Comments A Call to Home

 A Call to Home

at St Peters Church

26.11.21

Comments book:

"Beautiful. Always feels like a window into heaven when I see you guys perform. Thank you."

"This was so inspiring! Thanks"

"Fantastic - Heart Warming - inspiring enjoyed every moment" - Richard and Jenny

"Lovely engaging performance. Well done to all - great afternoon."  Linda

"As a performer I thought the audience was lovely"  Toby Bridge

"Very moving uplifting show"

"Very nice   lovely"

"Absolutely beautiful. Thank you all so much"

Messages:

"Really enjoyed the show it was very moving and a real pleasure to be there"

"What beautiful and interesting work"

Email:

"We loved the production again on Friday and it was interesting to see it in a different setting. St Peter’s Church has been adapted so well and keeps its grandeur whilst being a wonderful space for the community. I last went there in 1967 to a cousin’s wedding!!"

We hope to have the recording available on you tube at the end of next week.

We have postponed our Showcasing and Sharing to 10 December 2pm

Many thanks to everyone today especially those who helped with all the technical hitches, suffice to say a laptop failed and 3 mobile phones replaced it. 

I'm always in awe of the generous supportive spirit that everyone brings.

Thank you for audience photos from Carolyn Streatfield via Demelza...

work

work

and more work

first dance 

Noahs Ark 

BSL

wade in the water

wade in the water

                                                                   Angels and resurrection

Victor Jara film

 Victor Jara film:

...a long time in coming, conceived in lockdown and weathering the difficulties of the pandemic times, this jewel of a film started with 4 voices ( artists) went down to 2-3 and then collected artists as it went along, and is well worth the wait!

 

I leave it to George to encapsulate it ( see below) and many thanks to everyone involved!

"This film is pure poetry.

With  each viewing I feel it land somewhere new in my heart and body.

Filmed and edited in such rich detail. It’s message so touching.

This film soars beyond  the sum of its separate elements; movement, landscape, drawing, painting, music, poetry…"

Like our recent film "Voices at the table" we send this film off into the world hoping it may touch many hands and hearts, or heads, hearts and hands.

"Cristian Galaz of Fundacion Victor Jara replied with many thanks for the link and said he has forwarded on to Amanda Jara, Victor’s daughter, to send to her Mum."

Snapshot Shallal

Bat song writing workshop with Eddie and co today at Back Lane West Residency

Shallal 2 are busily making Christmas tree decorations today as are Express Yourself for Falmouth Christmas Tree Festival this weekend

Krowji Open Studios this weekend - pop along and see what Shallal Studio gets up to.

Creative Journeys a new small group from Shallal Sketchbooks has started.

Lots of creative and necessary meetings behind the scenes...

Background including agreements & somatics links

Background

Exploring links given by Elizabeth Tomos  https://www.instagram.com/elizabeth_tomos/ - Welcome to Cornwall she has just started work at Falmouth Uni on Fine Art and lots to discuss, learn and share ...

i came across 

some good guidelines:

Agreements for Multicultural Interactions at EBMC

Adapted from Visions Inc, “Guidelines for Productive Work Sessions” www.visions-inc.org

Try It On: Be willing to “try on” new ideas, or ways of doing things that might not be what you prefer or are familiar with.

Practice Self Focus: Attend to and speak about your own experiences and responses. Do not speak for a whole group or express assumptions about the experience of others.

Understand The Difference Between Intent & Impact: Try to understand and acknowledge impact. Denying the impact of something said by focusing on intent is often more destructive than the initial interaction.

Practice “Both / And”: When speaking, substitute “and” for “but”. This practice acknowledges and honors multiple realities.

Refrain From Blaming or Shaming Self & Others: Practice Giving Skillful Feedback.

Move Up / Move Back: Encourage full participation by all present. Take note of who is speaking and who is not. If you tend to speak often, consider “moving back” and vice versa.

Practice Mindful Listening: Try to avoid planning what you’ll say as you listen to others. Be willing to be surprised, to learn something new. Listen with your whole self.

Confidentiality: Take home learnings, but don’t identify anyone other than yourself, now or later. If you want to follow up with anyone regarding something they said in during a session, ask first and respect their wishes.

Right to Pass: You can say “I pass” if you don’t wish to speak.

Learn More at: https://eastbaymeditation.org/resources/diversity/

and some fascinating work..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y2Em4Ie5tm4&t=215s

https://vimeo.com/351152970

https://vimeo.com/user45294792

and an interesting festival Elizabeth suggested ...well worth looking around at contemporary discussion and practice!

https://www.bodyiq.berlin/

Rereading this i'm reminded of HAIL a good simple tool to check our speech communications

Honest

Authentic

Integrity

Loving

 

Trevor Hill fund raiser and news

 Big Thank you to John Willis who raised £1400 for the Trevor Hill Memorial Fund by running the Oxford Half Marathon.

