News past and present

 I realise i haven't posted for sometime especially over the summer, such a busy wonderful time.

from this year ...Shallal were pleased to work again with Arts Lab and return to Double Trees School 

https://youtu.be/WV1FzKp7i0k?si=rr6rcVRam8O__r6N

So many outings and when we returned on Saturday the Shallal Chill Out tent with Janice ( its creator)  and Demelza was at Watergate Bay https://www.watergatebay.co.uk/events/arts-on-the-beach/

along with the Mr and Mrs Passmore Puppets invited to the St Ives September Festival 

https://www.stivesseptemberfestival.co.uk/...

while i was at an equally wonderful event a friends wedding! https://www.instagram.com/p/CxBNei1IY6y/

so now Shallal expands and i can step back a little, especially with the exciting news of the role of marketing and communications going to Bobby Johnson who is already doing great things for us, 

before anyone was in this role i felt pressure to provide images and information, a joy but not a skill of mine! so am grateful for Phoebe and Lou in the Studios seeing the need and helping us recruit for the role

we also returned to celebrate Summer birthdays especially Katherines 80th, with a Performance Party, i think we might do these in the future for 'grand' events! a chance to see other skills and talents of those we know and love! and invite in friends and family.

poster by Eddie and Toby

Tina as Mrs Passmore

                                              

                                             https://www.instagram.com/reel/CxVG_ZrIexn/

This week Anna and I visit The Tate St Ives for an R&D towards Shallal Dance Theatre's  commission for their November weekend, we are looking forward to it, working with Mat Thomason, music https://www.matthewthomasonmusic.co.uk/ and Bobby Johnson, film

inspired by Barbara Hepworth who loved 'the human figure in the landscape' and interconnectedness

https://www.tate.org.uk/research/tate-papers/20/figure-and-landscape-barbara-hepworths-phenomenology-of-perception

The Puppets also have a nearly the last 'swan song' outing at The Ladder, Redruth in October, thanks to Felix and Josh for the invitation. 

Bobby has made us shared calendar which will also relieve a lot of my communications time, so more time for art and less background jobs not within my skill set - hurray!

so much to tell this term...which includes visiting theatre show and workshop, Flamm https://flamm.creativekernow.org.uk/about/, Back Lane West Residency, Tate St Ives, Make and Mend at Kresen Kernow.... and more....hope to see you somewhere

Many thanks to everyone in Shallal and welcome to those yet to join us!

Passmore Edwards Bicentenary Cycling Challenge

 Passmore Edwards Bicentenary Cycling Challenge

John Passmore Edwards, the Cornish Philanthropist was born 200 years ago this year. In his life he was a social and political reformer, anti slavery and anti capital punishment activist, delegate at the Paris and Brussels Peace Conferences, MP, and the most significant newspaper owner of his time. Having earned his wealth by the labours of others he said he would redistribute his money to help his fellow workingman He funded 71 public buildings, including libraries, Hospitals, schools, art galleries and convalescent homes. In Cornwall he funded 20 buildings, all of which have survived and your challenge is to visit them all on bicycle. You can undertake the ultimate challenge, visiting all 20 buildings in one day, its around 300 km, or you can take 2, 3 or as many days as you wish.

You will be provided with a list of the buildings and a Google map showing their location. There is also a gpx file of a suitable route, which is a figure of 8 centred on Truro. However, you may choose your own route and start from wherever you live and transport your bike to the point on your route where you previously stopped, cycling at least 300km in total.

There is a finishing “medal”, an engraved wooden coaster, to commemorate your achievement and the bicentenary, which you will receive once you have submitted evidence of your ride. This can be by a Strava record, something similar or some photos of the buildings visited with dates.

There is a modest fee of £9 which doesn’t even cover the cost to us.
To enter, email with name and address. The entry fee should be paid by bank transfer to our account at Lloyds Bank, Any entry for someone under 18 must be from a more responsible adult, who will be responsible for their safe participation. All entrants are responsible for their own safety. There will be no route markers, fuel stations or backup vehicles,’ you are very much on your own, though we will be “virtually” cheering you on all the way round.

