Doorways short film in Celtic media festival

News from Barbara
 'Doorways' (the short version) has been selected in the arts category in Celtic Media Festival!!!!  …http://www.celticmediafestival.co.uk/shortlist

digression!

A quick digression into the creativity that surrounds us, we are all interconnected and seeing other artists work, progress, creativity is really inspiring;

 Interesting conversations re international initiatives, things close to my heart, such as institutions ( working originally at Budock Hospital formed a lot of what i believe, about people, choice, creativity - it must never happen again but still does happen in many places! and it's not ok to swop a big institution for a small one, which inadequate staffing can do) and peoples creativity;
so;
http://tbact.org/


Then locally re met Michel;
beautiful work, worth a visit to kiln opening or website!
His invitation;

"On Saturday 2nd March, 2013, from 3pm to 5pm I'll be holding a Kiln Opening.

 Come and join me in the discovery of my new work as it emerges still warm from the kiln. "

"I use ancient timeless techniques to create functional vessels.

Be it bowls, jugs, or jars, they benefit from a purity of form giving them a sculptural quality.

 I craft my own glazes using Feldspar, Cornish stone and ash from local trees, such as Chestnut, Ash, and Beech.

By starving the kiln of oxygen, I draw minerals and oxides from inside the clay to the surface.  

There they react with the ash glaze-  the glazes act as prisms that filter and reflect light.

This process ensures that each piece is unique.

I Graduated from Falmouth University in 2002, then apprenticed at the Leach Pottery, St Ives.

Following from this, I set up my own studio outside Helston, off the B3302

(The Halye to st Ives Road. )

My recent Projects include co-designing and producing a new range of tableware for the Eden project.

I was awarded a research grant by AIR (Academy of Innovation and Research) to facilitate this.

My work has been shown in Paris (Gallery Art Présent),and London (Gallery 43 Mayfair)

In Edinburgh and Taipei (International Teabowl Exhibition).

Work is available for purchase, prices range from 10 to 400 pounds.

Russian tea and Chocolate cake will be served !" .....in Shallal we support initiatives which involve hospitality - tea and cake !

For more information visit www.michelfrancois.co.uk or call 01736 448 002

Directions to the Kiln & Studio:

2 miles from Helston Off the B3302 signposted between Helston and Halye. 

You will find a map here http://michelfrancois.co.uk/en/contact/

Feel free to check my website www.michelfrancois.co.uk

telephone studio :01736 448 002

And lastly this morning i received a photo from my brother working at his home in Kenya!

"I am currently shooting a timelapse of waterlilies opening in our 'studio' aka production office at the house."

www.deeblestone.com

Working within Budock Hospital was formative, also visiting the Serengeti many years ago, kindly funded by my brother  (when he and Vicky were first working there) was formative, so beautiful such an expanse of wildlife, balanced ecosystems etc. What would we be like if we lived in balance/harmony ? many questions, and just the pure vastness and sense of space, something you don't see in Cornwall!

and then creatively; just a body (and some space- optional) for dance, but film? look at all the equipment....

back to work, all this is inspiring and has been a pleasant distraction/inspiration but now back to budgets! or maybe just breakfast and last day of half term............

improvisations for improvisations!

Images from Improv!

film maker Tom  (Sam's brother) with his crew Ned and Ed being subjected to an improvisation from the clown/fool crew!

Poetry and dance group starting work, Demelza is singing Katie's rose poem

Studios photos

Thanks to Laura for the photos which keep us nicely linked in to the Studios and all the work being created!  Toby is now on his travels in Spain, we wish him well and he carries with him the first Shallal Sketchbook ! - thanks to Diana for the handover...

I hope to visit the Studios more in the coming months and we await news on funding, however our pre-pilot sketchbook initiative is happening within our current  2i's research and development project, a wonderful to have time to explore ideas and concepts within the installations. 

Macquets/ideas for future Poetry and Photography books maybe piloted within it all. A flip book of Zoe's many fashion ideas? i love to see the different threads some artists have within their creativity, and still hope to enable her desire to design, with some skills and support ...we are investigating all sorts...

Getting carried away remembering poetry and dance on Friday and wanting to bring in more BSL etc..

have a dvd of Paul Scott's poetry

interesting chats on Saturday; http://michelfrancois.co.uk/en/ .....beautiful pots

http://www.artincornwall.com/ellief.html.... some years ago Elly co ran Annexe Arts, a really successful community dance/art group with old Shallal friend Lisa Mortensen

Thanks again to Derwent for sponsoring art materials ...

