Piano Puppy!

Great Rehearsals at my place with Amanda Painting for The Dragon Tree.

 

She will be singing on Women Build Fires and then playing her wonderful piano for Dance the Ribbons, 600 Castles and also on the last track Chasing Circles when we will all perform together.

 

When Mandy tried to pack up and go home, little Maisy was having none of it! She plonked herself in Mandy's electric piano case! Woof!

Visionary Arts: Making it so!

 What an incredible day!!

It's very hard for me to put into words the coming together of a collection of ideas

without getting emotional!

 

 

 

Contemporary Dance Troop with Arts Care Gofal Celf LegaC, Rob Latham and Bob Edwards, Sam Collins, Jacqueline Emslie, Rachel Hargrave and the Cardigan Drummers, myself and Amanda Painting made our way down to the secret cove to film the opening film scape for The Dragon Tree.

 

Thanks everyone: YOU ROCK!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

When Mandy and I went down in July to scope the route down, the sun was shining and we didn't have any drums! We got half way down and it looked easy enough! But today in October with all the gear I have to be honest there was a moment when I thought, 'Oh my giddiest of aunts!'

 

 

 

But I knew it would be worth all the hard work to get down to the beautiful cove in Llangrannog.

 

 

 

 

 

 

It became something of a team building experience with people helping each other to make the descent. Certainly the most physical of all my shoots so far!

 

 

 

 

 

While the drummers played, LegaC warmed up on the beach.

 

Let the dance begin ...

 

 

 

 

Bob Edwards and Rob Latham both represented different incarnations of the main character Dafydd as he lay shipwrecked and confused seeing his whole life before his eyes. Dancing around him with waves ... mermaids making a decision whether or not to save him ...

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Mother of all the Mermaids, Guinivere dances with the shipwrecked fisherman in making her final decision

 

 

And then the trek all the way back to Mandy's beautiful Farmhouse, Morfa Isaf

 

 

 

 

 

 

Up & up & up ....

 

 

 

Great BIG team building hugs

when we got to the top!

 

 
And then down to some serious packed lunching!

BIG thanks to Joy, one of the mums who came to support the dancers today, to Laura Jenkins, Dance Development Manager for Arts Care Gofal Celf and to Zosia Jo, Dance Tutor at Arts Care Gofal Celf.

Massive thanks to all the dancers, drummers and actors!! And of course to Mandy Painting.

But ... BIGGEST thanks to the SUNSHINE for showing her beautiful face ... and to the West Wales Coast line for being a constant heartbeat.

... and to The Arts Council of Wales for my Individual Mainline Grant :)

IF YOU FANCY STAYING AT MORFA ISAF OR FILMING THERE, THEN PLEASE FEEL FREE TO CONTACT MANDY PAINTING:

http://www.morfaisaf.co.uk/

Painting Songs

Brilliant! Amanda Painting has now been 'recruited' as a musician for Fusion Inspire.

 

 

I popped over to her place at Morfa Isaf Farmhouse today and we had a good old chin wag.  Mandy put the tracks on the laptop, sat at the piano and immediately got into the vibe .. I could have wept! It was beautiful! She is nothing less than gifted!

 

 

 

As an aside .. her dry dock boat accomodation is now finished!

 

OMG! How totally and utterly cool is that!

 

So, if it's howling when I come to shoot the film of the LegaC Arts Care Gofal Celf dancers ... we'll skip the beach and use the boat instead!

 

Mandy is also booked into the studio with me to lay down the piano on the tracks and will be perfroming live on my tour in Jan and Feb. She's also going to do some backing vocals with me live.

 

To quote a man who wooed me through the TV screen in my early teens .... HAPPY DAYS!