RIDE FOR CHARITY

Amongst the many Passmore Edwards bequests was a 130 acre farm at Chalfont St Peter,,which he gave to what is now the Epilepsy Society. He went on to fund 5 homes for those with Epilepsy who worked and lived there and their main administrative building. This remains the national headquarters of the society. Why not ask you friends and family to sponsor you on your cycling challenges this year, with the proceeds going to fund the society’s continuing work. www.epilepsysociety.org.uk Mention the Passmore Edwards Bicentenary when you send your donation.

Entries to

bicentenary@thepassmoreedwardslegacy.org.uk

Payment (£9.00), to Lloyds Bank Sort Code 30-98-97,
Acc No 85422263. Reference (Your Surname) or Cheque made out to Passmore Edwards 200. Please write name, address and email address on the reverse. 

Passmore Edwards Buildings in Cornwall.

TRURO: The library in Pydar St is in fact two buildings; the Free library with entrance to Pydar St and the Technical School behind it. PERRANPORTH. The former Convalescent Home is in Granny’s Lane, going out of Perranporth “:up the Coombe”. It is now a block of flats. MITHIAN. Blink and you will miss the Mithina Institute. It is opposite the pub.

ST AGNES: In the main st near the Parish Council Offices the MMI, Miners & Mechanics Institute, hosts a good little cafe for tea and cake. BLACKWATER. The Institute is on the old A30 route through the village, by the war memorial.
CHACEWATER INSTITUTE: In the centre of the village. Now domestic properties.
REDRUTH LIBRARY: In Clinton Rd, recently taken over by Rift Theatre to be restored and reopened as The Ladder.
REDRUTH WOMEN’S HOSPITAL, CHILDRENS WARD. Going out of town westwards, it is own the new Gweal Pawl Estate.
CAMBORNE old LIBRARY. Look for the statue of Trevithick on the roundabout.
HAYLE: On the main road through the town.
ST IVES: Still in use as a library right in the middle of the town. On the corner of Gabriel St.
NEWLYN ART GALLERY: Backs on to the sea on the road out of Penzance. HELSTON SCIENCE & ART SCHOOL. Now an arts Centre, CAST, in Penrose Rd. Excellent cafe.
FALMOUTH LIBRARY. On the Moor.
FALMOUTH COTTAGE HOSPITAL: Now AGE UK Day care Centre, Killigrew St. By the roundabout onto Western Terrace.
BODMIN LIBRARY: Old library. On the corner of Lower Bore St and Robert’s Rd.
LAUNCESTON OLD LIBRARY. A rendered and terracotta building, easily missed. Dockacre Rd.
LISKEARD LIBRARY. Barras St, in the centre of the town.
FORMER LISKEARD COTTAGE HOSPITAL: Now part of a sheltered housing complex; Passmore Edwards Court, Barras Place.

https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/edit? mid=1DgKoaRZeoDQnsyDxbwBzry9nEq2S68g&usp=sharing

Musings after Blue Light Day

 I haven't written here for a while Shallal has flourished and grown, we are fine as we are for a while now, we have community dance groups in more locations, a thriving studio, performance groups, developing our outreach, responding to the times, zoom, live stream etc

I started blogging many years ago, 2 websites ago! I was chatting to a nice person at the The Works telling them what we did, while trying to understand from her the landscape of funding - I now say i have a view of the map ( of funding )  but I'm not the best person to drive you there, ie write bids! She said how does anyone know your connections, process etc and so I started writing some of it down.

Now we can live in a sea of accessible information, much of it unnecessary, and we are creating 'warehouses' of unseen pollution through the internet which will come to haunt us i feel like single use plastic has and so I love to share what we do with images, chat and spread our ethos and vision, but we are larger and times change and we need to restrain it.

Why this reflection;

Yesterday we went to Blue Light Day, we started going invited by Sam's auntie Sue  and although it can be "an assault to the senses" the noise in one section we are in through the day, it is always a joy to see old friends and make new connections.

So yesterday amidst a great day out I heard that Mary Derrington had died before the pandemic. Mary was a performer in Shallal Dance Theatre at its start. My children told me i have been saying 30 years for a long time so now it's nearer 40 years ago, Oh my, I'm 60 so now I'm in an era of serious reflection. Yesterday we sat opposite wonderful images of women with varying 'disabilities" they were writers, comedians, models with down syndrome or other differences ? language needs to catch up, it usually lags behind, so the world has moved on from Mary's time. Yet i still met yesterday someone I know who was blocked from a potential career as a dance maker, wanted their own dance company which they had the skills to try for and has DS, and at the same time met someone with DS who is younger and wants a dance career and had a tutor advocating for them and introducing her to us.

