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A Restless Art, Dance, Lithuania, Music, Opera, Projects, Reflexive practice, Theatre, Third generation, Visual art
Curtain
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Continue reading →: CurtainWhen we met on Friday morning, there was a cheerful determination to get on with what was still to be done. For the performers, that was fairly straightforward, because it meant rehearsing the opening scenes of the community opera they’d been developing. We’d talked about commitment in performance, looking at…
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A Restless Art, Dance, Lithuania, Music, Opera, Projects, Reflexive practice, Theatre, Third generation, Visual art
Things get tough
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Continue reading →: Things get toughWell. Today was a challenging day. First of all, I had to dance, or at least move in roughly the same direction as everyone else, at roughly the same time. I’d managed to avoid Antonio’s workshops up to now, even though they are fantastic as the delight expressed by everyone…
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A Restless Art, Dance, Lithuania, Music, Opera, Projects, Reflexive practice, Theatre, Third generation, Visual art
Finding our voice
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Continue reading →: Finding our voiceThe last post was about trusting the process. I didn’t expect things to happen so quickly, but a morning’s work was enough to clear the mists. Working with actor and director, Ramūnas Šimukauskas, the group literally found its voice. The opening scene happens in a market and strong performance ideas…
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Community art is a high wire act
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Continue reading →: Community art is a high wire actThis is often the trickiest stage of a workshop – somewhere towards the end of the first half. The novelty has gone. People, places and situations you barely knew before start to seem familiar. The group is acquiring patterns. It’s less about discovery now, more making something worthwhile with what’s…
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First steps in the cabbage field
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Continue reading →: First steps in the cabbage fieldThe five day community arts summer school in Kaunas got off to a prompt start at 9am this morning. Twenty five people had gathered in a summer cabin on the site (the result of an earlier project) and we spent the first hour introducing ourselves. We’re a diverse group, mostly…
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The Cabbage Field: First impressions
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Continue reading →: The Cabbage Field: First impressionsThe Cabbage Field is part of a former barracks in Šančiai, a suburb of Kaunas (Lithuania). The site was established by the Imperial Russian army in 1899, used by Soviet, German and Lithuanian troops during the 20th century and abandoned in 1991, after Lithuania became the first republic to declare independence…
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Continue reading →: What community arts needs
Neither community arts practice nor its results are always good. Most art is, by definition, average—and that is good enough. Community art is generally competent, worthwhile in its time and place. Some, for one reason or another, is poor. And some is glorious, spectacular and life-changing: it takes your breath…
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Continue reading →: ‘I hope it was a slight jolt for the public.’
We’re here Choked by this #Somme100 commemoration. At a time when being British makes little sense, just beautiful. #wearehere Tweet from Charlotte Gittens, 2.48pm 1 July 2016 On Friday, 1 July 2016, early morning travellers at Glasgow Central Station came across an odd sight. A group of soldiers stood silent…
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What cultural democracy meant in 1976
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Continue reading →: What cultural democracy meant in 1976In 1976, the Council of Europe organised a conference of European ministers with responsibility for cultural affairs in Oslo ‘to compare problems of cultural policy in relation to their shared acceptance of democratic values’. As far as I know, it was at this conference that the concept of cultural democracy…