Friday morning rehearsal photo of main co by Belinda Whiting...we have loved having Belinda with us over this week, Trevor came later.
12 performers in the first half by Shallal 2 and 20 performers in the second half by Shallal Dance Theatre, Miles, Katherine and Sam were unable to come and the remainder were away or in poor health. 3 of (((of echoes))) performed at the beginning of the second half. In the afternoon they choreographed a piece which Shallal dancers then improvised within, it was lovely to have them with us.
Audience Comments
Good work Eddie, Anna, Skye, Zoe. I really miss
coming back
lots of love Paul S
I will show you some of my zumba moves soon
Fantastic - wonderful show.
Thank you all.
Beautiful and inspirational as always!
Wonderful Show
Watching the performances creates a space in my head for another day - thank you.
Incredible I really wish that I could be able to join!!
An inspiration! Brilliant xx
****** impressive Mrs Willis and companies! xxxx
It was lovely to see everyone dance and how great to see you all develop so much. Brilliant dancing xx
Some unsolicited Residency Feedback
"It was wonderful to watch *****grow in confidence through the week it was like watching *** grow another limb"
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Thank you for all you are doing and, of course, Colin too. **** is loving Shallal and much of that has to be the wonderfully calm and caring atmosphere you create.
Thank you so much.
Thank you Jo!
I have to say it was a delight (and a privilege) to have worked with you during this week and I felt happy being so included!
I really enjoyed being with you all and was massively impressed with everyone and touched by so much!
I hope photos will do some justice to everyone’s hard work….
...............
Best wishes to all.
Belinda xx
Thank you so very much for an amazing, creative few days this week and for giving us the opportunity to make even more wonderful friends, .... Dance has always been part of my life, but I have never ever worked so hard at physically communicating my emotions - it's been an awesome journey of discovery ...... I'm so relieved and proud that Maybelle rewarded your faith in her last night and I know this aspect of her learning will be a lifelong benefit to her in so many ways. ........
SO that leads me into a few words about the show.
Shallal 2
are where all our new methods have sprung from and i was really proud of them ( I don't like to use the word pride much but they all did their very best).Maybelle who at 5 years old and very talented - we can't push or expect too much off, but know that she can can do amazingly...took to the stage with her white dress and wowed her audience.
Sometimes people step on the stage and the lights atmosphere work for them and this was true for her that evening! ( Ley, Peter and Andrew also increase their "output" and shine in spotlight). Miles an important member was ill and Eddie and Skye stepped in and performed as if they hadn't had a break. The audience were really behind them from the start which is also an achievement it usually takes a good 10 minutes to warm up/ create a relationship with your audience. Thank you to them all, they only meet for an hour and a half each week, and contribute exciting music and ideas etc.
Shallal Dance Theatre
Is a much larger group we have worked together for many years but also have people who have only just joined, it is a moveable feast. It works a variety of art forms, following the talents and inspiration of the group wherever possible. Always New has grown from applying Shallal 2's choreographic approaches to the main co's love for open improvisation and George's wonderful musical in the moment talent.
( We had a chance in the residency to give George feedback from dancers about working with live music it was really insightful and helpful - more another time).
So we had pieces that started with:
a performer and music
performers running in and then music
2 performers dancing then music
then we had 2 new solos
Zoe and Zoe ..lovely and enchanting and a sample of work done on first day
and bamboo balancing, props group dance - rehearsal photo on previous blog
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| Zoe Osmond solo - images created by Kerry Lawrence from residency |
2 older recorded music pieces
and a revisited Adele piece "Chasing Pavements", Anna and Skye had improvised to this when much younger in the Penryn group pre Shallal 2 and we thought it would be fun to perform it now.....
our fingers are crossed that next term they get Fridays off as they are both off to college, so we may need to be creative to find ways to enable us all to work together or be patient and wait for them!
All the performers teach me a lot and develop and grow over time.
It has been very interesting for me to watch Anna and Skye from about 9 years old to now 15/16 and how their work has developed, as i have mainly worked with adults, and children/ young people are more of a responsibility, possibly more fragile as they are still rapidly developing and changing in who they are. I am so pleased they have stayed with us.
There is much to be said, the group improvisations, spontaneous group work, travelling through space, timing, confidence, range of expression, etc all has excelled under Always New.
I am looking forward to sorting all my notes and evaluating it and collating all we have learned and chatting to everyone again about it all.
Thank you to AMATA for enabling it to happen and to The Arts Council for funding our time this week.
Obvious new relationships from it are Michael as our graphic designer, Belinda lighting/photography, Frazer live music coming to our Wednesday afternoon, Kerry and Hannah from Italy, Eddie wanting to return to main co , Paul wanting to return to Shallal 2, a new possible young member, Mike travelling from Wadebridge to meet and work with us, Jane attending all week from Friends and Dancing and there is much more and people who couldn't make it such a group from ROC in Paignton...but that can be for another blog
Love and thanks to all who made it possible and lets hope we can do it again sometime!!!
