As you know, The Dragon Tree took up a great deal of my life over the last year. One of the groups that joined me on that journey was LegaC Contemporary Dance Troop, funded by Arts Care Gofal Celf.
The girls did a wonderful dance to my Mermaid Scales piece, based on the rhythm of sign language and we filmed it down on a private beach at my friend's farm Morfa Isaf.
After the Dragon Tree funding had finished and the initial tour ended, the troop asked me if I would come with them to D13 Dance Festival and sing Mermaid Scales live with them.
What a treat and a great way of saying thank you to them for all their incredible work & to thank the wonderful Laura Jenkins, who is the Dance Development Manager, currently on maternity, and Zosia Jo who co-choreographed the pieces and is now covering Laura's role at Arts Care Gofal Celf.
I sang live with them on stage and it felt amazing, but to be honest, whilst performing it was hard to see the whole picture.
They had also choreographed a piece of their own about The Body Politic to one of my older tracks called French Baguettes which was a song co-written with Jeff Beer from my Award Winning Album Little Fish: Bare Bone Songs back in the late 1990's.
Well, I can not tell you how absolutely awe inspiring it is to watch a group of young women dance to one of your songs!! I wept at the end. And to be honest, when I watch it back, I weep every time!! Mostly I think because I have watched these young women grow so beautifully as dancers and as people over the last few years, and it is so very moving to watch someone else's interpretation of your work, through another genre.
Thank you, thanks a million, no, thanks a squillion to LegaC and even more so to Arts Care Gofal Celf who are genuinely making a difference to the arts community, visibly building self worth via the arts and creating a platform for all artists to come together and collaborate. BIG respect!