luminous soul residency belfast

I have just received a Michael Franti CD from Victoria through the post.
Victoria was one of the many participants on the project who illuminated our souls...
...and now my speakers! Thankyou :-)




This is a video that I have compiled of shots taken over our whole week at Open Arts.
The poem was written & performed by Julia Dean- Richards.
It can be seen written further along the blogs.

This is a video of the groups final pieces of choreography devised during the week.
The music is by Iron and Wine

Sevendale School after school dance club

We are well and truly into our second term delivering the dance club at Sevendale.

We have been exploring some very exciting themes such as travelling to space, air travel, exploring the jungle Halloween and Bonfire Night.

This dance club will continue after Christmas and we hope that we may get some new participants for it from school.

EPiC Arts

In August this year EPiC Arts from Cambodia visited Blue Eyed Soul in Shropshire for two days of exchange, research and fun. We spent time on the ropes, a new experience for EPiC dancers one of whom had been waiting for the opportunity since seeing BESDC perform in Hong Kong in 2006. We also shared stories and experiences as dance artists working in an inclusive context.

At the core of the group were four young men in their early 20's, two wheelchair users and 2 deaf who were the most enthusiastic, daring and responsive dancers you could wish for. Having climbed trees at home since childhood they approached the aerial work without fear and with invention and creativity. When the harnesses proved uncomfortable they swapped to the cocoon but used it in a completely new way, wrapping and twisting their legs and bodies into the fabric allowing dynamic and exciting movement.

I was so struck with the group that I made a sure to see them perform at Liberty Festival in London and was not disappointed. Their level of technical skill, performance charisma and professionalism was obvious to see and left me hoping two things; firstly that there might be young disabled dancers in the UK with such strong desire to reach a similar potential and secondly that BESDC might continue to work with EPiC in the future.

A dialogue is continuing with many creative possibilities. As BESDC pursue their R&D in China with a quest to seek out and support the inclusive dance community it fortuitously turns out that EPiC Arts are planning to open a centre in south China in the future. A collaborative approach makes infinite sense in a country that is very protective over their disabled community and will need a gentle and careful development of trust. With a shared belief and incurable optimism for the future the international dance community will continue to grow and flourish.

Epic Arts image by Kathryn O'Connor

Mighty forearms

Professional development is important to Blue Eyed Soul and so the Company has always encouraged its staff to seek out training opportunities that support their practice. With this in mind I signed up for a course to deepen my knowledge and understanding of the aerial dance work that we have been developing for the past ten years. There is no training available that matches exactly what we are doing but I did fund an Industrial Rope Access course that seemed to fit the bill.
Day one of a five day course... large warehouse building fitted out with a multitude of ropes, down, around, in, out and over various steel girders, ladders and barriers, very high and very cold! Me and five off shore riggers with skills in welding, lagging, fixing and assembling. We were led through a whole range of rigging tasks to move safely around the ropes and structures.
Day five and a fault free assessment means I get my level 1 irata qualification. It was an incredibly difficult week both physically and mentally, every move mechanically precise and physically challenging but it was also huge fun with a lot of laughing.
Image - teaching aerial at Bishops Castle, photographer Kathryn O'Connor

First Contact – Luminous Soul Dance Residential 2010 By Julia Dean-Richards

First contact, Helen Lewis[1] studio

from the Crescent window, Belfast

above the cafe: carrot soup and raspberry tea

we looked out upon a green, open space.

Ten o’clock, with Helen Lewis

imprisoned, shy, our senses shifting

our first electric morning

as we began to move

we saw our luminous souls uplifting.

At twelve we came to lie still

in the kindness

of soft, dancing bellies.

Soon we were styling it out

beginning to sing our colours.

Where did the quick time dance to?

Trusting in our new confidence

My ‘slow’ counterbalanced your ‘dynamo’.

Adapting, we travelled together

wheeling and leaning.

‘learning I’ asked you to show me how to speak with you.

By one o’clock

Helen Lewis is liberated

she joined us in our melting.

Tell me, hold you, bend me

know the way each of our bodies

may stretch and change

when we express our intentions.

Slide past and jam for a while

then settle here with us

to examine a newly discovered gift

turning our bodies this way and that

so the light catches, shines

on this powerful thing we do.

---

[1] Helen Lewis survived the Nazi concentration camp of Stutthof by directing and performing dance for her SS captors and fellow prisoners. She also survived Auschwitz. After the war she settled in Belfast and introduced modern dance to Northern Ireland.

Luminous Soul Residency in Belfast- Thursday

As I sit here writing this blog my mind and body is full of memories from our fantastic week in Belfast. I've had a very powerful reminder as to why I am a dance artist and why I love this work so much. Today it was so obvious how much everyone's confidence has grown and how much of a connection there is between the group.

We began to look today at what material we will show at the sharing tomorrow. The whole atmosphere of being on a residential week is so powerful. I really enjoyed last night as we all sat downstairs in the hotel Lobby singing songs and playing guitar... I loved every minute of it. I cant believe we are on the final day tomorrow I really hope the group continue to develop and that maybe one day I can re-visit them.

I have loved working with Miriam again and having Julia here as my Support Worker has been so valuable... thank you both for all the laughs, support, interesting conversations, the singing and just simply for being you!!! Can't wait to post some images in future blogs.x

Open Arts Residency in Belfast- Tuesday

As I sit in my hotel room, the rest of the group in high spirits in the downstairs foyer, I reflect on the fullness of today. Is it really only Day Two?

Each day so much happens- so many connections

Through the body, newly discovered… Or is it more accurate to say Re-discovered? Re-found? Re-forged? Re-opened?

Between thought and physicality, self-belief, self-image, internal dialogue; voiced explicitly through spoken words, explored amongst the group and acknowledged; or voiced implicitly through the body’s opening pathways

Between past learning and present understanding, ‘light bulb moments’

Between people- meeting for the first time, or discovering newness in old friendships

Between people- in response to seeing how participants with visual impairments take in and express our verbal instructions of exercises, phrases and movements, we have noticed how much detail we miss out in our verbal instructions, just how inaccurate we can be, and this is deepening connections for our own understanding as dancers, as facilitators and as communicators. The gratitude I feel for this is truly noted.

Between past and present- the presence of Helen Lewis, a holocaust survivor who literally danced her way out of the concentration camps. Helen went on to develop vast amounts of dance in Belfast, she died last year and the studio we are working in all week is named after her

Connections from the wider dance world into our own little Luminous Soul bubble- we have all just returned from the Waterfront Studio where we watched AfterLight by The Russel Maliphant Dance Company: the energy is high in the group, the curiosity lit. One participant’s connection: “I get what Sally and Miriam have been asking us to do now, why they have been suggesting we copy other people in our improvisations, pick up on their movements and explore stillness and space as well as moving all the time.”

I can hardly wait to get back in the dance studio.