Feedback from livestream Embodied Space event

Thank you to everyone who made today possible

Blair and Sharp (and Fran) of Newlyn Art Gallery for their wonderful support. Obviously to Peter and George and all the performers.

 ...and an especial thank you to George, Anna and Sapphire, as we discovered that live stream on youtube is so much more complex that Facebook! 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BJT4UTIDJCs

Feedback from today:

thanks for meeting.

 we were happy these two hours! special thanks to the translator! see you!

Sofia 

Tretyakov

It was SO enjoyable to watch, thank you - you must have all had so much fun. Really beautiful music and performances! former student placement. 

Love it - go Shallal! Great use of colour. Reminds me (the colour) of watching Eurythmics dance at the Goetheanum near Dornach Switzerland (a long time ago!). ..MA Art tutor

Thank you for inviting me, and It was lovely to see and the performers again. Its always such a privilege. The light show and live music were also amazing ...Chris Hibbert, Porthmeor Studios

Well done today ! It was absolutely brilliant. ....was really powerful seeing it online too - was very interesting almost became like a moving painting. Transported me from my pains... Phoebe

To let you know I had a lovely day today. Thank you so much I enjoyed it x

performer Becky

That was incredibly beautiful today

Thank you so much for inviting me.  new volunteer

It looked so good on the stream! Thank you so much for sharing - Charlotte development manager

We really enjoyed watching "Embodied Space" and would love to join you on Zoom...Shallal zoom artists

Looks amazing love how atmospheric the lighting embued the dancers 😊

....The production was meditative. I found self being drawn into the picture, in a similar way in which I experience a mindfulness session; achieved through a mixture of colour movement and music...

In one word Embodied Space  ‘Outstanding’. Terry Stanton former chairperson 

I would like to express my gratitude for letting me participate in such an emotive, and informative virtual event. I felt indulged and almost hypnotised when watching the performance. ..... Both the lighting, and 3D production was stunning. From a linguistic perspective, I perceived the translators skillset to be phenomenal. The lady had an impressive, wide range of vocabulary, and she accurately untangled challenging sentence structures.

 I would be delighted to work alongside yourself and any other Russian speakers in the future. 

Thank you once again.  

A​rt student & russian speaker​

I thought that Embodied space ran really smoothly and looked very professional.The coloured lighting was really effective in setting the mood.Congratulations to everyone who participated.

I have had a wonderful time exploring the amazing New Tretyakov Gallery online.What a fabulous collection of paintings and sculptures and I wouldn't have known about them without Shallal. ..Shallal participant artist/audience

What an amazing thing we did yesterday!    dancer

Congratulations!

Watched the youtube...  Looks wonderful!!!

So many lovely radiant moments in a beautiful performance

Blown away by what we all achieved

Totally loved working with all the loveliness of Shallal, George and yourself.   Peter Freeman

Photographs from Peter Freeman

Colin

Sapphire

Becky and Anna

George and co

Colin

Al and co

Becky

Embodied Space live stream and more

                                                                 

                                                               Moscow version below

                     Looking forward to playing in the space again with all these wonderful artists. 

Sapphire is with us helping with tech and also dancing, Bobby has booked the day off, Anna wants to join in as sad not to have been available to be in it before...Julie Becky's mum has joined us and will be with us, all good news and we hope dear Peter Kirby can also join us. Phoebe hopes to come along to stream it for instagram!

[Because of Cornish distances people who have performed with SDT regularly before ( and live far away so can't make it in every week, too tiring, too expensive, too busy etc) often come back for Open Improv performances - which is a joy and good to keep us all connected. We do need them to keep fit etc so they attend groups/dance nearer home.]

Last night Shallal 2, (6 dancers in the space and 3 online,) 'small but beautiful' and always so quirky! are so good at the moment that we have the same 'thing' as with Shallal Dance Theatre just need more low key easily organised performance opportunities. So we hope to do a Showcasing soon.

We are grateful to have Reaching Communities funding for these groups but the ever changing performance landscape with Covid restrictions and especially as we have vulnerable people hasn't led us to make performance arts funding applications easily. I had a lovely one about to formulate pre Ovicrom! but not sure now if we can...however we are so grateful for baseline funding and that we can adapt and continue...

Shallal 2 are settling into their new venue the wonderful space of Princess Pavillions Theatre, high ceiling wooden floor and good ventilation, many thanks to Hennie and welcome to Aidan who is now managing the active community space it has truly become.

