weaving Voices 01.04.2025 issuu - Flipbook - Page 83
learn’: the easeful adaptation of the nervous system to the unknown.
Movement® (ATM®) lessons132 work intimately
Awareness Through Movement
with the prefrontal cortex – the curious part of the brain that seeks
novelty. (TB)
G Galvanising and Groundwork
We often use the buzz word engagement in relation to evaluating
the success of socially engaged practice. But the term galvanising
(to cause people to take action, by making them feel very excited,
afraid, or angry) feels more appropriate to the work we do with
communities. Synonyms of the term galvanise include stimulate,
encourage, inspire, prompt. (HB)
Theatre director Tadashi Suzuki once stated, ‘cultural exchange is
impossible therefore we must try’.133 This statement feels critical to me
in terms of my work with marginalised communities and individuals
many of whom are actively seeking sanctuary in the UK. Groundwork
is the best way to describe my work. Groundwork is about meeting
and listening to people, it’s about developing networks and creating
the conditions and environments where people can feel seen and
heard. Recently, in Wakefield – a small city in the North of England,
I spent six months developing a network of facilitators and finding
out why people attend various existing community arts and/or
wellbeing groups. The learning that emerged from this groundwork
informed the development of a new programme, which connected
existing groups together, and bridged the gaps in the city’s current
‘offer’ for families seeking sanctuary and children living in temporary
accommodation. One of my favourite workshops which I facilitate,
Wakey Wakey, is a creative music and play activity for children,
which takes place weekly at the local theatre. Groundwork for this
project included figuring out how to get the children safely from the
temporary accommodation to the local theatre whilst negotiating
youtube.com/watch?v=NQjBXunhOVQ [Accessed 22 Sept. 2024].
Rolling - Feldenkrais with Baby Liv (2010) YouTube. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/
watch?v=D9Ko7U1pLlg [Accessed 22 Sept. 2024].
132 Feldenkrais Method (n.d.) Feldenkrais. Available at: https://feldenkrais.com/about-the-feldenkraismethod/ [Accessed 22 Sept. 2024].
133 Quoted by Bogart, A. (2007) And Then You Act: Making Art in an Unpredictable World. New York:
Routledge, p. 16.
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the changing regulations imposed on people seeking asylum. Every
Saturday morning I now arrive at the temporary accommodation
centre, make an announcement on the tannoy system, gather a group
of 40 or so children and their parents in the foyer and walk them to
the local theatre for the Wakey Wakey workshop.134 The workshop
begins on the walk, with call-and-response songs and games to play
as we make our short 10-minute journey together. Groundwork in
this instance created the idea of the Walking Bus. (HB)
V Voice and Voices
Voice has been used and explored in various ways throughout the
project. We’ve listened to it, we’ve located it, we’ve expressed it,
we’ve played with it, and we have seen and felt the impact of our
voices, in our lived individual and shared experiences. Sometimes
we hear our voices, noticing them changing and adapting as they
come into contact with other voices. Sometimes we don’t hear
them, but we feel them. We know that by our actions and where we
place our intention and attention we are also finding and using our
voices without necessarily hearing them. Voicing is also a literal and
metaphorical activity. See also: entry on Understanding. (TB)
o Orientation
Some years ago, as a younger lecturer, I found myself at a
Performance Research Conference called Here Be Dragons which
refers to a popular belief that mediaeval maps used this legendary
phrase and images of beasts as a way of pointing towards
undiscovered territory. At this conference, in a session on orientation
a cartographer said something that has stayed with me: “maps lie and
that’s why people get lost”. We all feel safer when we know where we’re
going but creative processes also require us to let ourselves get lost,
to force ourselves into leaving the safety of the map behind so that
we can surprise ourselves with what we find. In her book ‘A Field
Guide to Getting Lost’, Rebecca Solnit invites us to consider how
134 Wakey Wakey is a weekly storytelling and music workshop for families who are seeking sanctuary in the
UK and living in a Temporary Accommodation Centre. More information can be found here: Wakey Wakey
(2024) Theatre Royal Wake昀椀eld. Available at: https://www.theatreroyalwake昀椀eld.co.uk/take-part/wakey-wakey
[Accessed 22 Sept. 2024].
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