Ukulele Heaven

 

Just had to show you these lovely photo's from Bigyn Primary School.

 

 

My day at the school was kindly funded by

Y Ffwrnes Theatre as part of

Ffocus Ffwrnes Family Fun Days

 

 

A whole team of us will be facilitating workshops at the Y Ffwrnes on

August 16th 17th & 18th

So why not come along ...

 

 

Many thanks to Rachel Murphy and Arts Care Gofal Celf for organising the workshops and including me in the line up. Great fun!

 

 

 

Stonehenge Rain!

We had the children out of school at Kidwelly Castle for Tai Chi and it just so happened that on the same day, in the afternoon there would be a replica of Stonehenge as part of a national tour, stopping in Wales for one day only, at The National Botanic Garden.

The brilliantly 'outside the box'  bouncing recreation of a world heritage site offered us a new and quirky way of enjoying history ...  I couldn't miss the opportunity of filming the children in slow motion laughing and jumping around on it in such a beautiful setting.​

"Sacrilege", the inflatable is the brainchild of Turner Prize-winning artist Jeremy Deller.

He described the air-filled landmark as "a way to get reacquainted with ancient Britain with your shoes off".

The installation was jointly commissioned by London Mayor Boris Johnson and the Glasgow International Festival of Visual Art. Arts Council England have also provided financial support to the work.

 

 But sadly, looking was all we could do ...

 Because the heavens more than opened

 just as we had taken our shoes off and gotten ready to be tigger-tastic!

Photo by Mair Watts

We stood beneath brollies and trees gazing longingly at probably the bounciest welsh stone we had ever seen!

From my Fusion Inspire point of view, this is the 2nd opportunity to film this month that has been thwarted by a wet June! Usually I take it on the chin and believe that it is what is meant to be, but the production tour starts in January so I need to get things 'in the can' so I can start to focus on the music and story lines ...

There's only one thing for it!

SUN DANCING ! lol!

600 Castles: Tai Chi Film Shoot at Kidwelly Castle

Photographs taken by Mair Watts, Deputy Head at Bigyn Primary

I have written a song for my production called;

600 Castles

There are 600 castles on the coastline of West Wales all in varying states of decay and/or repair.

The main  character  in my production is Dafydd who sets off to find
'The Stillness of Decay'
on his quest and finds himself at Kidwelly Castle.

A group of nearly 50 children & teachers from Bigyn Primary School came to the Castle, all dressed in black, ready to represent the stillness and slowness of decay...

... and Teena Gould kindly and beautifully led the group in a Tai Chi session. The very slow movements representing the almost unnoticed changes made in our architecture before our eyes.

I filmed them as a whole and then took off small groups who used their Tai Chi Inspiration in other settings .. the dungeons, the turrets, the hilltops  

It was really interesting that some of the children that we might have least expected, really connected with the Tai Chi on a deep level embracing an inner sense of calm.

Some children played out characterisations.

This is Jasmine as Princess Gwenllian the Brave who died on the battle fields at Kidwelly.

& off course, castles are also

a great place for a picnic!

I will edit this filmscape along with a series of Coastline Castle photographs kindly being taken by an amazing photographer; Darren Boxer 

 ... so that it becomes a projection backdrop for my song 600 castles, one in a series od song & filmscape as part of

the dragon tree

which is the produciton growing and now moving into bloom from my Fusion Inspire: Journey through the Creative Mind.

Many thanks to the Head, Deputy Head & dedicated teaching staff at Bigyn Primary School for trusting the fusion of inspiration & supporting their children to come and take part.

Warm thanks to Tai Chi Instructor Teena Gould.

Many thanks to Kidwelly Castle and Cadw

And special thanks to The Arts Council of Wales for my Individual Mainline Grant.