9 September 2014
The four day regatta is over, about 50 spectacular Tall Ships from around the world left Greenwich in style
7 September 2014
Fabulous to watch Marc Brew Dance Company under Hungerford Bridge performing (i)land with Marc Brew, Aaron Vickers and Rebecca Schmevans, at Southbank’s #UnlimitedFest
Then to the Riverside Terrace to watch Stop Gap Dance Company’s The Awakening
July 24 2014
New Movement Collective. Casting Traces. The Paper Maze
at the Louise Blouin Foundation, London.
Casting Traces is an uplifting, dynamic multi-media performance. Six highly skilled dancers, move amongst a labyrinth of reams of hanging paper, the audience free to follow independently or together as they wish. Violinist, Aisha Orazbayeva, opened the show with a beautiful melancholic solo, her shadow behind paper, which was to be painted open for us to move through the silhouettes of the dancers.
I haven’t read Paul Auster’s novel The New York Trilogy which inspired the performance but am now encouraged to.
New Movement Collective will be in Brighton performing Casting Traces. The Paper Maze, 28-30 August at Circus Street Market. Then to Winchester at The Guildhall 23-25 October. Don’t miss this extraordinary engaging work
21 July 2014
Wonderful day yesterday at the Greenwich World Cultural Festival in the gardens of the beautiful English Heritage site, Eltham Palace, leading family Art Workshops with son Max and daughter Gaby. A Greenwich Dance initiative where I am the Resident (Visual) Artist.
Many pop-up performances during the afternoon from Mattress Circus, Moxie Brawl, Dingolay Caribbean Dance, Folded Feather, Emergency Exit Arts; family creative dance workshops, social dancing with Thomas Michael Voss; A Curious Cakewalk; Music from Gypsy Dread Band and Rhythm of the City. Chinese Ribbon Dance Workshops and many more wonderful activities to watch and take part in.
My son Max (blue tee-shirt middle) led Clay Model Making,
The clay models drying in the sun
Daughter Gaby taught visitors of all ages how to make an origami Crane, (she insisted was a swan) as part of The International Peace Crane Project 2014
When the origami was complete, we asked the Crane maker to write a message of Peace on their bird. Some we hung in the trees but most went home with their makers
I led a drawing activity for all ages
Wednesday 16 July
Free entry for all the family to the beautiful grounds of the English Heritage site, Eltham Palace. Enjoy pop-up performances of dance, theatre, music and circus, a vintage ballroom in the Great Hall and creative workshops.
Join Max, Gaby and myself in the Dry Moat to make a clay model to take home, make an origami Crane becoming a part of the International Peace Crane Project and lets Draw Together, all art workshops are for all ages.
August 20 2013
On Friday evening I was privileged to be part of dance artist Christopher Matthews multi-media performance installation, Formed View, at the Arbeit Gallery in Hackney Wick. Formed View was part of Hackney WickED Festival. While dancer Lyle Wheeler created dynamic flowing improvisation and James Haswell-D’Arcy gave him spoken feed back and direction, I made drawings of Lyle as he moved and of James as he responded to Lyle. The dance performance along with the verbal, written and drawn response was streamed live on the Hackney Live website as well as to an audience within the gallery, who watched via the TVs.
A few of the many sketches made during the evening:
August 15th 2013
Tomorrow evening I will be drawing at Arbeit Gallery, Hackney. I am part of dance artist Christopher Matthews multi-media performance installation Formed View. Formed View investigates politics of perception of the moving figure through improvisation. I will draw dancers Lyle Weaver and James Haswell D’Arcy while they dance. With us also responding to the improvised movement will be writers Alexandrina Hemsley, Jamila Johnson-Small and Charlotte Ashwell of BELLYFLOP Magazine. Our responses of words and mark making will be filmed and fed to television screens to spectators within the gallery who will be in a different space.
Christopher asks “What is the role of the dancer as he/she is being watched?”, “What is the role that the physical appearance of the dancer plays in the situation?”, “What role does the mode of presentation play in the perception of the moving figure?”, “How does improvisation affect or not the relation between the performer and the spectator?”
Formed View will be streamed live on the Hackney Live website. To be part of the streamed event follow on Twitter -@hackneylive and like Hackney Live on Facebook -fb/hackneylive. The drawings will be posted on this blog over the weekend.
Formed View is part of Hackney WickED Festival
Friday 6-9pm. August 16th 2013
Arbeit Gallery, Unit 4, White Post Lane, Queens Yard, Hackney Wick, London E9 5EN
28th August 2012
Wonderful day with choreographer Marc Brew and his company Marc Brew Company at Greenwich Dance, drawing during the rehearsal of Fusional Fragments. Fusional Fragments will be performed at Queen Elizabeth Hall as part of Unlimited Festival, on Friday with drummer Dame Evelyn Glennie playing live on stage. Lots of small pencil drawings and 1 large one on brown wrapping paper.
While I’ve been preparing for my exhibition I haven’t been able to spend time with the dance companies drawing and have been missing the live drawing, missing the dancers, missing the speed, energy and collaboration.
12th August 2012
My daughter was one of the 350 children from 10 schools in the 6 east London Host Boroughs chosen to dance in the Closing Ceremony of the Olympics, they were auditioned had many rehearsals after school, at weekends and during the holiday. They delighted in being a part of something so big, so special and cloaked in secrecy.
The 12 and 13 year olds danced to Ray Davies of the Kinks singing Waterloo Sunset forming a human dancing River Thames. Sadly the camera work was unimaginative and only focussed on the singer, but my daughter danced for me in the garden after the ceremony.
Just add another 349 kids and you’ll get the idea!
1st July 2012
When you walk into the grounds of Eltham Palace in South East London it is like entering a secret garden, or walking through the wardrobe and finding yourself in Narnia. This Art Deco hidden gem, built around the remains of the Palace first recorded in Domesday Book of 1086, is the location Greenwich Dance and Greenwich Theatre present the annual Greenwich World Cultural Festival, a celebration of dance, music and theatre from around the world.
As Greenwich Dance’s Resident Artist I arranged a Creative Clay workshop in the Sunken Moat, led by my eldest son Max and his friend Jess, to make clay figures inspired by the dance taking place around them. Constantly busy with all ages creating a figure to take home.
Creative Clay workshop inspired by dance in the festival
Visitors to the festival were given a map of the palace grounds showing a bridge crossing the dry moat at three given times during the afternoon, asked to meet beside the bridge to be led to the area where a dance would be performed by Beyond Front@
Beyond Front@ dancing in the grounds of Eltham Palace
I gave the spectators small pieces of paper and pencils and suggested they try to get some of the movement on to paper, at the end of the dance we hung them on the Thought Tree.
Musicians played in surprise places around the grounds
Protein Dance’s The Picnic commissioned by Greenwich Dance