Words and Shows and 'Sharing' this Saturday!

It's always interesting to see an artist at their craft and Wednesday at Shallal 2 while recreating our 'lost?!' rehearsal playlist, I watched/observed Jo L sharing words out in our smaller than usual group. "Cats" proclaims Sidney confidently, Leigh suggests sounds, accepted and practiced and everyone chooses their section of the poem to speak.

Words can scare me, but for Jo it is her world, her element. We have the joy of regularly watching the strength of her performance but Wednesday we see the wordsmith at work.

Lois recently introduced us commenting how many cross art talents people have in Shallal. I take it for granted!

Shallal 2 dividing up a poem
Rosie, Sidney, Jo L, Maybelle, Miles, Sasha, Leigh 

It will be worth coming to Shallal Dance Theatres next short show just to experience the strength of 3 very different writers, Jo, Deb's and Elaine....1.30pm Friday 14 December St Peters Hall Newlyn, devised and inspired by the Centenary of Womens Vote! 

Today we visit The Hypatia Trust for research, many thanks to Delpha Hudson. 

http://hypatia-trust.org.uk/

I remember the collection/library when it was housed in a beautiful home gallery/library in the garden at New Mill of Melissa Hardie - amazing to watch things grow! Just read that "In 2012, Melissa received an MBE from Queen Elizabeth for her Services to the Arts and Heritage of West Cornwall. "

And while promoting those 2 shows in 3 days ...both with words in......

Don't forget this Saturday, Shallal 'Sharing' work from the Back Lane West Residency, 1 - 3pm..

Miles from EY and Shallal 2 is showing his work for the first time alongside, Yvonne, Jane, Sam, Tina, Anna, Barry, Toby .....

Come along ...Hope to see you there!

Near future and other work, 2 shows and a Sharing before Christmas!

So here comes the time for the Annual report to be written and
.....i am standing right in the middle of work...

near future 2 shows: one poster done, so lets pretend the show is as well!! December 12, Shallal 2...looking good, supported by good music and so we hope. It is there in draft form, words came in this week..
Shallal 2 are always worth watching! they have a quirky style and togetherness which allows a fresh look on life!

Art work - Zoe Osmond
Poster design -Anna Willis
and in the midst of rehearsal we are making decorations for this years Christmas Tree!


Other show, ( thanks to Lou, Shallal Dance Theatre have funding for a short project, immersing themselves in Heritage yet again) Womens right to vote! funded by Women's Vote Centenary Grant Scheme, December 14 poster to come soon?
 i missed the main story and first rehearsal today, very excited about it, the amazing story of Debs great granny intertwined with Votes for women ..Elaine's beautiful poem already with us...
My back burner project of a poetry book..maybe will happen in 2019..looking for supporters donors funders!

So looking back to Doorways etc, a full and busy year! (Just been through the blog and a year of personnal grief as well as successes, Danu, Marjorie and Tom, development manager,/musician, founder member dancer, and associate artist)

Present also includes Back Lane West residency  - which i always love and also new studio space and equipment!
Do come along to the Sharing: wonderful big bold paintings, tape, film and more with chat and refreshments!



then forwards to: can i write the Creation Space application by end of the week and Lou has worked on Embodied Space re submission and next show 25 January Newlyn Gallery not that far away.

Big thank you to Anna for help with posters!!
Barry for enabling groups into Back Lane West and Hennie for printing posters and commissioning the show and everyone!
Oh and exhibition in January....


Some good contact improvisation links
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H8JiB2Nv5Qo
and roly poly for toddlers which is how i often describe contact improvisation
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gi-OaiQvnTU

Crowdfunder, residency, comments!

So excited and pleased about this years residency!
Our crowdfunder is doing well, £385 so far!

Thank you to everyone who has supported our crowdfunder so far by sharing, donating, encouraging! We have covered the rent! bought the memory card and covered some travel costs. Please help us to reach our target. We have raised £385 in 5 days with 18 supporters.

This is the first group day in the studio with Shallal Studio artists, i'm looking forward to it! There are 3 groups in this week.

https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/shallal-art-residency-back-lane-west

My husband is more excited than i am, asking me to look and see how much has been raised. It is heartening to be on the receiving end of others peoples good wishes and generousity. And interesting to reflect that now Lou writes many of our bids for us ( good news yesterday that a small interesting application is provisionally successful, announcement hopefully with you soon) ....it leaves me free to do what i can, so i have the time to do this and develop areas i have more skills in!

