Private View Tuesday 2pm - 3.30pm 19th January.

                                                           

Private View on Tuesday 2pm - 3.30pm 19th January

Falmouth Art Gallery

We are delighted to invite you to a private view of artwork by artists from Shallal Studios and Falcare. The work is currently on exhibition at Falmouth Art Gallery in the community space and the private view will be from 2pm to 3.30pm on Tuesday 19^th January.

During 2015 Falmouth Art Gallery funded creative work with Falcare and Shallal Studios and the exhibition is the result of this work. 

Shallal Studios

Shallal Studios is part of Cornish charity Shallal and is an inclusive group of artists who enjoy working together and supporting each other.

During summer 2015 Shallal Studios was lucky enough to be awarded a three month residency at Porthmeor Studios in St Ives. This meant that Shallal artists, as well as lots of new artists, could come in whenever they wanted, get to know each other and share studio practice. Thanks to fantastic funding and generous donors we had plenty of inspiring art materials enabling artists to explore new mediums and ways of working.  We also offered free transport to artists who otherwise couldn’t have come. The Shallal Studios work in this exhibition was all made at Porthmeor during the residency.

Please visit www.shallalstudios.com and our Porthmeor blog www.shallalstudios.com/blog .

Falcare

http://www.falcare.co.uk

Falcare is a non-profit company in Falmouth that supports people with learning disabilities. Little Parc Owles Trust funding has enabled Falmouth Art Gallery to stage an exciting artist lead project with Falcare and creative practitioner Laura Menzies, making work that celebrated the iconic Porthmeor Studios and its artists (historic and contemporary). The group also visited the studios in St Ives and meet some of the artists working there which was a hugely inspiring experience.

Throughout the project individuals participated in individual and group activities, that allowed them to develop, explore and evolve their creative practices at their own pace. As well as learning new art disciplines, the activities were also designed to support the development of transferable life skills.

For directions to the gallery please visit http://www.falmouthartgallery.com/Gallery/VisitUs .

We hope you will be able to join us on Tuesday.

 Lou Brett, Shallal Studios

Laura Menzies, Falcare

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I have seen the exhibition and it is really nice to look back at work from the Porthmeor residency, it is only smaller work so not representative of all that was created but fantastic to see. If you can't make the private view pop into the gallery, it's open every day except Sunday, and the work is hung around the stairs and landing.

Also to have the opportunity to exhibit with Falcare - long standing friends - who support and make up so much of Express Yourself http://www.shallal.org.uk/express-yourself.html on Wednesdays. I stood in for Debs this week and it is always a pleasure to see how people have moved on and flourished within the project! Many thanks to Colin and his multi talented efforts and Debs vision. They are busy creating yet another show and their work is flourishing, as work does with good support and regular opportunity, not to mention friendships and David and Esme's wedding next year!! Thy face a time of evaluation and discussion as the wonderful funding from People's Health Trust comes to an end next month and they move onto their next phase/inspiration.

Everyone has done so well but I want to mention Andrew and his joy and independence in the sessions and Hayley now so confident and showing her full talent that we always knew was there but had to coax out.

Shallal 2 

Many people ill and unavailable this week and only 4 dancers, 2 of them under par but wanting to be there, and yet 4 new pieces of work created, 13mins of really good performance standard work! Just from exploration and having fun.

They hope to show Winter Mixture again before Spring!

My challenge apart from the sessions is to present and show such good work in the right spaces/opportunities.

Jonathan 40 this week

more birthdays to celebrate: 40 for Jonathan and apparently Trevor is now 75 ( not 76 ).

I am procrastinating as one does before serious work/rehearsals and so here's hoping, I am always intrigued by the creative process.

And off to the Godolphin House tomorrow morning with 2 young dancers and Belinda to experiment, we will go whatever the weather, unless it snows!

Last ramble: i spoke with Anne a historian from the Friends of Godolphin this week and within one phonecall heard so many colourful and fascinating tales, we look forward to her talk.

Sponsored dance has already made over £100 thank you to everyone for their efforts and support it was fun and a good way to get back into the new year.

New Year and Trevor's birthday!

Back to work!
Happy New Year.
Lovely Shallal 2 to return to on Wednesday -Thank you to all - and we were all pleased to have Skye and Anna back and wish Eddie well with his animation course!
We looked at photos and fed back on show and future ideas, always one of my favourite creative times, what next? where do people want to take their work? and a visit from lovely Belinda...

