June 27th, 2010 §
Welcome to my DAILY SQUIBS, in these periodic posts I will advertise in short squirts upcoming events; call outs for assistance and whatever else needs saying….
Today’s post includes
- PRODUCER REQUIRED
- VOLUNTEER EDITOR REQUIRED
- INTERNET BUSKING -Donation Button added to Deeming Dreaming Website
PRODUCER REQUIRED Deeming Dreaming (that is ME Kate E. Deeming) is on the search for a Producing Partner! Currently I receive between 50-180 visits a day to my website. On a creative level I am managing to create lots of content that people are viewing that I believe in, on a business, managerial level, I need support. In the past month alone I have missed the opportunity to apply for three funds that I was completely eligible for due to my creative commitments (Performance/Film Premiere/Exhibition/Directing Alice in Wonderland Films/Directing Midsummer Night’s Dream/Dance House Creative Lab!). I know there are better ways to do things, but cannae do it on my own!
I am currently developing a new solo performance piece/film I hope to premiere end 2010/beginning 2011, in addition to returning to Sri Lanka and continuing to build bridges with the community here. I am also working on a book ’99 Reasons Why I’m Dancing’.
The individual should have a passion for creative things and how they can facilitate good things to the world. S/he will be enthusiastic about growing my business to new levels that I might not have considered. I’m a good initiator; I need a manager, business minded, detail oriented, lateral thinker partner! (oh and we should have fun doing all the above!)
If interested please phone or email me to discuss! 07815-733 135 – deemingdreaming@yahoo.co.uk
VOLUNTEER EDITOR NEEDED – I have two DV tapes (20 minutes each) from the HOPE/is a thing with Feathers performance at the Tron 19 June. I would like to get these edited into a comprehensive film (one is close ups the other master shot) to take back to the girls at the Anbu Illam orphanage in Sri Lanka (who inspired much of the movement). This would support the continuing work of Funforlife in Sri Lanka. www.funforlife.org.uk
“INTERNET BUSKING” (DONATION BUTTON ADDED TO DEEMING DREAMING WEBSITE)
I have added a ‘donation’ button to my website and henceforth will be including this in all my emails. If you are inspired by my writing/work feel free to make a contribution. Every penny makes a difference. It’s like ‘internet busking’!!
June 24th, 2010 §
I had the unique opportunity to watch the Brazilian choreographer Deborah Colker’s warm-ups/practice yesterday at the Theatre Royal in Glasgow. I first saw Colker’s work at the Edinburgh International Festival a couple of year’s back, a piece called ‘Knot’. I think I held my breath the whole time – the sheer beauty and humanity rendered in movement left me speechless. So it was quite a privilege to witness the actual creation of her work. Not a finished piece, but an intimate insight into her developmental world.
Within ten minutes of sitting myself down (with about 30 other dancers and dance enthusiasts), two individuals sitting quite close to me commenced to slag off the dancers/choreography/work ‘it was so 2 years ago… yes yes very technically proficient but so behind the times…’. The sheer gallus of sitting within boogie distance of who they were declaiming left me wondering if there was a film camera near by, or if this was standard practice in such a setting. I mean I know people do this, but it’s just so rude, so mean.
Fear is a tangible force, it creates barriers and monsters. And mostly it is within the self. I know I struggle with my own fears every day of my life.
We constantly draw lines – the us and THEM. I do it. But every THEM is built of individuals doing the best they can.
It’s important to recognize the individual within the masses and also take individual responsibility for our singular worlds. I think life is tough, let’s be honest here. And we make it more difficult for ourselves by the energy we generate within ourselves.
Some days are good, some days are bad, sometimes there is no reason why. It should be natural on the days you are feeling particularly good to share it out. On the days you’re not feeling particularly bad you should aim to share goodness out to. Because rest assured someone, somewhere is worse off than you. And by generating goodness for another you are also generating goodness within yourself and so the story goes…
One of the most frequent comments about the HOPE performance I facilitated for Refugee Week was how REAL it was. The ritual of making (as with all my work and life) is one of peace-building. With that vision clearly stated every aspect of making becomes seasoned with something separate from self, whilst still including self. The performance and process reach out into the world. I am proud of this. This is what I should be doing. What we should all be doing- in our own way, yeah?