That being said i am writing a small application for a lovely little idea i thought i had to shelve but an appropriate fund has just come on the horizon. Its small and arty so i can do that and get someone to check it before it goes in....

I want to share some history and thanks, through some of the crowdfunder posted comments:

So happy to see these art projects are coming to fruition 💜

Terri was one of the first artists /facilitators and we co-ran Open House Falmouth with art and dance. I still have some of my favourite art memories from that time ie: the wonders of MASKING TAPE! I was very over excited about it in Shallal Dance Theatre rehearsal/workshop last Friday, drawing big huge scale on the floor .... pathways, intersections, shape, patten direction

Shallal are the beating heart of Cornwall, they are the voice of humanity and the glory of performance. We have attended this residence before and it was transformative.

Jeanette ( and Rory, https://vimeo.com/10890354 ) came to the first residency and we had such a good time altogether, again wonderful memories and it opened the door for our successful 3 month Porthmeor Residency, inspired by contact through Laura Menzies ( she has returned this year and has been our opening artist, some alone time in a different studio) written by Lou Brett ( also supporting our first residency, as well as some studio time and a show with her husband Mike etc) who has gone on to support so much for us, and helped by the quiet background communication/support/advocacy of trustee Henrietta Boex - now our chairperson.

Last Friday when i was playing with masking tape Lou was ordering Studio furniture with Matt our business manager, all thanks to her bid writing!....YES good news St Peters Church Hall Newlyn is our first permanent studio base!! starting from now, we are beginning to furnish and equip the 2 spaces we will use.

Have fun in the studio!

Laura Wild. Laura set up our first temporary studio at the John Daniel Centre, she gave so much, brought on artists and is an inspiration, Al and Toby are part of www.roamingcic.com

Good luck with this Jo, hope you raise loads, sounds brilliant! O xxx

Oli is the person who introduced us by chance to Back Lane West and the rest they say is history. Our family went to the end of his residency at Back Lane West and it was in conversation with Jane and Patrick Lowry BIG THANK YOU to them that our residencies were born!

At the time Oli and his lovely wife Zeph lived in our 'blue hut' and they remain some of our ( now grown up childrens ) favourite lodgers.

Oli has participated in Shallal residencies since then and his photography is fine and beautiful....http://oliverraymondbarker.co.uk/

Really excited to be part of this residency!

Sam Lawrence a new artistic friend, Sam stood in for Lois as associate artist in our Liskeard group and when we chatted about the residency opportunities said she wanted to explore walls! so yesterday she was in the space and returns again on Friday. She is a lovely dance artist, fun to work with I hope we do more in the future. Check out

http://samlawrencedance.co.uk/

We brought over our dance floor - a first - and look forward to using it Thursday when Liskeard group are in the studio.

So i need to get on (materials are not my strong point and) we are transporting paint, cardboard, heater, rags, cameras etc to the studio today...tea and biscuits - all the necessary equipment.

A big thank you to everyone and today especially to Barry our new trustee, who I look forward to supporting, he has an enthusiastic ease and is a joy to watch around paint!

Also George who is driving Jonathan and Zoe up from Penzance..and get better soon to Delpha who has hurt her shoulder....

Tomorrow 'Express Yourself' artists are in with Barry and i and Thursday 'Out There' Liskeard group, along with Emily photographing in the afternoon...

so i leave you with the first crowdfunder comment:

I look forward to seeing the wonderful work Shallal does in the coming year! All the best to you all.

Laura Ramsey

Crowdfunder, Picture This, and sharing 13 questions from Robert Fripp

Morning thoughts:
writing to a contact from Spectrum
http://www.spectrumasd.org/
to let them know about our groups!

Woke about to try to write my part of annual report, - but thats not going to happen, the day is coming in fast 3 birthdays in Shallal Dance Theatre to celebrate today ( 3 dogs at home - don't ask - 3 adult children left home and now 3 dogs!! good exercise though).

Last night our new crowdfunder went LIVE, many thanks to eldest child Mary who edited it for me!
Please support and share if you can:

https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/shallal-art-residency-back-lane-west

if easier it's on our FB page'

www.facebook.com/ShallalDanceTheatreCompany

Shallal 2 show 
PICTURE THIS
6pm Wednesday December 12
Falmouth Art Gallery
free

our community space exhibition inspired by Illustration now in January

Love working with new member of Liskeard group....
and potential to take work into a local care home, some of my happiest early work memories are in Geriatric Hospital day room.

