DIVE#1 - IN-DEPTH TRAINING ACTIVITY
Wales, UK
MARCH 3-4, 2022

DIVE#1 - IN-DEPTH TRAINING ACTIVITY

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    WHAT IS DIVE

    WHAT IS IT?

    Dive is a two-day immersive event in the local environment of the hosting member and dedicated to reflecting on one specific theme through a wide range of experiential activities. The programme is deeply connected with Circostrada's annual read thread ("Living body/ies" for Year 1) and is meant to foster the sharing of knowledge, experiences, best practices between participants on this particular issue. 

    Dive provides contemporary circus and outdoor arts workers with an in-depth training opportunity in a given local context and enables them to gain significant understanding of a locality, of its artistic scene, ecosystem, community and stakeholders. 

    Dive takes place in the frame of circus and/or outdoor arts key event at local level and gives participants the opportunity to network and build international connections and collaborations.

    JOIN US IN WALES FOR THE FIRST EDITION!

    The first edition of Dive will take place from March 3rd to 4th 2022 in Staylittle (Wales, UK), co-organised with Articulture in the frame of the Outdoor Arts Wales Gathering 2022, and with the support of Wales Arts International. The event will consist in a two-day meeting combining informal discussions, provocations, drop in sessions, artistic walks in the nature, as well as workshops facilitated by experts and dedicated to the issues of ecology and sustainability in the performing arts. Join us at the Lodge in the Cambrian Mountains and get ready to dive collectively into Welsh outdoor arts!

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    Programme

    DAY 1 - THURSDAY, MARCH 3RD: OUTDOOR ARTS WALES FOCUS

    A day of sharing plans and aspirations, cooking and dancing with special guests including Fio, Ffiwsar, AndNow, man hap – human happenings, Osian Meilir, June Campbell Davies and Lisa Heledd Jones, with optional dinner and evening activity.

    This is the place to share projects, ideas and opportunities and to start to reconnect, stretching our minds, bodies and getting tooled up for working together in 2022.

     

    9.30 - 11am @Lounge and Lawn

    Arrive at The Lodge lounge to register and pick up refreshments before heading to Lawn to enjoy a warm-hearted Welsh welcome with an international twist in a Cambrian mountain setting with AndNow’s Mandy Dike and man hap Artists Gareth Clark, Ami Marsden and Catrin Doyle.

    Central to the welcome will be AndNow’s large-scale Samovar - a Russian invention traditionally used to make tea embodying warm-hearted hospitality, where people believe that Samovars have souls. Tea - the cup that cheers!  

     

    AndNow, are based in North Wales and work worldwide, conceive, design and create visual performance, image and installations. andnow.co.uk

    man hap: human happenings, is a supportive space for artists from across Wales to come together to meet, create and share. man hap collaborate online and in person across Wales in ways that are often beautiful, sometimes anarchic, and always warm and welcoming. manhap.com

    Gareth Clark is best known as one half of Mr and Mrs Clark who have been making performance, live art and dance theatre for 20 years. They are inspired by the environment they live in to make bold and challenging performance work to connect and inspire our audiences. mrandmrsclark.co.uk

      

    11am - Welcome by Articulture @Village Hall

     

    11.15am – 1pm – A choice of activities

    • Plans and Aspirations for Outdoor Arts Wales 2022 @Village hall

    What are people’s plans and aspirations for outdoor arts in Wales this year? An open circle conversation with a creative twist, with contributions are welcome from everyone participating to share their opportunities, projects and ideas. Facilitated by Iwan Williams, Independent Producer and Director, Ffiwsar, and Rosie Strang, Co-Director, Articulture. This session will be documented for sharing with others.

    • Two drop-in sessions you can join/leave as you wish 
    • Conversation and cooking @Dining room

    A conversation whilst we cook together for others during the day. Hosted Annie from the Articulture team. Why do we want to make outdoor arts work? What are our aspirations? What’s inspired us to create?

