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.