Thank you to Anna for making the beautiful poster and creating a design for our mailchimp newsletter which should read more easily from now on. She's back in Cornwall for internships so also kindly volunteering for Shallal and I am looking forward to meeting Leigh Jacobs ( 3rd year Fine Art student at Falmouth Uni )with her today to talk about materials for our forthcoming collaboration 'Mark making and Movement' 2 and 4 March..more on that soon some shared Shallal inspiration from Anna https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rF_1R4lBX7E&ab_channel=ShallalArts and George and Sam https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MBhp1j-resQ&ab_channel=ShallalArts

Shallal's development and consolidation is due to team effort as Claire exemplifies in message below. Very grateful for our new look website and design, Lou and Phoebe work hard on that development and are busy with more ideas and creating interesting supportive opportunities and partnerships. Colin has taken on more background work with the Community groups, a big thank you to The Henry Smith Charity for continued funding, and we are so grateful also for Chris and Charlotte and Ian who is standing in for Therese. As this is a busy time consolidating positive development and future planning our dear trustees also meet once a month.

Good news from Claire yesterday:

Just to let all know that .......& .......... (mother & daughter) who began with Picture Post & then have come in to Sketchbooks & F&D. Have asked to come into the studio which is amazing as they have been isolating since the beginning of the pandemic .

 

They have found Shallal to be their life saver & are always incredibly grateful. They were unable to access zoom before & were able to talk them through it to get them socialising online. 

Thank you to all those who have supported these guys. This is why I love my job so much xxxx

......

Interesting interview with Eddie and Stewart by Sapphire available on our youtube channel 

and more to come on there including A Call to Home at Kresen Kernow - I need to learn the art of editing captions/subtitles definitely something for dark winter days.

I could ramble on: Art connection online exhibition being created soon, talking to Truro Cathedral re A call to Home, chatting re spaces, sustainability and global crisis resiliance and response, a venue for cow painting exhibition, zoom dance film, more poetry, more film ....fun!

Embodied Space and ramblings

 Looking forward to Embodied Space 

employing an interpreter for the Zoom Q&A and checking through our language and found...

"I believe we are all equal and different and what is available to one should be for all and many people without labelled disabilities in our society need and enjoy the freedom of improvisation, one of the most important things for me watching Wolfgang and participating in his sessions was how we were all pushed, asked to expand, contribute. If something works it should work for everyone and be able to be adapted for everyones needs/abilities.

To play together in a constructive, non competitive way."

https://shallal-arts.blogspot.com/2012/08/good-news-and-thanks-new-skills-for.html

from 2012, i think i'm repeating myself and can probably stop now :)

So now watching the skills of the dancers/performers the need is to platform their work and get it seen. 

Great session in Shallal 2 this week, collecting work to show, not sure when or how yet, but loving the spaces we work in! and the quality of dance on zoom was as good as in the room - which not easy when in limited space at home. People got excited by Telephones, from music by Martynas...

Thank you to Charlotte and Ian ( covering for Theresa) who have recently joined our team.

We all feel the benefit of having a general manager and more background support as Shallal consolidates and develops giving us more freedom to do what we love.

Not growth for greed but answering need.

Hope to share a poster for the 28th with you soon.

Looking forward to running a 30min uninterrupted improv with George, to get us back into the swing.

SDT welcome 3 new members, Melanie ( a fan and started with Open House now on trial 4 sessions), Jilly ( has known us for 30 years! all good things come to those who wait)and Julie ( who has supported us already but now we would love her to join in more, Becky her daughter is already well involved in SDT and Shallal 2 and recently the Studio).

Fantastic news from research and partnerships being forged by Phoebe and Lou, I will ask them to write short blog soon as opportunities and ideas become more solid.

An inspiring light sculpture by Pete which will be in Embodied Space. http://www.peterfreeman.co.uk/news.htm

Love to revisit Open Improv as it is that, so Open, what will they do? the present moment, the trio of relationship: light/space, sound/music, dance/movement...truly delicious! a feast.

Music, Sponsored dance and Sapphire

 Thinking of Shallal Dance Theatre's history with Newlyn Church and old Hall and searching for music...

https://www.dgmlive.com/diaries/Robert%20Fripp/hotel-modestly-acceptable-falmouth-cornwall-210916

https://www.dgmlive.com/diaries/Robert%20Fripp/rf-diary-december3-2005

https://www.dgmlive.com/diaries/Robert%20Fripp/hotel-acceptably-modest-falmouth-the-210916

https://www.dgmlive.com/albums/st-peters-church-newlyn-uk-1

also searching Charles Heykoop, Skyeanna, Travelling Time wasters,  and others we know

Downloading music to try to find something for a 'Friends' dance performance on Zoom, as some of our dear friends are still not in the room with us and we can't leave them behind, leave them out, so today amidst the sheer fun of the Sponsored dance i was plotting what we can do to perform and film with them on zoom...

Meanwhile we say 'official' goodbye to Sapphire from her 'job' but hope to continue working in various ways together.

A good site meeting at Newlyn Art Gallery with George and Pete for live stream soon, 3 weeks...away and poster and times and bits and pieces to be lined up to enable the potential.

some photos

and donations flooding in thank you to everyone, our live stream has no funding, apart for our regular session, so extra funds are needed to support that and we are so pleased and excited to be doing an Embodied Space with Pete and George again.