The fund will help people in supported living access Shallal sessions.
Thank you to all who supported his fund raiser, we can already see the difference this fund is enabling.
John remembers Trevor fondly over many years of being around Shallal shows especially Doorways at Godolphin House.

Fundraising is a constant conversation in charities and family are a constant conversation for many of us, so when two combine in a nice event and a good memory legacy it was a cause to celebrate. Four of our family went off to Oxford to support John.

John remembers Trevor more than i thought and this means so much, we all affect each other and Trevors legacy is special for many reasons that i can't articulate clearly enough in this short blog post.

We recently had an AGM and 3 'new' people to Shallal described in a heartfelt way what Shallal meant to them. They have come into Shallal via Shallal Sketchbooks and Picture Post and this shows how Shallal has 'grown up', it is bigger, wider and hopefully better than before. Still keeping it's family feel and credit was given to our trustees and especially to Nick Fripp for hosting the AGM so well. Our trustees have graciously steered us through the last few years really proving their supportive guiding roles. We are very grateful, the gratitude goes through out the organisation as everyone gives their best!

And it is remarkable the skills and vision that people bring, our new website is one of these and our new business plan is on it's way.

Check out the News section for more info on everything going on!

https://shallal.org/news

Good news from Manda Brookman that Kate Raworth, creator of Doughnut Economics, is using our film "Voices at the Table," so pleased!

"Kate contacted me this week as she wanted to show off Shallal doughnut youtube film so i sent it on to her as she wanted to use it at ... TEDx somewhere and she wanted to use that as an example...just wanted to let you know Kate's got it and she's talking about it! so power to your elbow Shallal you are ****** amazing!"

 Kate Raworth is the person who created Doughnut Economics https://www.kateraworth.com/about/

TEDx talks....https://www.ted.com/watch/tedx-talks

Off to Shallal Dance Theatre dress rehearsal, then a  chat with Blair and Pete Freeman at Newlyn gallery re live steaming to Tretyakov Gallery Education department on 28 January, i think we need a translator! 

lots of bids, applications and plans as well as second half of Back lane West  and an online Christmas Party zoom!  and Creative Journeys with Claire at the Studio Saturday mornings, advertising our Zoom sessions. many thanks to The Henry Smith Charity and looking at Time to Shine and RANK Foundation as Sapphire's time draws towards it's close, we've loved working with her ( and our planning continued projects ) and she has brought a lot to the role despite the difficulties of lockdown! 

Awaiting 2 films and lots on, i want to post work from Foraging Nectar..its beginning to sound like a TO DO list..time to stop...

Last thought

A friend recently commented how he disliked blogs! ( oops here i am )  he is involved in something wonderful that we talked about ages ago when the film Elephant Queen came out, now they have huge education and outreach programmes as well as illustrated school books.

 "completed more than 17 screenings of The Elephant Queen and reached over 6000 people in the first two weeks in schools and communities in southern Kenya. The screenings are part of our 8 month-long nationwide tour."

https://fb.watch/9n1BXH2Lws/

 

Welcome to Charlotte

 Thanks to the vision of Phoebe and Lou, they have been having ( Cultivator funded) mentoring to write our Business plan with wonderful helpful and inspiring mentors:

 Charlotte Bond https://uk.linkedin.com/in/charlotte-bond-a616791b8 https://www.artscouncil.org.uk/users/charlotte-bond

and Jess Prendergrast.https://uk.linkedin.com/in/jessica-prendergrast-b2719035

https://www.blagravetrust.org/listening/listening-rolling-with-the-punches/ https://www.emergingfuturesfund.com/blogs/watchet-onion-collective

With our new manager Chris in place we are aware of what we still lack and our thrilled to be able to have a short term ( and hope and plan for it to continue) development manager, Charlotte joins us in December and we are so pleased to work with her as she has been a background support to us for many years, (offering advice and insights when i was struggling to understand structures and systems) and inviting Shallal to receive the wonders of Kneehighs Ramblers project so we could see amazing shows and have a great night out.

Showcasing and Sharing

 Showcasing & Sharing 

message on FB

In our comments book

"Total Soul!"  ...that response might give me permission/courage to write/interview people on 'soul'

"Thank you, thank you, thank you"

"Wonderful to be with you all"

"Quite Super - thank you"

"I thought it couldn't have gone better,"- George musician

As always my critical faculty has made notes but am very happy with it as an R&D, we had a good audience 15-16 and about 16 performers so good balance and not too many for covid safety and the space.

