Gyllyngdune coming soon!

Just a reminder for the first of our Doorways site specific performances at Gyllyngdune Gardens, Falmouth on 1st June, 12, 2 and 4pm performances under 30 mins!
Apex are joining us for the event, see previous blog advert.

The show will go on under cover around the main lawn and in the bandstand if bad weather, but we're hoping for fine.

We have a dress rehearsal this Friday in the gardens, the paths will overflow with mermaids, flowers, prams and poetry, song and some amusing birds......not wishing to give too much away...

The company have created a rich tapestry in response to the gardens and stone arch and I am looking forward to it..although holding us all together throughout the event will need some focus..but we took it onto stretch and challenge the company....

 Friends and Dancing are performing before the 2pm show at 1.45pm for 15mins, in front of the bandstand.
Friends and Dancing did their penultimate rehearsal today and are performing 3 Open Improvisations, and Sammy turned up today with a dance I'd half seen from her before ..very lovely and hope to squeeze it in.

Today in Friends and Dancing we took one of our ordinary first exercises then watched everyones development with it and gave observational feedback, I saw a very marked difference in most peoples work, far more risks being taken and really good feedback given, an exciting and interesting session.

It is a fantastic group this is partly due to the friendships and bonding the core group had when a Healthy living group, that atmosphere continues to affect everyone who participates....the main company also has a close warm atmosphere..i think it is partly the time given to have a voice and talk, discuss the work and create friendships....circles are important.

early photos, Toby's art work has transformed into something worth seeing!
Giles and Colin will be in similar shapes but near the doorway, see below.

Sam, Giles and Colin return here in costume as does Trevor wth a partner. 

Holi-day and APEX

new rehearsal photos link and more

A link to some new rehearsal photos by Andy. 
Plots for books with Andy still hatching; one with Adult Social Care - hopefully-, one with Shallal - Rory helping with edit.
Our children were laughing at me using my hands so much when I was trying to explain something, and  there is a photo of me waving my hands around, as always they are a great record of how we work and all the characters who make up Shallal main co.



www.flickr.com/photos/fezparker/7202339608/in/photostream/


Currently trying to put in bids to stay alive, as ever, but some exciting things in the pipeline and The Works helping, through their support scheme, to formulate final version of bids which I am ever grateful for, not sure I'll ever finally get that skills set.  Diana frequently phones me about final drafts to check figures especially, still it emphasises the neccessity and gift of working in a good team with shared skills and talents..thank you to all who support us to keep going. 
Diana also edits my grammer and punctuation but not this blog, as you can tell......this could be called my writing practise but I have found so many mistakes on it recently... so apologies.


I spent many years waving my hands around and communicating with people through gesture and music, so am catching up on the other skills. When I first came to dance, and returned to the Arts with people, through shadowing Wolfgang, I also returned to visual art and spent happy hours doodling in my sketch book as I travelled across London on buses to dance classes. Now I have to find funding for work I have returned to writing, but it is a more difficult return as I never grasped grammer etc. And figures don't even figure as a return!


Event Square on Saturday, will those performers coming from Penwith get there on time!
The Olympic torch day feels exciting and also a great unknown as to how busy it will be, how to get around the town. Michael runs with the torch at one end of town, the performers meet an hour later at the other end of town. It should be a busy and spectacular day, and we'll have to go with the flow!


I just felt a wave of nostalgia and reflection. 
When I worked in centres, I had no admin to do or bid writing or justification the work spoke for itself. However the work stayed in the centres, inclusion and sharing in society wasn't possible, or very limited. My weekly evening Natural dance class was inclusive. I enjoyed my work in the main company (which was inclusive) the most and always wanted to get sessions going in the community as that is how I came to love the work in London by attending sessions at City Lit, off Drury Lane. 
We started Dance and Draw with Artshare in the community for people who moved out from Budock Hospital and that ran for some years, Annexe Arts led by other artists sprung from that and survived much longer. Danu Fox initiated the idea for Open House sessions in the community when Shallal formed as a charity in 2005, these were the first truly inclusive sessions in the community apart from the main company.
It's 7 years since Shallal became a charity, 7 years is a good time for reflection.
Over the past year or two we have collected testimonies from audiences and those we work with, people and organisations, now maybe an interesting time to hear some voices from facilitators/artists as they are often less heard and i feel this blog shouldn't have just my voice on it. We have some strong writers around now, as well as some like me who prefer other art forms, so we shall see. I'll put the invitation out there and see what comes in, and post it.


Sad news yesterday that Peter Weigand, a much loved trustee, had died recently.
Peter and  his daughter Livvy came to Open House sessions run by Colin. Later he  became a trustee, he was only with us a short time before he had to leave for health reasons, but we were very fond of him and he gave us great support, humour and encouragement. We are very grateful. Peoples lives touch so many others and only death ever really shows us that and shows clearly the good they did. One of Peter's wishes was that a proportion of the donations made in his memory should come to Shallal.