Thank you to all the wonderful performers with their supporters who came to perform yesterday. I had asked Chris our manager, to come along to support on our stall, we are constantly feeling the benefit of his role, and it was so good to see him meet people and develop our partnerships, connections and potential ways forward.

We still have no core funding so are always in survival mode, ok for a year and then what next? However we are still here and now with a wider more experienced and skilled team. So apart from Mary Derrington the other aspect causing me to turn to blog, apart from the myriad of places and events  Passmore Edwards puppets have taken us to Holifield Big Tent and Blue Light day recently, is that Anna and i plan to go to.....tonight.

Last week i sat in car on my phone listening to Mydd and Emma of Wild Works, to their new project across Cornwall they are birthing and to their continuation and honouring of the Cornish tradition of outdoor spectacle theatre held by Kneehigh and Wild Works and in my adolesence, the wonderful anarchic hilarious and glorious Footsbarn https://www.footsbarn.com/about-us/.

Images never to be forgotten; hilarious gravediggers all called Derek in Hamlet by Footsbarn as well as a bunch of comedy crows, alongside Mary Derrington dancing to Holding Back the Years, a Simply Red tune chosen by Anna Murphy, at Barbican Theatre, Plymouth ( our first Shallal - then called Sea Saw - show) and it being beautifully lit by Wilf, and seeing how framing delicate sensitive work could amplify and honour it ( he lit them Mary and George Jacklin in a full moon style shadow) ever since then i have said we have the images, the dances, what we often haven't had is how to ' frame' it to it's best advantage, which comes down to funding for creative technicians, which is sadly the last box in trying to get funding to survive.

So at 50 i chatted with Dot Peyer as she kindly battled through to write us an Arts Council matching bid for Doorways 2 and during the process we chatted about were i might be at 60 and succession in Shallal so life has needed me to 'back myself up' and Sapphire and Colin have kindly and skillfully done that recently and to bring on younger people and Anna is one of them, she graduates next week with a first in Fine Art from Camberwell UAL London and we hope she will be available to head up Back Lane West Residency and our project with the Tate St Ives this autumn, the project was inspired by her approach explored last year at BLW by Colin Toby and Kerry T and Kerry J. So this wiggly blogs looks back to roots of Cornish theatre and Mary Derrington's wonderful contribution and presence she was unque anda wonderful character small and strong and spoke only in a whisper and a small dismissive hand gesture, yet could shout when absaliing down a cliff! I can hear one of our cats are exploring the inside of Passmore puppets head/body structures slightly worrying! they are currently behind our sofa

Affect on Teaching Practice

 There  are many ethos and inspiration hopes we have in Shallal 

One is to model a person centred, collaborative, community approach

so this feedback was a wonderful gift

Soil Earthcare Event and list and chat

 

Shallal is getting too big and too busy for my small blog to encompass all that goes on:

eg: Par-tee Festival with Shallal tent and dance sharing by new St Austell group!

Studios

New Into Bodmin workshops

Zines, Printing in Studio etc

Film from  Arts Lab 2022 project just released https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O8V07xIdbdc

Last nights Opening Event for SOIL Earthcare

 (despite tecky hitches so no live stream and no spoken word, but we showed artists around via zoom and could chat ) 

it was a wonderful meeting of artists, families, supporters and friends, old and new faces, 40 people!

Thank you to Cora at The Fish Factory and to the huge amount of work by Janice and Bobby to install it

and Lou and Colin for collecting and delivering the work

Jo Lumber for audio description, no easy task in a mixed exhibition of approx 40 pieces and artists not available to ask to help clarify descriptions 

All the artists and groups who 'ran' with the inspiration creating an array of glorious rich work.

SOIL

Earthcare

by

SHALLAL ARTISTS

If work has no price by it, please enquire.

1. How to grow wild orchids by Therese  £10

Pencil drawing with a decorated cardboard frame.  35cm x 28cm.

