ENVISION at Culture Fest; LiKE Youth Dance

Telford's Culture Fest 2011 was absolutely wonderful- so many brilliant activities for families to be involved in.... in that beautiful sunshine.... under the ominous sky.

On the Main Stage:

Envision performed their dance absolutely FANTASTICALLY and the crowd went wild....
watch this space for the video (will probably take a couple of weeks to upload)

In the Get Creative tent...

Money B had us all grooving

Each 20minute workshop was watched by huge crowds of festival goers. Each time Money choreographed a mini-performance and all the participants fully stepped up!!

I found watching the process very inspiring- it's so different to my approach and the energy was electric! I loved how the group each time began as strangers, and purely through moving together, left as friends.

Any opportunity to show off our new poses!!!........

market hall shrewsbury.... green seen at the green scene

It all started when Sarah at Gateway offered to support a Blue Eyed Soul Dance project......

........we said.........
........ Yes Please. Can the Contact Group dance in the Market Hall in Shrewsbury? It's lovely..... a really lovely vibrant space......

Many people spoke to each other, many people emailed, meetings were had and risk assessments written hoping to get the go ahead....

We got the go ahead.

So I got the train from Nottingham to Shrewsbury early one Friday morning to come and soak up the sights and sounds of Shrewsbury Market Hall.

I chatted with loads of stall holders and got inspired by their wares- cake stands from The Icing Tip, wool from the Card Stall, flowers from Lin, Beer from Matt.... no stay focused, LOL. I came back to Nottingham buzzing with excitement- these stall holders were even up for being part of the show! FUN FUN FUN!!!

Our first rehearsal- what shall we do with the books on Mike's book stall?

Day Two... and Rehearsal Two....

These aisles are perfect for a bit of crate choreography!


Day Three... and Rehearsal Three...

Let's do this with the books..... and the bench... and the trumpet!!!

Day Four.... and can you believe it.... IT'S PERFORMANCE DAY!!!!

These dancers in the Blue Eyed Soul Contact group are incredibly experienced as performers, they've even performed at Theatre Severn..... however, most of them had never performed in a public space- the skills this required are numerous, subtle and at the same time immensely complex. Negotiating the space with passersby, having to improvise their movements around the basic themes of each section to account for people or items being in their path, communicating with each other and the musician about when the next section begins, dealing with bumping into people they know, actually seeing the audience's faces up close!..... and all this whilst keeping within the structures of the choreography! They, as always, were absolutely incredible and did an absolutely fantabulous job! Their three performances literally made us soppy Blue Eyed Soulers cry with back of neck hair tingling all around.

.... So in the end....
.........this is what we did with the crates!!!





And here is our fantastic musician who created a specifically composed score that would allow for the fluidity of performing in a public space- Guitar, harmonica, trumpet.... even Bird Song played by the Bird Song cards sold at the Card stall.... were all incorporated into the musical score.

There will be video and more photos to follow once we have had a chance to collate them... for now, see local media coverage- Shropshire Star and BBC Radio Shropshire were both there.... and if you saw the performance- or danced in it... PLEASE PLEASE WRITE YOUR COMMENTS ON THIS POST!!!!

I love being a part of this, it's been said a million times, and that is because it is true, it reminded me of the absolute joy and power behind Community Dance performed at super high quality in a public space.... MAGIC.

Dance Marathon Online Game

There's a new online game been launched as part of Dancing for the Games.  Our Dance Transformations training programme is a part of this.

Play the Dance Marathon game

News Direct From the DanceXchange Studios

9 dancers recently recruited to Dance Transformations are currently emerged in some intensive choreographic work at the dx studios in Birmingham.  They are being choreographed by the 6 core artists on the programme.

The Dance Transformations social network on Ning is alive with blog posts from the artists as they explore new choreographic ideas this week.  Join up to find out more about the artists and the programme,  join in some of the debates and conversations and find out about the Symposium event on the 19th October.

The three year training programme is an artist led project working together to explore original choreographic ideas and processes in an inclusive context with mentor guidance.  It is  supporting a group of emerging disabled and non-disabled dance artists based in the West Midlands.

Merestone Residency continued.....

During the week there were many reminders of why I enjoy this work so much. There are the obvious reasons such as creating work from a simple idea and watching the end result performed infront of you on the final day. A lovely thing happened on the final day when one of the School Governors was visiting for a meeting.He sat down at the back of the hall whilst the group were going through their final rehearsal before performing to class mates and teachers. He congratulated the group on such a wonderful performance and announced that he was due to leave at that point to attend a meeting, he decided however to stay and watch the performance a second time as he was so impressed.I feel this was real praise to everyone involed throughout the week. I really hope that I can continue to carry out projects at Merestone in the future.

Merestone School Residency Evaluation

Drawing from previous residencies held at Merestone School, I entered into the week with enthusiasm and an expectation of being part of something really special. In addition i also felt very reflective due to the fact I would be co-leading on the project with Ray Jacobs.Ray was my mentor at Blue Eyed Soul in the early years.

The participants came from Merestone and Forset Oak Special School and Smithswood Secondary School housed next door to the other two schools.

We chose to follow the theme of the Olympic games and its values and ethos. Its funny how that ethos was present throughout the process with the integration aspect working smothly without it being made into a major issue. The level of understanding of what the group nedded from staff was amazing which in tern really helped Ray and I focuss on delivering enjoyable sessions, and creating a beautiful performance piece. I felt that this residency allowed me to explore creative ideas and get them across into the piece and I noticed a new confidence in myself throughout the week. This initially was a concern for me as the project was my first residency after being off Ill for 7 months.To say i felt a bit rusty was an understatement. However once inside the 'bubble' of the week things seemed to really flow for me.