It is easy to scapegoat – to direct our own fear into negativity placed onto another person- or entity – be it bankers, benefit mums or ballerinas. It keeps us from doing our own work.
Of course there are wrongs in the world and in all these systems. I woke on Tuesday to find I had gone over my agreed overdraft two days running (my invoices dropped in Wednesday) by mere pounds. The £70 in fees seems a small price to pay for the work I created last week and yet I don’t believe the fee is just. I don’t know what to do about that one for the now but I refuse to get myself worked up into a feverish frenzy over it, it doesn’t help anything.
In the meantime I’d like to challenge us to think in terms of generosity- not as a physical act but as an emotional one. I think this is a key to our progression as a society and individuals. And note I am learning this lesson every minute of my life as well.
My family history is peppered with stories of bad fortune and good fortune, as most. And yet, if I was to closely consider my heritage the stories never reflect a bank balance but something else. It brings to my mind the exhibition at the Glasgow Film Theatre – Hope, Portraits of Sri Lanka – what the families gathered whilst fleeing the war-torn country was their prized possession –their memories.
What do you really want to keep? I bet you could live (beyond food/shelter/air etc..) without virtually everything you have in your life – except love.
And yet we give so little time to that in our ‘modern’ world. We love the stuff, we are stupid like Ozymandias
I met a traveller from an antique land
Who said: “Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. Near them on the sand,
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown
And wrinkled lip and sneer of cold command
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed.
And on the pedestal these words appear:
`My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings:
Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!’
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare,
The lone and level sands stretch far away”.
(Shelley)
We’d like to pretend we own things. We own nothing but our ideas, our spirits. Outside of that – it will all be dust someday. We are merely caretakers on this planet – so let’s start behaving like it.
In loving spirit and hope
Kate E. xx
Special thanks to all those extraordinary individuals who supported me in practical and metaphysical ways these past few weeks, I couldn’t have done it without you! In particular to the amazing folks at The Refugee Council, the the Tron Theatre, GMAC, the GFT, and the Workroom. In addition Dr. Ellie Parker, Nathan Portlock, Sam Wyer and Alison George, my Funforlife compadres whose impetus served as inspiration. Daniel Warren thanks for the film. To my HOPE dancing ladies your energy and commitment and dancing was a joy, not to mention the young people who came in the final hours and all danced beautifully. To all the families, thanks for loans of photos and your children To my personal support network- Nicole, Liene, Jude, Moira, Emma-Claire and Lexi. To Gerry Clarke for his technical contributions and energy. To the beautiful girls at the Anbu Illam Orphanage in Trincomalee and to all my friends there. And to the Batticaloa Crew, in the town and at the Butterfly Peace Garden. AND to my Mom and Dad. Because that’s where it really started.
June 18th, 2010 §
If art imitates life, then maybe in a similar vein life can imitate art.
This week I hung the exhibition “Hope-Portraits of Sri Lanka” at the Glasgow Film Theatre (GFT) as part of Refugee Week. The selection of images includes both Tamil and Sinhalese families of Buddhist, Christian, Muslim and Hindu faiths. The war in Sri Lanka between the groups has been going on for over 30 years with conflicts (complicated by colonialism etc etc) dating back hundreds. Therefore the juxtaposition of the images represents something very potent indeed.
One year ago the war was officially declared ended.
How does a war come to an end? It’s not like eating a sandwich and even if it was the digestion would take some doing.
I am not going to pretend like I fully understand the scale of this conflict. As with most matters of human engagement over time the more you look the more complex and confusing it seems.
The exhibit photographs have fallen down off the wall three times. Two times we have spend considerable time and effort to rehang them. Currently they sit in the education room at the GFT in waiting. Now, I worked with artists in the hanging of them and consequently have received professional advice from exhibition experts. Despite these good efforts they keep falling. I just don’t know. I am so frustrated and disappointed by this activity, and in the face of such good intentions I feel entirely powerless.
Part of me wonders if the weight of the subject is still too much to be held by mere fishing wire. If their failure to hang represents the fragility of this thing called ‘The Peace Process’. Best intentions, right people, right materials and yet… failure. I’m not saying peace is not possible but that it’s not a done deal.