2. Moley 

    writing by Tom Retchford 

3. Worm in a soil on a sunny day

    Oil pastel by Eddie Callis

    Poem by Eddie Callis and George Clement Peer

4. by Erin Gatrell Armstrong 

5. Red Squirrel 

    by Helen £30 SOLD

   acrylic painting on canvas in a 24cm x 24cm wooden frame.

6. Percy the Puffin

    by Helen NFS 

    3D sculpture 33cm tall and 43cm wide.

7.   by Minnie Black 

8.  by Miles Stead 

9.  by Kyle Coleman

10. by Emily Green

11.  by Melissa 

12. by Tina Butler

13.   by Karen Mitchell

14.   by Karen Mitchell

15.  Tarquin the Tardigrade by Therese £30

       mixed media 3D sculpture on canvas 25cm x 20cm.

16.  Tarquin the Tardigrade by Therese £5

      pencil drawing of a tardigrade on A4 white card

17.   Tarquin the Tardigrade by Therese £5  

      monoprint on A4 white card

18.   by Mads De Lord

19.   by Terry SOLD

20.   by Terry 

21.  by Terry

22.   by Sam While

23.   by Colin Curbishley £50

24.   by Colin Curbishley £20

25.   by  Colin Curbishley £50

26.    by  Colin Curbishley £50

27.   by Bobby Johnson £300

         pencil drawing

28.  Yarrow by Bobby Johnson £ 150

29.  Borage by Bobby Johnson £ 140

30.  Dandelion by Bobby Johnson £80

31.  Sainfoin by Bobby Johnson £150

32.  Red Clover by Bobby Johnson £90

33.  Dance of Threads  Wool/Soil/Plant by Janice Schneider £300

34.  Fabulous Flower by Helen £30 

       mixed media flowerhead in a 24cm x x24cm white frame.

35.  Bumblebees by Helen £30 for all 5 bees

Written comments

'We love Soil the space/art and folk'

'Thank you from Miles'

'Thank you what a heart warming exhibition. I would like to know more about the artists under their work. Oh i just found a gorgeous audio perfect.'

Janice has postcards to collect more specific feedback as well, more photos coming soon.

Miles by his picture, matching colours

So much more to say but if you are nearby get along to the exhibition it's a colourful, quirky, poetic response to it's title and theme and is on till 8/9 June, with a nice cafe and easy street parking! 

I could go on about it, the bees with personality the writing, 3D, the roots, bunnies, hillsides, Percy the Puffin and so much more! 

We will also be back there for a week at the end of July with a space full of 'Passing On Passmore' Art!

Landfall feedback

 Feedback from Landfall

Audience members: 

'I was told nothing was rehearsed and the music hadn't been heard. I couldn't believe it when I watched the performance, it was so professional and beautifully danced.'

'Fantastic'

"Joy + Joy + Joy = Shallal"

Star:

'Performing LANDFALL with Shallal Dance Theatre is easily one of the highlights of my dancing career right up there with dancing at The Royal Albert Hall or at The Adelphi Theatre, London or as part of The Bowie Lounge at Apollo 50. Edgy, risky and exciting. An hour of dance, created in the moment with no rehearsal and no knowledge of the music.

I feel so lucky to be part of this company with such talented performers.'

Passing on Passmore - Processional Puppets and Pop Ups

 Passing on Passmore - Processional Puppets and possible Pop Ups out and about all summer 

You can see them at:

Royal Cornwall Show Festival of Dance stage 11am and 2pm Thursday 8 June

Newlyn Art Gallery 12pm Friday 16 June

Murdoch Day Parade, Redruth  11am Saturday 17 June

Mazey Dance Penzance, Morrab Gardens and 3pm Parade

Holifield Big Tent Festival, Gweek, Friday 30 June 2.30pm

Blue Light Day, Wadebridge Showground, Wednesday 5 July time tbc

Lafrowda, St Just, Saturday 15 July 2pm performance and in procession

Princess Pavillions, Gyllyngdune Gardens Falmouth Friday 21 July 6pm Benefit concert with Sing Falmouth for Falmouth and Penryn Welcome refugees

Passing on Passmore, Exhibition, Fish Factory Penryn 25-29 July