Last piece of news is that Jessie is currently creating a Shallal group facebook page, which will eventually replace our current FB. Thank you to her for this.www.facebook.com/pages/Shallal/353939281333344?ref=tn_tnmn

and .....stop press....... nice news link for next big show;
 www.thisiscornwall.co.uk/Dance-theatre-company-takes-performance-outside/story-16106124-detail/story.html

foyer dIsplay at Gyllyngdune, rehearsals and 19th May

Nice to wake up to less pressure! but still nice to blog after a busy week so:
Many thanks to Rory for putting up the display in Gyllyngdune Gardens foyer, (and to Anna). There are samples of Toby, Zoe and Andy's work there from the successful Studio 61 exhibition.

We plan to have an exhibition again with Studio 61 in 2013 with our new three pronged project of People, Poetry and Paint- the project will start after Doorways and will build on all the work being done, through art, poetry, photography and performance.

You can't see any of Eddie's work there but he has one painting going into Falmouth Art Galleries Soaring Spirits exhibition, coming soon!
Also I collect on Monday a lovely image he worked on for the Gardens to display there.
It is a pleasure to work with the Gardens in their newly furbished space and many thanks to Sarah.

Friends and Dancing are continuing their open rehearsal structure for the 1st June at Gyllyngdune....always love their work and sensitivity. Working with Andrew in the group ( who works on the floor half the time ) encourages us to do floor work and more hands on body awareness exercises which is a good progression for the group.

Thursday continues to be a small group but with high quality work, I am always amazed by the character each group develops and what forms it, why different groups call forth different themes/ styles, what is the mix? there are so many elements involved. Thursday has a loose improvisational structure to it. The space has a lot to do with it I think.

Main company has a lot of skills and enthusiasm at present and again many thanks to Rory. When we asked him to be our BBC funded dance artist/choroegrapher on the project, in theory it involved a few days and performances. He has given us much more than that and shares all his skills so we have: voice work, design, production, costume and more!! It is a real pleasure for us all to work with him, and for me to have someone who easily shares ideas and decisions.
All the company are contributing generously from their many skills and there is a wealth of ideas to work with. Our limitations are, that inspired by each site visit and the stories around it, logisitically we can't all continue to revisit it in rehearsals until a dress rehearsal if we're lucky.
However the work has indoor shows in the Autumn so we can play with that after the outdoor ones.
Lovely to have Barbara Santi ( film ) back on board visiting and developing work as well.

Just a reminder;
Saturday 19th May 1.30pm - 1.45pm Shallal at The UCF Marquee in Event Square, Falmouth.
- a chance to see some of the work developing for the summer shows

Rehearsals

Rehearsals going well for Gyllyngdune and just pulling together all the work for the next two at Godolphin and Mousehole. Rehearsals started with Cornish langauge input, many people know Cornish bards! but only one of us remembered our homework of sourcing some Cornish words !! I forgot until journey down that we planned to build on Sally's lively and lovely poetry workshop last week - after sharing an artists vision and process it's good to return to that input and use your own voice. Shallal is different from many, because we use our own voices and it is the rich interactions and differences that give it it's wealth and variety, the whole is greater than the sum of it's parts! but the parts are pretty fantastic, many people are stand alone artists as well as collaborators..anyway enough of that...

Some lovely poems with threads or all of Cornish language for Mousehole,
followed by Rory, Colin, Toby, Linda and company working hard to look at costume.
So grateful for this as we have lost our costume support recently.
Generous offer of costume support and visit from Maria of Castaway. www.castaway-penzance.co.uk
(Before moving to Cornwall Maria worked with www.castaway-goole.co.uk. Maria is looking for more support especially a piano accompanist...... as they want to build on their core group. I often meet people who love musical theatre, so now there's the opportunity to be fully involved in it.)

A good first run through and building all the time, fantastic poem from Debbie and Eddie with musician Wendy having recently joined us..lovely to have her with us and a great help pulling themes together with music. Even the tree dance, with no tree and no Kerry looking good!
I am holding back from sharing too much detail about the performance.
Display of images, poems etc going up at Gyllyngdune next Tuesday hopefully.

Many ideas bubbling in the pipeline: studios again! maybe it's time has come, more news soon,
new Facebook group.....

Outreach Performance as part of University College Falmouth’s Torch Relay Celebration.
in Marquee at Events Square in front of the Maritime Museum, Falmouth
on Olympic Torch Day
 Saturday 19th May,
1.30pm -1.45pm

new piece from Penryn group and some work for summer shows on show

more information about the day on www.falmouth.co.uk/homepage/olympic-torch-relay


on a personnal note Michael ( our 14yr old son ) is running with the Olympic torch through Falmouth, route not decided yet.....


Exhibition at Studio 61 had to be cut short due to a building issue but some of the work will still be there for a while and some will go to Gyllyngdune Gardens.
Really pleased with how it went, many thanks to Studio 61 for the opportunity and hope to build on it for the future.