A Call for Home Truro Cathedral 6.5.22 comments & credits

this is a blog so my favourite photo so far:
 is George's, last minute, gaffa taped, 2 tripods on a cathedral platform construction to enable my poor Fairphone* - please note product placement- to livestream the event on FB to friends, last minute so not a big media push, and it came out sideways! however as we speak dear George might have resolved that issue!
Many thanks to George who in this effort epitomises the 'above and beyond' and 'can do' attitude so many bring to Shallal.

 Thank you everyone!

£611.15 raised for 2 charities

80 audience - old and new

Thank you to Sean, Steve, Joe and all team wonderful team at Truro Cathedral.

To Ian and Lin for lighting 

Tracy and Richard for serving the drinks

Elizabeth for signing

Star for suggesting we perform at the cathedral and all the people in Shallal for such a wonderful communal effort.

Photos from George coming soon and you can watch it on 

https://www.facebook.com/ShallalArts 100 views so far!

but apologies at the moment you need to turn it around to see it the right way up! - maybe watch on a phone.

Feedback:

"What a fantastic production last night. We were blown away with the passion, professionalism and sheer joy you all brought to us is such a wonderful setting. It is the third time we have watched  ‘A Call to Home’ and this was even more outstanding than the previous two.

Thank you both so much for making this happen and instilling such enthusiasm in the diverse troupe that makes up Shallal." performers parents email

"thank you so much for allowing me to sign.

What a wonderful company ... they are all so talented." email - signer

"performance was incredible. Eye opening, truly great !!"  email, new audience doctor

it was a joy to be there" 

"Loved the whole darned thing!

What a joy bringer...." whats app - performer

"it was the best and it was so amazing" whats app - performer

"Fantastic Jo ... ....., ...... & I watched it ( whilst eating at the table .. usually a big no-no but this was an exception !) & we loved it .. such an achievement .. WELL DONE  💕 .....sang along & was very engaged & enthusiastic throughout .. & we had front seats ... & what an amazing venue ! 

Now you can relax ! Such a lot of energy needed to pull together such a thing & practical logistics like live-streaming ... it was perfect, good visual & sound ." audience - zoom participant and family

Comments book:

Really wonderful and moving performance and evening, and great fun! Many thanks.

Most incredible evening, with so many wonderful people connecting and coming together . thank you x

"Brilliant

Very nice 

great fun!"

"Well done all wonderful evening" 

"Performances were very good to see"

" What total stars you all are. It was brilliant and very moving. Thank you"

"Such a powerful performance. Beautiful culture, music, dance and so good to people together again. Can't wait until the next one!

"Well done to all you excellent performance"

"It was wonderful and totally from the heart. Thank you so much"

" Absolutely Wonderful ! :) "

"and beautiful. Thank you so much"

CREDITS & INFO

 'A Call to Home' 

title by Michael Willis

Credits

Many thanks to:

Bells - Gem Boord,  with thanks to Terri Stevens

Children - Jacqui Callis and words by Suzan Caroll

Wade in the water/ Were you there - spirituals by (enslaved) African Americans

Lobster Song - words by Nick Darke and music by Jim Carey

Sky - Medwyn Goodall 

Bishops Jig/ No Song No Supper - Dalla

Shallal

The Origin of the world - Dave Shepherd, played by Toby Bridge

Hireth - the Ordinalia, - written and performed by Deborah Udy-O'Nyons

Live Improvised Music by George Clement Peer

The Animals Came in Two by Two  - recorded and produced by Eddie Callis with Stuart Blackmore, including Jacqui Callis - vocals

Lost in Translation - written and performed by Kerry Tomlins

'Reporter' - written and performed by Jo Lumber

Angels - dancers Star and Katie Wheeler filmed by Terry and Jacob, film edited by Star.

Swing Low Sweet Chariot and Go Down Moses arranged, played and sung by The Wheeler family: Glen, Zo, Katie, Joseph, Arron and Jacob.