So today is our now Annual Sponsored Dance, dancing back into the groove after the Christmas holidays, a joy and fun way to start the new year, 5 hours of non stop dance and music!

So plans, serious research and rehearsals coming up this term and new equipment our new film camera, looking forward to see what people create with it.
Evaluating Cross Currents! again a wonderful 'what next'? time
and chat soon with Jack from Feast to look at developing small pop up team for a few festivals? winter is a time for dreaming and scheming.

A selection of small art work from Porthmeor residency will be on show at Falmouth Art Gallery from today - thank you to them and to Lou. Tea and cake celebration 2pm 19th January.
Talk by Ann from Friends of Godolphin on the 5th Feb main co 10.30am.

And the reason i started this was Trevor's birthday i think he will be 76! on the 12th Jan.
and today we will give him his card, see below...
Trevor is quietly one of the most popular people in Shallal Dance Theatre and we are blessed and grateful to share with him.
He has a delightful light mischievous sense and clarity of movement and intent in improvisation and is one of the people who has particularly shone through our new way of improvised performance, enabling him to fully share his gifts.
He has had various advocates, partners and support to enable him to get to Shallal regularly especially Debs, Duane and now Star - thank you.

Winter Mixture

Thank you to everyone for last night.

The hard thing for the performers is to have no wings/off stage or space to hide, however the beauty of the high ceiling, smooth wooden floor and wonderful strong paintings surrounding them is a pleasure. Along with the ever constant hospitality and welcome which make Falmouth Art Gallery home from home for many in the area: Maybelle, Rosie and Sidney are frequent visitors, Eddie has done work experience and exhibited paintings, Jo works there, i have run workshops, performances, attended numerous children home ed art/writing workshops and seen shows there as well as private views etc it is a real hub in our community and big THANK YOU to them for continued support.

Andrew and Miles

group improvisation

Welcome to Maz

Thank you to our audience a packed house from family and friends to those who have never seen us before. Thank you also for the generous response, as we seek funding for next year, over £100 was donated. We were able to enjoy Christmas cake and refreshments afterwards.
We are sorry to have missed Anne and Ley who are regular and wonderful performers and were unable to be with us in the past month, however welcome to Maz and we have new people interested and that is always heartening, and David and Paul have returned. The nature of Shallal and community groups is often a moveable feast as people commitments and circumstances change,  Anna and Skye may return next term! now they have settled into college.
 I haven't sat down to really analyse how it works 'the power of attraction' but it does and i came to the work through it. After shows we often have people ask to join.
So nearly to the holidays our Shallal Dance Theatre Christmas Party today and then rest till the new year.

Photos from last night are posted on https://www.facebook.com/ShallalDanceTheatreCompany/

Winter Mixture

Thursday evening 6pm!

Jo Lumber willingly changed from participant to volunteer within Shallal 2 after Jessie Webb left which enabled us to continue, she is now an associate artist and has written this review of our year for tomorrow.

(Many thanks to councillors Hanna Toms and Cathy Atherton who have last year and this year supported the dress rehearsal and performance through Community Chest Funds.
We are currently appealing for local support to continue to flourish next year.)

Winter Mixture & review
Shallal2 present a seasonal selection box entitled 'Winter Mixture'. We hope you enjoy our diverse range of music, chosen by company members. We are thrilled to be back in Falmouth Art Gallery after last Decembers' show 'Contrasts', which was inspired by the 'Porthmeor Past and Present' exhibition. 

Falmouth based Shallal2 has been running for 3 years and is now an established performance group.  We are an eclectic group of individuals, ranging in age from 0- '60 something', and every decade in between.  We share a love of interesting music, exploration of movement, playing together, using our imaginations and creating work from themes. Everything we present is improvised, making every performance unique. Our shows have no specific narrative allowing you, the audience, to create your own if you wish!

It has been a busy 2015: In Spring we devised 'Dance On The Grass' which was performed one balmy eve at Gyllyngdune Gardens. Our audience enjoyed the setting as much as we did; what pleasure to perform in the fresh air, under blue skies, surrounded by vibrant flowers. We also took the show to Malpas Park for Truro's Playfest event... where it was more a case of  'Dance in the Drizzle' as we battled against the rain!

In July we joined the main company, Shallal Dance Theatre, for a week long residency at the AMATA Performance Centre. We thoroughly enjoyed immersing ourselves in our craft, and felt privileged to use the wonderful university facilities. The hard work and play resulted in an exhilarating Friday night show, in a superb, state of the art dance studio.