And just looked at what our patron Robert Fripp is doing, a lot is the answer, off around the world again i think...
wanted to share this:
https://www.dgmlive.com/diaries/Robert%20Fripp/rf-diary-july31-2018

Connections ....just remembered yesterday i was watching and witnessing again how music calls forth certain movements/responses, lovely new member in Liskeard encourages us by her heritage to explore Greek and middle eastern music, the ney and yesterday armenian traditional music, she called one track 'ancient' wonderful sensitivity that art/ dance/music taps into.....layers that are hard to articulate and don't need to be...

Thirteen Questions

Where does Music come from?
What does Music do?
How does Music enter our world?
How does Music have effect in the world?

What does Music wish to achieve?
What does Music mean?
What does Music need from us?
What do we need of Music?

How do we play Music?
How does Music play us?
What does Music ask of me?
What do I ask of Music?

What, how, why, when, where and with whom is the power of Music?

Residency and more music and trainee associate artists....

Back Lane West Residency 2018

one of my favourite images from Back Lane West by Sam While in our first residency

November residency timetable more info in blog link below

http://www.shallalstudios.com/blog/back-lane-wast-november-residency-2018

November Back Lane West residency...it's that time of year again and i need to make a 'to do' list
this year we may bring over a stretch of dance floor....we have Jack from Feast https://feastcornwall.org/ to thank for many years ago getting us this dance floor and we have the Acorn https://theacornpenzance.com/ to thank who store it for us.
I'm looking forward to working more with Barry Cooper and introducing Express Yourself artists to the space and opportunity.
As well as seeing what a long space enables A&A and Barry to make, I'm looking forward to all of it!

MUSIC
This evening i listened to a friend Miranda and need to recommend....
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5E74icKy-v4
and of course Skye! i went looking around her music sites and bumped into videos of her performing at Ladders and Footprints, Falmouth Art gallery 2017 and our exhibition/ book launch at The Exchange 2018! http://176.32.230.50/skyeannamusic.com/?page_id=44

ASSOCIATE ARTISTS
So pleased to have found a way to get Tom to perform with us,  hoping to do much more and many thanks to Henry Smith charity for their faith in us to give 3 years funding for 3 community groups! including Jonathan and Thomas as trainee associate artists, so much is possible with that security that enables you to plan and provide and outreach.

warm up playtime outside the marquee for Proud to care festival
Tom in blue

news .....

This week:
meeting with Lou and Jasmine Cole, really helpful.

Just sent out draft timetable for Back Lane West BLW November residency - big smile - love it!
No funding is :/ but it gives freedom, and can't complain as this year i didn't apply for any in time.

New member in Shallal Dance Theatre just shared her degree was Visual and Performing Arts at Brighton and she did an animation of a model dancing through abstract landscape - FUN -, a returning artist/dancer.

Always nice to drop in on Friends and Dancing and Express Yourself and this year they are seriously engaging with the residency thanks to Barry this year and the seed of it with Colin, Yvonne, Phil and Harry last year.

Possible new venue, for Embodied Spaces, Tremenheere Gardens gallery ....i'm still in love with art galleries and unlikely spaces.

The poetry book draft travels with me...and has some good responses.

Our friends work is inspiring . ...http://nigelmaynard.weebly.com/
saturated colour, abstraction...love it.
He came into BLW last year.

Anna and Annis are photographing again ....and I get our back terrace cleaned by Anna so they can photo shoot!
https://www.instagram.com/p/BhgzblVH7pe/?utm_source=ig_share_sheet&igshid=1vfb6zoh6qe9h
Pleased to give them a chunk of time in BLW this year.

Trustees meeting tonight! 2 new local skilled trustees to welcome on board.

Liskeard group today and this time i have charged the camera battery but it sounds like rain, so light might not be as good as it can be.
 The group of talented dancers stretches my skills and is very good for me, i learn so much from everyone i work with. Anna and Luke coming today.
Masking tape on the floor week. One of my favourite things.

Miles and Jane at Express Yourself

Good news re Studio space available for Shallal Studios at St Peters Hall more on studio blog!
http://www.shallalstudios.com/blog

And eventually i will stop going on so much about my dear brother and his wife's film as going to see it on Sunday. Looking forward to meeting again the people from their camp who worked so hard for the vision of it.
http://film.britishcouncil.org/the-elephant-queen


Good news we will be part of a performance project Operation Neptune at Trebah Gardens wait to hear more soon and the opportunity to work with lovely Harry Theaker again.