Wade in the water and Where you there? - sung by Jo Willis signed by Demelza Rouncefield

Spoken word signing by Rev Elizabeth Foot

We were very excited and grateful to originally be given this commission by Kresen Kernow. Inspired by the Ordinalia and Out of the Ordinary.

It was our first live show since January 2020 and it was very well received on 24 September and in November we performed it at St Peter’s Church, Newlyn. We are pleased to offer an evening Benefit Performance.

We have worked with the themes of the Ordinalia and our own style of Open Improvisation, as always the gloriously varied creativity of everyone shines through and we hope you enjoy it.

A highlight for us is having our friends The Wheelers with us in voice. 

(It will still be sometime till we can all meet up and dance again indoors with them, so Katie danced in a field to be filmed, thank you to Star.)

You can see Zo and Katie with Lily and Zoe in Faraway dances on Shallal Art you tube channel.

The Wheeler family recorded and produced their own version of Swing Low Sweet Chariot at home...

"Everyone's worked really hard and got the swing low, sweet chariot song ready, I hope you like it, we are really pleased. we wrote the arrangement, produced, played and sung it all ourselves, all 6 members of the family feature on the track." Glen

"It's been amazing seeing it grow from nothing, we did the whole thing from scratch, no backing tracks for us. We all joined in, which has been lovely. Hope you like it." Zo

From that they have recorded in a day on their kitchen table, ‘Go down Moses’ for this show.

There's so much to say and we hope the work speaks for itself, do come and chat with us afterwards.

Dancers

Toby Bridge

Tina Butler

Eddie Callis

George Clement Peer

Colin Curbishley

Rowan Curbishley

Katherine Giddings

Jilly Hellerman

Kerry Jackson

Bobby Johnson

Peter Kirby

Jo Lumber

Anna Penhaligon

Demelza Rouncefield

Becky Smith

Star

Miles Stead

Sapphire Sumpter

Kerry Tomlins

Debbie Udy-O’Nyons

Sam While

Backstage/support/costume - Star, Demelza, Julie Watson

Technical Support - George 

Unable to join us today -  Zoe Wilton, The Wheelers and Justin Holland.

Creative Director - Jo Willis

Man of many hats! Co-ordination and transport and more...Colin Curbishley

Front of House - Chris and Viktoriia Gardner, Jenny Stead and Di Burrell

Refreshments - many thanks to Tracy and Richard Clowes

General manager - Chris Gardner

Finance manager - Ian Burns

Many thanks to all our trustees, family, friends and supporters and funders, and to Sean and all at Truro Cathedral for their support.

Please give generously this is a Benefit for Help for the Children of the Ukraine and Mobile Refugee Support.

If you fancy trying an informal fun approach to creativity do join us in person or on Zoom more info at www.shallal.org.uk

* FAIRPHONE https://www.fairphone.com/en/story/

CEE Bill support

'Caring in green'  photo by Steve Tanner
Kerry & Debs Shallal Dance Theatre

In a recent meeting we were discussing what Shallal has done and supports, so i felt this should be added to our blog

" ......The CEE bill - West Cornwall is going to present the open letter to Derek Thomas MP this Friday - earth day. 22nd April. We would love it if a member or two from Shallal could join us to hand it over?... Especially as Shallal were one of the early sign ups to the letter."

 Dear Supporters,

We just wanted to send a massive thank you to each of you for signing our open letter to Derek Thomas MP, asking him to support the Climate and Ecological Emergency Bill.

You are in good company, your signature joins over 80 others from organisations across the St Ives Constituency including schools, business, town and parish councils, artists, church groups, farmers and a Mayor or two! Go here https://www.transitionpenwith.org.uk/cee-bill-for-organisations/
and scroll down to see everyone represented on our "wall of fame"

If you were an early signatory, you will know the open letter started before the pandemic. Since then support for the CEE Bill has steadily grown - 188 councils across the UK, 31 Peers and 120 MP's now back the bill. Now its time we ask our representative in parliament to join them.

