A blog by David Slater
I can hear the laughter from the other end of the building. They’re meant to be working on some nuanced point of the script but the energy has clearly broken out and rampaged down the stairs. There is under a week to go before we take the raw new show for a first outing to… Continue reading In rehearsal
After the performance, sitting in the empty theatre I watch the packing of the set, the folding and careful placing of materials and objects into large black suitcases on wheels. I imagine them tomorrow walking through an anonymous airport concourse, perhaps two men and their elderly relative and an extraordinary number of travelling bags. But… Continue reading Casa das Fases at Odin Theatre Denmark
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bkEftYBANwI&feature=player_embedded Looking forward to seeing the work of the amazing Casa das Fases in a couple of weeks time when they travel from Brazil to Odin Theatre, Denmark. Sadly they can't make it to London but, fingers crossed, we may be able to live stream a performance later in the year.
Friday lunch time and I'm having one of those snatched 'paths crossing' conversations with Charlene:- ‘Every week when I see James he doesn’t remember that we’ve danced together. He remembers me but he has no recollection of us dancing. He says: ‘But I can’t get up out of my chair’, and I say “but you… Continue reading Reasons to get out of bed in the morning (No1 of an occasional series)
The American philosopher John Dewey defines the task: - ‘to restore continuity between refined and intensive forms of experience that are works of art and every day events, doings and sufferings that are universally recognised to constitute experience. ‘ It feels that with a procession of tables we have completed a small act of… Continue reading A procession of tables (Part One)
It's the start of the morning rush hour. In a bright red coat, the woman in her mid eighties, taking the 6.30am train to London Bridge didn't stop apologising. She didn't need to. I think we were all celebrating the quietly transformative effect that she was having on the beginnings of our days. The easy… Continue reading Care Setting
It’s almost midnight and the sounds of the organ from the chapel below are seeping up through the floorboards. We’re on the final leg of a midnight stroll, styled after the Midnight Runs from the imagination of poet and spoken word artist Inua Ellams. It’s the second of two journeys across our city, London. The… Continue reading Writing on Walls
I try to make contact but only ever get the automated voice of the answer-phone: ‘The person you are calling is unable to take your call.’ Meetings of the elders company have been depleted; it’s been a long winter full of heavy un-shake off-able viruses. At rehearsals have we adopted the ritual of conjuring absences,… Continue reading Rodney
Emma’s Blog: The Home Research and Development Day London 28.11.12 Yesterday I spent the day at the Albany Theatre in Deptford South London with David Slater from Entelechy Arts, Deborah Dickinson from Freedom Studios and members of Entelechy's Elder Arts group - Thelma, Sheila, Barbra, Margaret, Rosie and Gwen. We all came together to start… Continue reading Who Cares: Guest Blogger Emma Adams
Wednesday morning, east London, on the Docklands Light Railway swapping stories about compressed morbidity. I’m travelling with Maria Genné, artistic director of Minneapolis based Kairos Dance. Their award winning Dancing Heart programme works with frail elders in a range of care settings. We’re travelling through the autumn drizzle to drop in on a rehearsal at… Continue reading Keep on Dancing
Creativity, Arts and Older People 