Tuesday 9 August 2011

Market Hall Comes Alive in Dance Performance

What a fantastic response we've had to the Contact group's performance at the Market Hall in Shrewsbury at the end of last month. Surprised stallholders and market hall customers were taken unawares by an inclusive dance performance that started with cake boards on the balcony and encompassed interactions with books, wool, packing crates and some unsuspecting shoppers.

Choreographer Miriam Keye said: “The performers, as always, were incredible and did a fabulous job! It reminded me of the absolute joy and power behind Community Dance performed at super high quality in a public space.”

For those who were there, and those who weren't, we've curated a gallery of images from a number of local photographers who were there on the day here on our website showing the group in rehearsal and at the Market Hall: Blue Eyed Soul Dance Company Gallery

Many thanks to Moya, Miriam, Sarah, Richard and Nigel for the photos. You can find a full set, and a gallery on our Flickr page: Market Hall Performance Set & Gallery

We also have some video filmed by Richard Benjamin, a snippet of which is here on our YouTube channel:
Performance Captured on Video on You Tube

We're editing all the snippets we have together and will post a final version up here as soon as we have it ready.

You can find out more about how the performance was developed by reading the previous blog post from Miriam here:Green Seen at Green Scene Blog Post

The media were very interested in the performance and we were delighted to be joined by Radio Shropshire and the Shropshire Star on the day. The story has also been covered by ArtSpider (Mencap).

Were were delighted to be able to deliver the performances thanks to funding from Shropshire Council’s Adult & Community Learning division, and were delighted to have opportunity to collaborate with Shrewsbury Market Hall and local businesses.

Although the company will be closing in March 2012 due to loss of Arts Council England funding, people wanting to get involved in dance opportunities can contact Education and Training Co-ordinator Rachel Liggitt who will deliver local work as a freelance artist.