Fundraiser, thanks and some links

A Big Thank You to Jessie, and to her support from Debs, Sarah, Lucy, Diana and all who worked so hard to make the Fundraiser such a success! It was, as always, lovely to see so many people all together. 
Thank you to the other dancers, Jessie Lobb, Ellie and Zennor who performed, to the film makers; Brett Harvey, Isaac Sakima, Rianne White and to Stuart on the guitar. Thank you to the artists, Zoe, Toby, Sam and Peter and for Andy's  photographs... and please forgive me if i've left anyone out, this may need to be altered! to acknowledge them!
( wishing Toby a wonderful time in Spain, we will miss him, but i am excited that he maybe taking one of our first Sketchbooks with him! so he can share some of his images on his return)

Thank you as always to our families, friends and supporters.

Well done to Shallal 2 for an excellent debut performance, I am really excited about our work together and to the style of work we are producing and exploring, everyone did really well.

Star, Tina and Kerry just got to the Fundraiser despite some major setbacks, thank you to everyone who helped!

As you know it was quite an adventure getting there after the accelerator cable snapped. 
Could you post thanks on the Shallal blog to Scott and Jason the 2 Camborne officers who were wonderful to us and to Andy ( Parker) who dropped everything to come and pick up Kerry and Tina to take them to Falmouth, and especially to Martin of the AA who went above and beyond to get the car repaired so that I could get to the performance in time....Star

shelter from the cold in the car

 photos from Star's phone

As an add on i found this link the other day and was very impressed..many people are attracted to working with us and some have many questions, the best people to answer are always the people themselves, however some of us are more articulate than others......descriptions change but our shared struggle and humanity don't, although the situations we live them out in can vary enormously to support us or not...

http://www.patriciaebauer.com/2007/05/12/margarets-guide-to-down-syndrome-18/

and Siobhan's description on  http://apexvoiceoutside.org.uk/siobhans-song/living-with-autism-by-siobhan/

Jean-Dominique Bauby.....  The Diving Bell and the Butterfly. 
Christy Brown......................  My left Foot
Christopher Nolan ................Under the Eye of the Clock

Shallal Fund Raiser

Outline of the evening to help you plan your visit!

...don't forget fantastic raffle with wonderful prizes! - see previous blog

Shallal Fund Raiser 

                  

6pm Doors open

Stuart J Blackmore performing acoustic guitar

Art Exhibition

Films to be shown by;

Barbara Santi 

Brett Harvey

Isaac Sakima

Jessica Webb

Rianne White

7.15pm Live Dance Performance

Dusty doors of Blue -- Star, Demelza, Debbie and Anna – members of Shallal Dance Theatre

Solo – Jess Lobb third year student at UCF

Duet – Feeling good - Ellie and Zennor –member of Cornwall Youth Dance Company and Duchy Ballet

Duet --  Zoe and Debbie – members of Shallal Dance Theatre Company

Solo – Lucy Cracknell  - third year student at UCF

Shallal 2 - group piece 

8.15pm Raffle to be drawn

8.30pm - Acoustic guitar performance

Bar Is open until 10pm

The poster shows Lucy who will be dancing a solo for us and came to Friends and Dancing for a term as part of her degree, and Eddie who is currently in Shallal 2 and will be performing in their new group piece, with it's first public outing at the fundraiser.

Shallal 2 are based in Falmouth and are an off shoot of the main company at a different time ( after school, college and work ) to enable other people to come, and to seed the performance work in another area. Last rehearsal we numbered 17 so it is growing and attracting a good mix of people, talent and skills - 5 of the main company attend - and has a nice wide age range! 12 - 50 at the moment. (5-50 if Luke joins in but he is unsure!)

Thank you again to all those working hard to make this happen.

Fundraiser

Less than a week to go to our beat the winter blues and come out on a Monday evening! Fundraiser, entrance is by donation,
more info below;

Start next week with some inspiration and fun,

Shallal's Fundraiser is at Gyllyngdune Gardens (indoors) next Monday 11th February.

Doors open 6pm, featuring short performances starting at 7.15pm by local dancers such as Jessica Lobb and Lucy Cracknell, also including Shallal 2's first public performance!

 

An up and coming musician Stuart J.Blackmore will be playing for the evening.

Artwork, Film and Photography will be on show and for sale by local artists and members of Shallal.