A highlight of the year was to perform 'Contrasts' again, this time at Porthmeor Studios, on the last day of the St Ives Festival. A chance meeting with artist Vicky Wiltshire and manager Chris Hibbert led to this late booking and we rose to the challenge. We revisited the piece after 9 months and had just 2 rehearsals. On arrival at Porthmeor we found the artists studio to be a true working space- with years of paint, plaster and debris scattered. There was much to do in order to prepare the floor for dance! The team cleared, swept, and vacuumed, freeing the space of staples and screws. Despite various events throughout the town we performed to a packed house, with many of the audience members new to our work. It was particularly poignant for us to share the show in the very space which inspired it. We received wonderful feedback and on a post-show high several of us took a dip in the sea as the September sun shone brightly.

And here we are again in our beloved Falmouth Art Gallery, a place which understands and embraces us. Thank you, everyone, for supporting us. Please join us after the show for some festive refreshments and a chat. See you again in 2016.

Jo Lumber, Shallal2 member.

PS.
You may notice a lack of leaping in this show; our wonderful Anna and Skye are busy with their college courses but work with us when able. We are so happy to have Zoe with us, who is also busy with sixth form commitments. As part of her course she recently hosted a delightful fundraising tea party at Falmouth School. Highly talented teenagers treated us to brilliant music and song, ranging from Einaudi to Arctic Monkeys! £125 was raised for Shallal2. Thanks to all involved.

original photo of Zoe and Maybelle from residency 

beautiful photo by Zoe Wilton of Zoe Osmond at residency that almost made it to our Xmas card as love the colour! an attempt below......

festive posters/programme covers by Eddie Callis

thoughts

"Passing Through, an improvisation technique working with the philosophy that movement needs no leader in creation.  We will begin with the basic principles of walking, running, pause, following and leading and looping.  Specifically working with instant adaptation and transforming the environment of the dance while playing with expansion and cohesion."  
http://www.leilamcmillan.com/

very excited when saw some videos of this style of work a year or so ago as has elements of 'Always New' in it..

then when researching Michael Klien through Independent Dance newsletter http://www.independentdance.co.uk/ came across the wonderful centre he created with Daghdha in Limerick, also came across this poster.....

Artists can show the way for inclusion because they cut across society - as does real faith.

issued by Senator Joseph MacArthur height of red scare in 1950's posted on https://www.facebook.com/InstitutFuerSozialeChoreographie

Visitors

Friday felt like an international day!

Annis and Lydia

Pepe from Catalonia Spain came to 'play' with movement and George's friends Sulia and Eric from MInnesota USA came to play with music.
Trip to see Terry Frost exhibition at Newlyn Art Gallery next week in the afternoon.
Some good work being created and some back to basic reminders in warm ups and exploring contact improvsation which we always need to revisit.

Winter window with Katherine and Brain.

Anna, Star and Marjorie

Pepe in striped top

Sulia and Eric in the background

Trevor at 75 is allowed to rest whenever he wants, here he is with Katie 'restfully' exploring some contact work

.

Winter Mixture

Fresh from their success at Porthmeor Studios in September Shallal 2 wanted to perform again.

Shallal groups are a moveable feast and you can never quite determine who is available until the term/day! which is one of the reasons why we created our "Always New ' style of approach to performance improvisation.

This show has a combination of devising and performing techniques and a wonderful selection of music contributed by the dancers.

It is exciting and eclectic with new member Maz, David and Paul have recently returned and a whole new family have joined but are not in this show. Some lovely old members moved on ( Peter now comes to the main co, Skye and Anna too busy at college)  although we hope they will return when they can.

Sidney, last seen in a sling, has progressed to crawling! so watch this space ... if all well he has a spot which is charming, to a beautiful piece of music with mum Rosie and Eddie, and will be seen dipping in and out of other pieces. Maybelle 5 has brought in 2 tracks which start the show and there are some quirky lovely scenes, which match the music mixture.

It is pulled together in a term and coming together well now but will be 'fresh' as Zoe expressed it.

Do come along and see it, it's free in Falmouth Art Gallery on Thursday 17th December, timed to late night shopping so you can do some of that as well. The show runs approx 35 minutes.

Thanks again to Zoe Osmond who organised a music concert and played with other pupils from Falmouth School. It raised £125, much needed as Shallal 2 are unfunded this term.