to be in this position.

This, my second month mainly sees me:

• Booking in our Where the Wind Blows tour to West Midlands, East Midlands (wondering if I'll get to go to any schools I know and love already from my home region) and South West
• Beginning to launch our 2year inclusive youth dance programme in Telford and Wrekin
• Applying for funding to create a performance tour to sound out interest in an inclusive county dance company

More exciting times to come! I'll keep you all posted.