Zoom sessions! Tuesdays - stay connected

 ZOOM

Stay connected.

Do you have limited access but internet, if so these sessions are for you!

If you are: far away, isolated, unable to travel easily, we'd love to meet up and be creative with you on Zoom!

Over the past year, we have appreciated the ease of being in contact and the creativity that zoom allows.

Tuesdays

Dance and Art Connection

Dance 10.30 - 11.30

Art 11.30- 12.30

The sessions are informal and encourage participants input and suggestions

they are currently run by two of Shallal's most experienced facilitators: 

creative director Jo Willis and community lead facilitator Colin Curbishley

to be sent the zoom link contact colin@shallal.org

Sessions are free and donations are encouraged to support Shallal's work https://shallal.org/donate

Funded by The Henry Smith Charity.

End of year

 So many thanks to the whole team for this year... Shallal has grown to be so much more than this blog can give credit to, please check out Shallal Sketchbooks and Shallal Studio especially and the community groups, so many good creative things going on!

Most groups had their own end of term celebration for Christmas, Friends and Dancing had a wonderful Sharing.

 Shallal Dance Theatre hosted the Shallal Zoom Christmas party with 34 people dropping in.

We ended the year with The Video Premiere of 'A Call to Home' on Shallal Arts Youtube at 7pm 23 December, do check it out.

https://youtu.be/zo2FhEHbtiA

Many thanks to Sapphire for filming, editing and compiling and to Sammy and others who helped on the day.

We will be sad to have Sapphire's role end on the 7 January we have so benefitted from and enjoyed working with her, we hope to keep connected and working together, plans bubbling along.

We are grateful for a few wonderful audience members on 10 Dec for Shallal Dance Theatre's second Showcasing and Sharing, with covid concerns heightened we didn't want to cancel but also wanted safe numbers, so all worked well. And we are now attracting the cross section of audience we had hoped for some years ago.

"A spellbinding garden of winter runes and blossoming light forms." - comments from a returning audience member who also has joined a community group.

I also heard second hand that a performer said it was "one of the best days" he had when commenting on our first Showcase.

Our next AGM is booked in as 2pm 20 May 2022.

A big thank you to everyone behind the scenes in Shallal for our increasing organisational improvements. We are growing and need to sustain all we do and everyone is in role and holding and supporting each other, it is lovely to see.

And the kindness, generousity and creativity of everyone involved in the groups and sessions continues to move, inspire and impress me.

Shallal 2 had a fun Christmas meet up some in the room and some on zoom! We are thoroughly enjoying being at our new venue.

Shallal Christmas tree, one of many at the Christmas Tree Festival at Princess Pavillions until 4 January

Until next year I leave you with a favourite memory to dance in the new year

https://www.instagram.com/tv/CUn-r6JD-ZV/?utm_medium=copy_link

Watching this again reminds me that...

The joy and collaboration of Shallal Dance Theatre has been the inspiration Shallal has grown from,

it is now so much more with each part having it's own unique yet similar spirit.

Creativity , Charlotte, Showcasing & Sharing, Covid, 'A named thing'

 Last week, apart from a stinking winter cold!

Great first meeting with Charlotte and team, I learn a lot, i get catapulted into 2 parallel realities in such meetings/conversation of confidence and insecurity at the same time, not sure one ever gets used to it.

 Confidence, in those you work with, in the vision and history etc 

Insecurity, in ones own creative life endeavours etc 

Thankfully dear John Miller said, "you never know if you can do it again", creativity is not owned, controlled, manufactured, it's a visitor, a gift, a small bird on the shoulder, a whisper in the ear, a glimpse of something on the periphery, you make the situation as inviting as possible and work and wait for it to come along, So when people talk about it as a given, you know it's not. We try to make friends with our own creative process sometimes, ranting, shouting, rushing....sometimes curling up empty and waiting... the great thing about Shallal is it's shared.

So heres to a creative solution for tomorrows Shallal 2 unexpected venue issue!

Here's to the fun of another of these...

i now remember what drove me here, to blog about the changes, subtlety and inclusion needed in our Covid times. Last week in Shallal Dance Theatre we reflected on the show A Call to Home and whether to do this Showcase and Sharing.

A smaller team are keen to go ahead with it and that makes it easier, as there will be less people performing so more covid safe..so trust the process..is what Shallal has taught me over all these years! 

Another small reflection from that conversation was about space and environment, we need to have the 'vibe' to suit us, enable inclusion and welcome as fully as possible. Which interestingly came up in a chat with national Mencap this week, who have a legacy to spend on Cornwall..interesting.

I do love a legacy! Anyone want to add us to their will?

I feel my age, 58, creeping on, but intend/hope to work for years.

Films trickling out ...

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCHqXvGvul--aNrXo-NoGtsA