I'm pleased to tell you that we have an appointment to see Derek tomorrow, on Earth Day, 22nd April to hand over the letter. Pirate Radio will be covering the story and the Packet newspaper have ran an article you can see here
https://www.falmouthpacket.co.uk/news/20077951.climate-ecological-emergency-bill-letter-signed-80-cornwall/
We are expecting more media coverage on the day, as you can imagine, we are very keen to show the strength of your support for the CEE Bill and its importance for us here in West Cornwall, protecting the natural landscape, our health and security.

Derek cares about his constituency members and what we want. He has been open to discussing the bill and many of you have contacted him about it. We need to continue the conversations and let him know that we are determined to keep the CEE Bill on the table until it becomes law. Please consider dropping him a line next week asking him how he feels about receiving the letter and whether he will commit to supporting the Bill. You can contact him here https://www.derekthomas.org/contact

You can find out the most up to date information about the bill and its journey through parliament here
https://www.ceebill.uk/bill

We are keeping the petition running for the time being, we want to continue gathering signatures from the individuals across West Cornwall, so their voices can also be heard. You can help by contacting the individuals within your organisations and asking them to sign the petition. Here is the link
https://www.change.org/p/back-the-climate-and-ecological-emergency-bill.

Finally don't forget to visit the CEE Bill Alliance - West Cornwall facebook page here
https://www.facebook.com/ceebillalliancewestcornwall

Once again, thank you all.

We are so chuffed! Together we can make a difference, our voices are amplified and the message is clear. We need the CEE Bill to give us hope and help safeguard the future of the planet and its people.

With every good wish
Lesley

Lesley Bradley
for CEE Bill Alliance - West Cornwall Team
ceebill@transitionpenwith.org.uk
www.transitionpenwith.org.uk

Sign Supported Show

Good news in last night!

Demelza signing Swing Low Sweet Chariot at Kresen Kernow 

in the middle of the normal muddle of dress rehearsal preparation, which is exacerbated by my not being in person but on zoom today - the wonders of technology we have all taken on since the pandemic- however not there due to covid in my home - so!! not quite so wonderful... 

Anyway i digress good news that thanks to a generous offer we now have a Sign Supported show

I wrote recently our heading on instagram 'we aim for equity and accessibility' however we often fall short of our aspirations but continue to learn and push on and so we are so glad to have this. The shows are fully collaborative, not written, so we don't know what people will compose and create until close to the performance time which makes sourcing support, planning and budgeting for audio and BSL far more complex.

We are grateful to have some outreach funding from Henry Smith Charity to people in our Cornish community who are deaf and with hearing support needs.

I was thinking we had enough films of this show but now we might need to look at film or live stream again so we can capture it for that community. 

Cornwall is a highly supportive connected community and we are so glad and grateful for this. We have the cathedral venue as they reduced the rate and then a private sponsor, not wishing to be known, funded the rest of the (hefty) cost hire.

We have the cast available and are excited to be performing this again. We have a very narrow get in and rehearsal time next Friday but are so pleased and glad to be fund raising for things we feel passionately about. Thank you to Star for suggesting the venue and to Demelza for all her work with BSL and connections.

Now all the major 'issues' affect us all, we are happy to be more 'political' in the broadest sense in our voice. We are all vulnerable and we all need support!

Come along to a Free Show and give what you can to those in fleeing and in need!

Donations collected for Helping Children of the Ukraine ( a Cornish based support group) who will have speaker at the event and Mobile Refugee Support https://www.mobilerefugeesupport.org/about-us

feedback Sketchbooks and A Call to Home and Truro Cathedral

 

Starting with positive feedback for Claire and Elle,

out and about yesterday with Shallal Sketchbooks

 
"Thank you for yesterday such a great session!  The sketchbooks you shared are amazing and the film with Pam I loved . 