The audience used our traffic light system and there was room to distance.

As well as to participate and view it all.

I had the joy of sitting opposite half.the audience and seeing the joy and connection and responses to the performers.

Wednesday Back Lane West Lisa Mortensen and co !

 Back Lane West Residency

Still working it's inspiration as always, even with less time in the space due to illness.

Marianna creating large paintings

Eddie and Stuart with good vibes:

https://www.instagram.com/p/CV2HFcjluqw/

Eddie Callis and Stuart Blackmore were the first artists into our Back Lane West residency this year.
The first half 'PLAY' is co-ordinated by Falmouth Art Gallery/Cultural services interns Anna Willis & Megan Burridge supported by Shallal's creative director Jo Willis.
Eddie and Stuart developed their Experimental music and were joined in the afternoon by dancers on Zoom.
George Clement Peer joined them, thank you for the film! along with Kyle and Caroline Coleman.
http://kylecoleman.co.uk/
You may recognise the song which was created for Foraging Nectar and can be heard on youtube.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k4iQ_5aF9Z0&t=1446s
Excited, as always, for the rest of this month long residency, new artists joining us and Shallal artists making new connections and collaborations from podcasts to coats!
PLAY
- the best way into creativity!

Lisa Mortensen

"I've had this idea for about 10 years" 

https://www.instagram.com/p/CWJsLjzIkWN/

also the connection with Truro College where Lisa now teaches and alumni ( Megan and Anna )and Mark Dunford :) 

Lisa also: worked with Eddie at Camborne College, made 'On the Line' with Shallal Dance Theatre while i was on maternity leave and and and ..we still haven't worked together enough so something maybe brewing from this session!

So the studio quietly filled with artists and the progressions are great to see: Anna first in Back Lane West as teenager and now on a zoom call for her forthcoming internship with https://www.ackroydandharvey.com/  Eddie has created commissioned music for 2 recent Shallal projects and is a paid artist facilitator on Underworld workshop https://shallal.org/people/eddie-callis

Then in come Eddie and Stuart,  ( conversation, painting, music, editing, etc) Megan and Connie ( drawing on perspex for Gyllyngdune exhibition) and my zoom call with Katie for our Christmas designs meet up. Anna and Lisa move through space take photos etc!

Tape from the ceiling and a milieu of artists, together yet apart and combining at different cross overs! oh joy!

Might have to face writing a bid! 

Coats  Jo Lumber and Anna was postponed :( but the inspiration continues and Back Lane West is greater than just the wonderful white box studio, so coming soon hopefully in January as ...COATS!

Not sure Shallal Dance Theatre artists will make it in today but still the inspiration continues and UNDERWORLD WORKSHOPS with studio artists take over the next 2 weeks.

In the afternoon we had a fabulous conversation ending in plans and hopes for building from reclaimed materials an outdoor studio on some permaculture land.

Links for thought

 Sometimes this blog

becomes more diary like, a place to post links i want to return to and not loose,

Although more conceptual than how i like to work, i am very interested in this and so much to learn as i did from Anna Halprin and others, online articles/interviews etc

“The word theater just means that it’s visible. You can see it, because bodies are visible. And thoughts are not. And neither is speech. Bodies, and what they do — that’s highly visible.”

Check out “Arawana Hayashi - interview” from Presencing Institute on Vimeo.

The video is available for your viewing pleasure at https://vimeo.com/488047570

The nearest thing to Open Improv Performance, i have heard described, always there are people working on similar concepts, more heady than we are! but great to hear, collective awareness, doing something together practice, embodiment in space. 

Manda working here now and this is good and clear, want to work in depth in Shallal on this: 

https://www.volunteercornwall.org.uk/climate-action-plan

Still promoting and following our film...

approx 400 views on you tube, 

50 + FB

250 on intagram

and 

https://artsculture.newsandmediarepublic.org/activism/cornwalls-artists-shout-louder-to-cop26/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=cornwalls-artists-shout-louder-to-cop26

 

https://www.inyourarea.co.uk/news/cornish-arts-programme-shout-louder-to-encourage-cop26-world-leaders-to-act-on-climate-change/

As someone who still slightly grieves not living in Penwith, i love the end quote below:

 

Out of Sink performed a routine at Jubilee Pool for 'Tides Reach 2050', before being joined by the St Ives Mermaid.

One spectator was overheard saying: 'It's very Penzance - the perfect balance of talent and insanity.'

https://www.cornwalllive.com/.../cornish-synchronised...