Embodied Space at Porthmeor Studios

Well, "i am so pleased" a dangerous thing for an artist to say.
With it comes congratulations to all the performers and artists in Shallal Dance Theatre.
Lovely George gave us beautiful recorded music as he was heading for the South of France that day and could not be with us, however he dropped into the morning to see his music first responded to.
Thank you also to Chris Hibbert it feels like a nicely established relationship now, our fourth event with them, 3 months studio residency, Shallal 2 show and a photography exhibition and now this!
Thank you to a great audience and for all the helpful feedback.

The dancers held it beautifully, responded to the space, music and each other with all the skills needed.


Audience response in Comments book.

"Moving uplifting, stunning"
"Fantastic! really enjoyed it all"
"Inspiring and beautiful!"
"Brilliant - loved it!"
"What an uplifting show. The talent and togetherness was lovely"

a message to the company
" This has been so beautiful, I have been on an emotional journey today I did not expect, the care, love and respect present in your interactions is so uplifting.  So many beautiful moments developing in the space, it was so inspiring and left me wanting to watch more."

Thank you to Star and Jacob for snaps from Jonathan and Stars duet.
I was to preoccupied and nervous to organise film and photography and thinking the back light would be too strong, however with windows into ceiling the light was far better than i had imagined and we missed an opportunity, never mind next time!

The space was more exciting than i had remembered so the treat of different levels ( window seat and stand on ledges) with the stunning backdrop of the waves and the sky! and the white walls with the then rubbed back wood.
One of our trials was to let people dress for the occasion/event, often we notice in sessions that people are ' colour coded' in matching hues and tones, so we let that happen with minimum guidance and it worked so well!
"I am so pleased" this is the style of work we put on hold while immersed in Doorways, it ticked on quietly in the warm ups but couldn't be fully explored, it opens a world of possibilities for performance, touring artistic freedom and independence, embracing different venues.
With less George time of improv music i was scared to be DJ'ing so much but feedback was it was ok and we interspersed with song, poetry, voices this enables us to bring in so much, Kerry T has a wonderful poem ( and Toby has a haiku for next time ).
We can build on things we have done before and revel in something completely new.

This is how i have always wanted to explore work so for me a real treat, to take improvisation as far as it can go and the team of performers recent and experienced rose to the challenge.

Here's to more!

(One new person warmed up but sat out for the actual show with understandable reasons and for some performers such close proximity to the audience and risk can be too much, so the freedom in the structure/approach can hold that and they enjoyed watching. 
Physical or emotional/psychological reasons for not feeling able to perform are able to be accommodated, this is really important for real inclusion, we all come with our support needs and issues, challenges in the day or lifetime!) 

Also in the past when faced with small challenging venues we have taken a smaller group, this way of working enabled everyone who wanted to to come and again, "I was so pleased" as we managed it and the performers really used the space very well.
Warm up has also been a factor and we had session in the space as well as in the morning at our rehearsal hall.

So this continues this year with other intriguing venues in the pipeline including Minack Theatre car Park!!
Kestle Barton garden now moved to Spring not this October! hoping for good weather....
Newlyn Art Gallery and i really want to get into that beautiful new space at the Tate!

And finally 'so pleased'- again!- that Chris Hibbert said this should be "going into Schools and we should be an NPO", that is what we are working towards, to have the freedom to go where needed and share the work more widely not always constrained to projects.
We need to be able to pay people and develop the work, to seed it on further.

I'm off to a possible studio meeting, fingers crossed.
Annis and Anna have offered to volunteer in their Gap Year..lots for them to do!
Lou is writing an interesting short project bid, ( she brings her creative and thorough brain to fund hunting) which we would love to do, as many of the company also relish getting stuck into a theme and research. This time we might be able to work with Hypatia Trust - fun. http://hypatia-trust.org.uk/
Draft copy of potential poetry book returned and our learning curve continues, thank you to Anna for pulling it together, really need funds to take it further, but good to see the poems in print, and its one of source materials for our Illustrations theme performance and exhibition this Christmas, by Shallal 2 and friends.
Falmouth Art Gallery December ...oops date not in calender, another 'post it' job to do...