It only underlined bringing it into hubs is so valuable and getting the sketchbook library on a roadshow with some drop in have a go and grab a sketchbook/join up, plus some referrals. "

So much going on it's hard to blog about it...

 

Coming soon...

an evening performance and an extra song by the Wonderful Wheelers

The Hand Shatring Exhibition is up on you tube needs a little edit for 2 words but otherwise great, publicity soon

The Exhibition and performance of 'Marks, Movement and Conversation' was 'a highlight 'of Fine Art Falmouth year!

Film up thanks to Richard Stead and another slide show to come!

I don't 'do' days but some do and we join them in Happy Downs Syndrome Day!

"I don't do days", i told my husband,*

i support others who do, but for me someone somewhere would still get left out, so i'm thinking i don't do days but i do do days for the planet - that sustains us all and i do Birthdays everyone has one and if you don't know yours you can make one up, choose one.

However though 'i' don't do days,  i know many people who do and do them well so, stolen form Star's facebook page!

 from the past to the present.

*when he mentioned Down syndrome day and then we mentioned Iceland and then we stopped as i wanted to cry...https://www.cbsnews.com/news/down-syndrome-iceland/ it is genocide, we will look back and be appalled that we let this happen. 

When i was pregnant at 44 on her first visit the midwife pressured me so much about having a test to see if our unborn child might have downs syndrome, it was unexpected and upsetting and she wouldn't stop until in the end i said, " some of my close friends have downs syndrome you need to stop, I find it offensive, you won't change my mind!" 

To give and receive love, joy and affection is a wonderful thing and to care for others is a good lesson to learn for many of us, who are we to make those decisions? just cos you have 'one less chromosome' doesn't mean you are a better person!

I believe in a working together for so many reasons but this is one*, when i grew up people were often institutionalised unseen. Marjorie Zoe's mother, would recount how the doctor came to her soon after Zoe's birth said they could take her daughter away she needn't see her again.  Marjorie's life was changed from that moment on, she fought all the way for Zoe and others to have a good for filled life, and it was lonely and hard sometimes. We have much to thank her and others for, who were trail blazers.http://shallal-arts.blogspot.com/2011/05/marjorie.html

*If you know people you care about them and then hopefully you speak out for them.

Zoom talk, news, R&D Voice and Movement started

 Oh my it's getting so busy! in a good way.

Hard to share/do justice to what's going on, all need their own post...

Last night in our zoom talk Anna's slide choice presented a slice of Shallal from 1985 till today via people, Zoe, Toby and Trevor to Residencies and cross art form, Embodied space ending up at 'Marks, movement and Conversations.' 

(20 people on zoom talk ""Very inspiring... Thanks...I'd be wanting to get involved if I wasn't already.. 😁)

However this isn't the end as installations seem to be a really positive development for our collaborations and we realise we have 2 already on the boil or brewing, with Lisa Mortensen, Eddie and Anna and Peter Freeman and George and SDT, we would like to grow one with Janet's art work as well.

What an extraordinary pleasure when collaborations come off so beautifully, i was stunned by the curation and vision of Leigh Jacobs hanging the marks made in the 2 workshops. He transformed a seemingly small awkward sized space /gallery into a wonderful inviting intriguing installation which called you in and offered so much. I'll ask someone else to describe it and hope to document it this week.

An appreciative audience of approx 50 for our 2 pop up performances on Friday evening - thank you team! and Jonty Lees and everyone who supported it so warmly and worked hard to enable it.

Shallal Sketchbooks

Yesterday the Shallal Sketchbook zooms started again weekly, thanks to The Claire Milne Trust funding.

Voice and Movement' R&D at Holifield Farm Project 

Yesterday afternoon i had the pleasure to go to Holifield Farm Project to start an R&D that has been brewing for years 'Voice and Movement', I'd love a Shallal style 'choir'. 

The joy of familiar faces Liam and Emily - both had been in Shallal Dance Theatre years ago - Rupert i met as a toddler 25+ years ago! and Ian and some others I knew from centres i worked in many over 25 years ago! 