That’s where the HOPE comes in- the life force that brings you to pick up the pieces once more, time and time again, and hang them once again. Even if they’ve fallen 100 times.
As it happens I don’t know what to do about the exhibition. My dance performance at the Tron is tomorrow evening and I don’t have the time to spend fixing it as my attentions need to be there. So if you happen upon the GFT and witness blank walls, well maybe it will give you pause, as it does with me about the dedication and care needed to create peace in our lives.
In peace and love, Kate E. xx
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SATURDAY 19 JUNE-
8pm PERFORMANCE: ‘HOPE/is a thing with Feathers” (in double bill with Maryhill Integration Network)
TWO FOR ONE TICKET OFFER – Quote ‘MIN’ and get two tickets for the price of ONE.
8pm-Tron Theatre.63 Trongate, Glasgow, G1 5HB - £9 (£5)
Book and and get more info at the Tron box office: www.tron.co.uk / 0141 552 4267
To take advantage of our special offer, remember to quote ‘MIN’ when you phone the Tron box office to book.
5:30pm FILM: “New Moves” (as part of GMAC Film Festival)
FREE
530pm Glasgow Media Access Centre (GMAC) Trongate 103, 5th Floor, Glasgow G1 5HD,
New Moves tracks the inspiring work of the educational theatre charity Funforlife in Sri Lanka. Peace has officially been declared but still there is fear – and orphaned children. A group of talented professional artists bring together Sinhala and Tamil; Hindu, Muslim, and Christian young people in a glorious riot of creativity and energy.
Director Alison George; Produced by Kate E. Deeming.
June 9th, 2010 §
OKAY firstly let me say I do not have a husband. I am not ideologically opposed to the notion but it just so happens he has not entered into my life yet. Well not that I’ve noticed anyway, but you’d think if your husband came into your life you’d know if he hadn’t been there before. (Some of you in married situations may not agree ha ha). All that aside, in the past on several occasions in my worldwide travels I have had to HAVE a husband albeit not in physical form.
I do think it is a sad state of affairs that me, independent happy and successful whoa-man has to invent a husband in order to save herself from hassle. It’s not that I couldn’t take the time to explain to the various inquiring men these facts; it’s just that it’s easier. The word ‘husband’ is generally a man repellent. I don’t even get the enjoyment of creating HIM into something like a super-hero or a spy (which would be exciting). I say ‘husband’ and *poof* they’ve left me alone.
So there I was dancing along the Broomielaw – a typical Scottish morning- *dreich* (grey and misty). I noticed the “boys” on the bridge watching me-a masculine blur of blue and green. Spinning about to Cyndi Lauper’s ‘Girls Just Wanna Have Fun’, I see them and continue dancing.
Then they were next to me, filming on their phone.
Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum. Well not really but my goodness. About 20 years old with their respective hoods up, one was clothed entirely in green, the other in blue.
‘You enjoying yourself?’ was the entrance question. I explained what I was doing they had a wee sit down to listen, curious and polite. Nice boys. Then the zinger.
“What does your husband think?”
Now he was either trying to pick me up (unlikely) or trying to figure out how a man would allow his woman to dance about in such a way.
This week I have begun development of my next solo performance piece/film “Birth (control)”(with support from Dance House). Following on from Threads and The Body) of Earth) I am looking at the disembodiment of women over the past 2000+ years (no small task).
Women’s bodies are wild and chaotic, we (women and men) would like to think we can control them but at the end of the day they follow nature in all the lumps and bumps that emerge and regress over a lifetime. We can predict some aspects and manage others, but any tampering will ultimately lead to a body rebellion in dis-ease within the self.
I was shopping the other week with one of my flatmates, I tried on a skirt that was a bit snug around my curvaceous rear and she remarks ‘well with all your dancing you’d soon fit into it’.
Quite a common thing for us ladies to say to one another. But it brought me pause. How is it that me, who dances at least five days a week, eats great food and is the picture of health would even consider chopping off a bit of her bottom to fit into a skirt???
We treat our bodies as objects to be manipulated rather then in communion with. It is a crazy/common dynamic and completely disempowering, it leads us to need the protection rather then the partnership of men.
