Mermaid is delighted to welcome reknowned choreographer Fiona Quilligan and dancer Olwen Grindley to Mermaid Arts Centre for this special workshop to celebrate this year’s Bealtaine Festival, celebrating the arts and creativity as we age.
Drawing on Quilligan’s recent film work ANCESTOR (2022), participants are invited to consider the gestures and bodily movement that may have been part of the everyday lives of our early Neolithic forebears. Quilligan’s research envisages the movements of Neolithic bodies; their physical interactions with each other and the landscape of an emerging farming community; and crucially with passage graves.
Taking inspiration from these tombs, imaginatively exploring the pace and activities of their builders and users, she creates a repertoire of moves suited to a people that presumably cared for nature, experienced time, the night skies and perhaps even death, in an entirely different manner to the way in which we inhabit the contemporary world. She considers, “and what would our Ancestors think of this virus bending low to plant their first seeds in Spring?”
What to expect:
Wear loose clothing
Dancers of all levels come and join in this exciting workshop.
No previous dance experience needed!
This workshop will include three aspects of embodiment.
1. Warm up and movement response to the subject of caring for your environment and embracing nature.
2. Making art work related to early stone carvings. ** Please bring objects: It could be something common to shoreline a small stone, shells, seaweed or piece of flotsam from the beach.
3. Conversations on the creative process of the workshop and related ideas in ANCESTOR.