 

There will be raffle with great prizes such as dance session from Freefall Dance, surf lessons from Falmouth and Porthtowen surf school, spa treatments and much more.

 

The event continues and bar will be open till 10pm.

Entrance by donation, 

Hope to see you there!!

Many thanks to all who have donated prizes for the raffle.

Oh and the main company officially start 2i's this week ! 

lots to do and think about, ideas flooding in from all the company, and it promises to be a rich and exciting time with scope for real experimentation and development.

 

bits of feedback from recent events and some news

A little bit of lovely feedback from a busy time!
Thursday saw us at the Council Chambers! still receiving nice feedback..............

Dear Shallal

 Adult Care and Support would like to thank you and all your dancers for participating in ‘You Matter’ 2013. The performances were quite inspirational to us and the students.

 Evaluations that we have had returned are all positive and we have had many comments saying how fabulous everyone was and how the performances showed the students something that they had not seen before. Your theatre is a great example of inclusion and creativity at its best.

 .........................

 We hopefully look forward to seeing you at the next event.

 Yours sincerely

Kathy

 Kathy Pope

Acting Learning, Training & Development Manager (ACS)

Adult Care, Health & Wellbeing

and the Tea Dance with a difference...................

Saw Shallal dance today at the Redruth Community Tea Dance which was altogether wonderful…in every way!  You are all doing amazing work.

Best wishes

Rose
Rose Barnecut

Feast Director

Monday saw us at The Performance Centre. We started with 10 of us and flowered through the day, many people travelled from afar so we had staggered arrivals through out the morning particularly and i joked about how many circles we would have in the day, 8 - i think- anyway at the end of the day we had flowered to 53! of us.
I had bad "nerves," before it compounded by the almost inevitable couldn't at the last minute access the music i had chosen, searched out, i always loose my favourite music! part of the process...
oh the darned artistic process..i believe in the work, not myself!

Anyway we had a lovely day - thank you to everyone involved!! Castaways came from Penzance, Access Theatre from Launceston, including Thomas who we met many years ago on work experience, we would have loved to work with him and are very glad to hear he is working with Attik in Plymouth. A selection of people from Shallal main co and groups came, including some of the youngest 3 home educated 9 years old. Many people commented on how lovely it was to be in the Performance Centre, i love the floor.

I'll stop and let the work speak for itself;

"my awe at........ today...it was a truly fantastic experience"

"Thank you for a wonderful day yesterday, we all really enjoyed it" Maria from Castaways

"Good fun, made to feel very welcome. Look forward to the next one."

"Excellent. Really good day."

"Loved it! Loved the variety of music/exercises/dynamics of changing pace/big groups, small groups, individuals within huge groups etc! Liked to hear Jo talking about her philosophy - in itself fascinating but also acts as a 'calmer'/bonding time/time to reflect and absorb and also silently engage with others( esp. important in such a large group where we do not know peoples physicality) Thought we worked really well together  - .." 


Nice meeting with Jo Mayes yesterday, hatching interesting summer plans in St Ives - will need to factor in swim time afterwards!-
and planning to be in Penzance Literary Festival this year.
And don't forget Fundraiser coming soon!

..... exciting news that this morning i received an email from choreographer Mark Smith;

http://www.marksmithproduction.com/deafmendancing.html http://www.withoutwalls.uk.com/project_details.php?id=47

who we hope some of us can to get to work with as part of our learning around British Sign Language, and working with people with hearing loss, there are now 5 members of the company learning BSL stage one!
 I had this wish over 15 years ago, as I couldn't communicate with Tom Lichy, Eileen's stepson - at that time young people/ children in Cornwall who were deaf or had hearing loss were not taught signing! and had to struggle to cope within main stream schooling! life is surely challenging enough for any teenager without being denied your main tool for communication and a whole culture...........

I tried to look up a piece of work i knew he created and found instead that there was quite a storm over an interview he had with John Humphrys on Radio 4 Today programme which was reported in most major newspapers, as it involved new IVF legislation and views on how we perceive people, all very emotive, important and interesting!
Some of the original transcript is here, as i don't want to post the newspaper articles as they all have their bias;
http://www.patriciaebauer.com/2008/03/11/in-response-to-your-requests-1674/

Hope to see you at the Fundraiser, thank you to all who are involved and contributing and to Jessie for organising it and to Sarah and Gyllyngdune Gardens for their continued support.
Shallal 2 are showing their first piece, a work in progress with open improvisation! come and support them and have a pleasant start to the week!