Thank you to Sadie for supporting this and Anna now interning with us and Elle volunteering with us. We plan to do 8 free sessions. I feel able to do this due to the musical skills of Sadie and then Elle so they compensate for my lack but i'm enthusiastic and we made great sounds and had fun!

Ideas

In true Shallal style you talk about something and already people are suggesting more and developing it, Zoe and Eddie had 4 good ideas from the talk, and Janice and co in Liskeard are developing and playing with their own style mark making. 

Thomas at Liskeard group

Someone in the audience was going to ask about the meaning of cross art form but after the talk said she now understood it in Shallal, which was good to know. 

Faraway dances 

a passion project! most of them are, check them out on our Shallal Arts you tube channel  https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCHqXvGvul--aNrXo-NoGtsA/videos

Lily, Joseph, Colin and me and Demelza

Time to prepare for the zoom sessions today and my weekly chat to our manager Chris whose calm at the centre of Shallal is really noticeable now, in so many of us being able to keep producing more and feeling well supported, thank you to the trustees and Ian as well and Charlotte.
Chris has been super busy outside Shallal with setting up/co-ordinating responses to the needs in the Ukraine and the suffering people.
https://planetradio.co.uk/pirate-fm/local/news/cornwall-group-offers-homes-for-refugees/

The global crisis asks more of all of us and i was thinking we could all aspire to tithe our time, ( many do already) 10 or 20% of our free time would make a real difference if we all did it and it could precipitate more positive change.

RSA 
As part of our UNBOXED: Collective Futures project we are inviting you to submit examples of collective participatory initiatives you're involved in. Together, we can show the power of collaboration between people from different backgrounds, perspectives and practices.
I responded to this from Shallal

and also recommended to them Manda Brookman
http://www.permanentlybrilliant.com/

and
Elephant Queen film outreach 
https://elephant.co.ke/
good to see art used as an inspiration and education and as a catalyst in this way

Snapshot day!

   "Work in progress painting by Eden in the studio today ! One to brighten up this afternoon!" from Phoebe

Sally Crabtree a royal favourite! Poetic Postee http://www.sallycrabtree.co.uk/sally-crabtree/ 

"Wow what a fab creative day in Shallal world...we had the enigmatic Poetry Postie with us at Express Yourself and Friends and Dancing...

Fabulous fun..."from Colin 

                                                                              Miles

                                                                                 Yvonne

                                                Zoe's Bat Workshop was on zoom with 12 people.

"Zoe did amazing leading her first poetry and comic workshop exploring bats on zoom this morning ! Despite some techy hiccups which added in some batty echoes to some of the poems! 🦇" Phoebe

"The workshop was fab! Zoe made the steps so clear for us to follow and gave us loads of creative freedom, well done to Zoe and Phoebe" xx Lou

"It was lovely to join Zoe's workshop today with  N****..she doesn't like to mix with groups but was very comfortable on zoom ..she is very excited about developing some work she started today  .and I'll be able to  forward it to you.. so glad we got Internet in our pod in the woodlands !!.. I thought the echoes were very fitting 😁

By an amazing coincidence  the other group were out building bat boxes!!! Bats Rule today!!🦇🦇🦇

Very well done to Zoe...x" Janice

                                                                Planning for this event.

Marks, Movement and Conversation. 

Opening 5pm Friday 11th March 

dance performance approx 6pm -  by some of Shallal Dance Theatre with George

exhibition is on till 18th March 

at 

Goldfish Bowl Gallery, 

Woodlane Campus 

Falmouth

Hope you can get to see it

Big Thank you to Leigh Jacobs and friends for such a wonderful experience.

Anna and I gave a talk at Falmouth University Woodlane campus

about Shallal and work we had already done re mark making etc especially though our Back Lane West residencies.

Which we are excited to be doing again this year in October!

Hope to share it on zoom sometime soon.