Today I write just before we film A Jellyfish Lovesong in its first draft version!
We began working on this show in April this year (thank you so much to Arts Council), with a wonderful cast: Jummy Faruq is our puppeteer extraordinaire playing Harmeet the Hermit and the Choral coral, dancers (and puppeteers) Ofelia Balogun plays Jessie the Medusa, Amari Webb-Martin plays Jelani the Jelly and David Evans plays Javid… they really are a dream team!
A Jellyfish Lovesong is a new bilingual dance & puppetry performance for families, inspired by Laurie Newman’s book Jessie The Jellyfish. We have music by Sabio Janiak, a set made of entirely recycled objects by Holly Miller, costumes (upcycled) by Sabrina Henry, dramaturgy by the wonderful Eva Martinez, the best Producer ever Shona Phillips (also Happy Birthday Shona!) and filmed by the wonderful Dan Martin (Wow all my favourite people!!!)
It has been magical learning about (and getting a bit geeky about) mutualistic relationships in the ocean, and we have discussed how that has also been a salve and inspiration for us all in our own lives… each of us knew that we were on our own individual and collective journeys of healing this week and the alchemy was felt!
Yesterday, we had the absolute pleasure of having Denilson Oluwafemi (my teacher from Brazil) join us for two hours online to teach us about Nana Buruku: it was a JOY!
Other highlights this week up here in Newcastle have been delightful food at The Seven Bridges Cafe; a collaboration with Dance City and the West End Refugee Service, and the most amazing meal at My Delhi (where both us and the amazing waitress Becky were moved to tears!)
Once all the footage from today is edited, we will be holding a sharing/watch party and then looking to find our commissioning partners and premiere theatres for the work across the UK for phase 2. If you would be interested in attending, please do let me know and I will send you a private invitation.
Meanwhile, over at Maya Gandaia, Embodied Alchemy (the 9-week container to alchemise the painful & difficult emotions of knowing there is more to life than a world of corruption & fitting in, to connect to your own unique creative expression using intuition) begins tomorrow at 7pm UK time… will you be joining our community? Sign up HERE
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