My dance research involves looking at mystical Christianity and Islam as reference points in their earlier representations of women specifically in relation to the Goddess(as far as I can see this is where is all started to go wrong). My whole life I have been seeking representations of women who are embodied.
What does ‘embodiment’ mean?
I have only met a handful of such women worldwide in my lifetime – and what I can say is that they are beautiful in their ownership of their physical form, they contain themselves but are remarkably free. I know many beautiful and strong women in the world, but these women are so in line with their physical nature in all their unique aspects that reflect their lifetime, they glow from within.
I think that’s why I dance now more then ever before. Every time I dance I am saying, “YES” to my body. “YES” as it gets older. “YES” as it swings and curves around in the way that only women move. “YES” as I can have fun in myself. “YES” because I want to be one of those women who IS embodied and the only way for that to happen is for me to practice and celebrate who I am on every level.
SO do I explain THAT to these boys or…???
“Erhm… my whole family really loves it… they are very supportive”
(Whew! And true enough)
With love, peace and blessings, Kate E. xx
11 June 2010 – 530pm – Dance House Creative Lab
You are invited to see the work in progress of Birth (Control) my next solo performance/film premiering 2011! This week I have been working with Scottish Musician Simone Welsh.
UK Theatre School, 4 West Regent Street (across from old Odeon Theatre), 1st Floor, Glasgow.
Rsvp on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=105317556182176#!/event.php?eid=127843130574509&ref=ts
Photo credits: The Body) of Earth) Martine Cotton; Portrait James Williamson
June 7th, 2010 §
Quite appropriately this week’s Refugee Week Blog is titled “Who’s at the Party?” you can read HERE:
http://refugeeweekscotland.posterous.com/whos-at-the-party
In the meantime I’d like to remind you of upcoming events I am creating/producing/performing in etc etc etc!
FRIDAY 11 JUNE -530pm- DANCE HOUSE CREATIVE LAB “SHARING” – UK THEATRE SCHOOL – 4 WEST REGENT STREET GLASGOW (free)
I have been awarded a creative lab this week through the Dance House. This aim of the week is to give me time/space/resources to begin the creation of a new solo performance piece titled “Birth (Control)” I am working with musician Simone Welsh integrating sound/music/movement into the ideas which follow on from earlier work specifically the Body) of Earth); Threads AND discoveries made during my Broomielaw Dancing!
REFUGEE WEEK EVENTS:
MONDAY 14 JUNE -615 – FILM PREMIERE AND EXHIBITION OPENING -GLASGOW FILM THEATRE (£6.90/£5.20 film, exhibition free)
NEW MOVES (preceding Oscar Nominated Afghan Star)New Moves tracks the inspiring work of the educational theatre charity Funforlife in Sri Lanka. Peace has officially been declared but still there is fear – and orphaned children. A group of talented professional artists bring together Sinhala and Tamil; Hindu, Muslim, and Christian young people in a glorious riot of creativity and energy.
Director Alison George; Produced by Kate E. Deeming.
HOPE; Sri Lankan Portraits-(exhibition runs 14-20 June in Cafe Cosmo at the GFT)
New images by Alison George from Funforlife’s work in the Winter 2010 with young people in war-affected areas, matched with new images of Scottish-based Sri Lankan families by Valerie Evans of AND amazing archive photographs collected from Scotland based Sri Lankan families from their time in Sri Lanka. The juxtaposition and familiarity of these images represent the shared aspirations we all have.
SATURDAY 19 JUNE-8pm – PERFORMANCE: HOPE/is a thing with Feathers-The Tron Theatre, Glasgow (£9/£5)
“Hope/is a thing with feathers” is a dance performance exploring the theme of HOPE. The piece takes influences from dance work created in Sri Lanka around themes of ‘Dreams’ with young people affected by the war/tsunami (by Kate E. Deeming in association with the charity Funforlife) and re-interpreted by local Sri Lankan Dancers. The plan is to take the new choreography back to the children in Sri Lanka, encouraging a ‘dance dialogue’ in a post-war setting. Double bill with Maryhill Integration Network.
ALL ARE WELCOME LOOK FORWARD TO SEEING YOU THERE!
Lots of Love, peace and blessings,
Kate E. xx
