Day 2 at Whitestone Arts

I woke this morning greeted by many pheasants outside, the birds at the feeders with the beautiful landscape all round me; I felt ready to train.

Bags, bags and more bags. We spent around 2 hours this morning (Saturday morning) training with the ensemble using Juggling balls (bags). The essence of the training is to use the bag to develop a sense of being here and now. John describes the bag as not being anything, it doesn’t judge, it does nothing! We as the artist bring it to life, and by passing the bag through each other we are paying attention to bring present in that moment. If we throw to hard, to soft, it is only a true reflection of how we are in that moment, we can acknowledge it and move on; no judgement from the ball, no judgement from yourself, just notice.

I find it fascinating to work with the ensemble to develop a level of awareness, I level for myself, but also I level of awareness of how the group is feeling, who’s awake, who’s anxious, who’s energetic, you see personality in every action of the bag being passed.

And then we danced, we played with levels of structure including contact, non contact, touch and eye contact working in pairs. We played and found possibilities in dancing with each other and discussed what we like; very important to focus on what we liked, because what we don’t like can be distractions and there great to notice, but then we move on from them.

We moved onto more improvisation in the afternoon, some solo work and some group work. John worked with the principles of Action and Flow, being able to flow through movement and to develop an action when it came to you. In pairs this was very interesting as we had the opportunity to use the position of audience to ask the artist to action their movement when we felt we’d seen a possibility. John talks a lot about giving a gift to each other, and for me Day 2 felt like I received and gave lots of gifts, I felt a sense of the ensemble beginning to understand each other.

Talking of gifts, lunch and dinner at White Stone is amazing, and enjoyed that bit more by a quick walk over the moor lands with some of the artists on the residential. Beautiful surrounds, beautiful studio, beautiful food and of course beautiful people.

Just when i thought my evening couldn’t be anymore relaxed, a night in the studio with Piña Bausch on the big screen, utterly amazing.

Paul
Performeradams – Twitter

Day 1 at Whitestone Arts

Well that’s a journey I wont forget for a long time. I set off from sunny Oldham,around 5pm and my destination was a beautiful farm, where I would be at one with my inner artist. However before that could begin, I had to find it.

Having followed my trusty Sat Nav for most of the journey, I found myself navigating the narrow and sharpe bends of Stanbury, I drove all the way up to someone else’s farm, through a field of sheep, found myself back at a lovely pub called the Olde Silent; who I must confess were extremely friendly. Anyway a long story a little shorter, a phone call to Whitestone Farm, and I managed to catch the little hand made sign, I went over a little bridge, through a couple of gates, and met by the friendly face of Eilon.

Now I haven’t seen much of the farm and it’s surrounding area yet, as I have been more or less in the dark. However what I can say is the Farm building is BEAUTIFUL, the hosts are extremely friendly,the other participants are welcoming and the food is amazing. I was quickly made a cup of tea and the evening began with an improvisation from John Britton. John’s performance was very enjoyable, and to be honest the combination of John and the barn studio made my quite scary drive to the venue very worth while.

The day starts at 9:30 am tomorrow (Saturday morning) with a warm up, and then moves through to lots and lots of ensemble training!!

Pictures and updates to come over the weekend.

Paul

Performeradams – Twitter

My First Propa Blog

I’ve decided that when I read other peoples blogs I’m always a little envious of their online space to chat, share and basically talk about their interests and be honest a little ranting at times.

I set this blog up some time ago and never got around to using it, but with the addition of my iPad to the my collection of technical gadgets, I feel I’m able to quickly keep things up to date, and share my views.

A little bit about me, you may already know: performance graduate from The University of Huddersfield, lover of contemporary performance, physical theatre and teaching young people what i know so they can be better. I co founded 2Tour Theatre with Abi Crayon ( who is my beautiful girlfriend) but also one incredible creative, talented person, who also devotes lots of her time to working with young people, particularly in early years and also children with disabilities.

I whole heatedly recommend looking at 2Tour Theatre on WordPress, where we keep up to date info on our company goings on.

One massive development in my creative career was very recently being appointed Creative Development Officer at the Oldham Coliseum Theatre. We also like to call it CDO. I get to work with young people aged 14-25 and offer careers advice for the arts, and more importantly get professionals involved to provide mentorship to the participants. Equally as exciting is that I am project managing two amazing projects with TheatreLAB and DigiLAB; which include one amazing performance installation next year which will work with some amazing creatives.

On top of that I’m planning one large youth conference, which the young people I work with have called YouLead. This event will be one amazing evening for young people to understand opportunities in the arts in Oldham and beyond.

I feel very privileged at the moment for the opportunities I have, and for now will leave my first propa personal blog there. I think I’m going to enjoy updating you on exciting developments in my personal life and career. You defiantly want to stick around to find out more about my coliseum work, and see how my work develops from a little town called Oldham.

Paul