    • Re-imagining @Lawn or Lounge

    A workshop space to re-imagine and create with simple creative activities around the Samovar fire or in front of The Lodge Lounge woodburner with man hap – human happenings Artist Catrin Doyle.

    Catrin is an award winning filmmaker and community artist based in Pontypridd, South Wales. Her work has been screened on BBC, S4C and at prestigious film festivals across Europe. She specialises in working with people to create art to express themselves and connect together.

     

    1-2pm Lunch @Lounge, Dining room, Lawn

     

    2pm – Provocation and Invitation @Lawn

    Provocation - Sita Thomas, Artistic Director of Fio and Osian Meilir, Performer, Dance-maker and Movement artist take personal reflections on outdoor arts practice in Wales, and its future. 

    Fio exists to create a seismic shift in the arts and cultural sector in Wales. Their vision is that Global Majority people of all ages are embedded and thriving in all aspects of theatre and arts in Wales. wearefio.co.uk

    Osian Meilir is Performer, Dance-maker and Movement Artist originally from Pentre’r Bryn, on the west coast of Wales, who creates and collaborates nationally and internationally. He premiered his first mid-scale outdoor arts production - the ambitious and genre defying ‘Qwerin’, as Director and Choreographer in 2021. osianmeilir.com/works

     

    Invitation - Inspired by the morning’s conversations and provocations, what is your burning question, idea, opportunity you’d like to talk to others about? You are invited to suggest a discussion topic you would like to host later for the ‘Plot and Pint’ session, to be written up in the lounge for later at 4.30pm.

     

    2.30 – 3.45pm

    Moving @Studio

    Reconnecting with our bodies with playful movement, singing and music inspired by Carnival! For people of all abilities guided by June Campbell Davies in The Lodge’s bright and airy studio with giant windows to the mountains.

    June Campbell Davies is a Dancer, Choreographer, Film Maker, Teacher and Facilitator with a rich and varied history of Carnival community collaborations, dance performances and teaching at organisations such as Rubicon dance and the Royal College of Music and Drama. 

     

    Two drop-in sessions which you are welcome to join/leave as you wish at any time 

     

    Conversation and cooking @Dining room

    A conversation whilst we cook together for others during the day. Hosted by Lisa Heledd Jones and the Articulture team. Why do we want to make outdoor arts work? What are our aspirations? What’s inspired us to create?

    Lisa is interested in people and places and the stories they have to tell. She listens by recording sounds and voices, walking and taking pictures, collaborating with others to create extraordinary projects and interventions. lisaheleddjones.com

     

    Re-imagining @Lawn or Lounge

    A workshop space to re-imagine and create with simple creative activities around the Samovar fire or in front of The Lodge Lounge woodburner with man hap – human happenings Artist Ami Marsden.

    Ami works with schools, communities, councils and the public to create interactive, educational and inspiring site specific work. amimarsden.com

     

    4pm – Break

    Regather, refresh, reflect at the Samovar with tea, cake and ceremony.

     

    4.30  – 5.30pm – Plot & a Pint

    Who would you like to talk to now? Host your topics, ideas, or opportunity over drinks and a packet of crisps. Or just relax by the woodburner, or head out for a walk.

     

    6.30pm – Evening meal for those who are staying on or off site

     

    7.30pm – Sensory connections

    Facilitators: Marc Rees and Phil Lambert 

    The ancient process of charcoal making is inherently connected to the history of being human. Over millennia this process has provided us with fuel, pigment and drawing materials. Reconnect with the ancient processes like charcoal making, clay extraction and paint making with Phil Lambert and guest interdisciplinary artist Marc Rees. You are invited to sit around outdoor fires and engage in charcoal creation and conversation before heading out into darkness to capture the trees on magical night time meandering - mark-making and stargazing. Then back to The Lodge for a viewing of the drawings created and what they reveal.

    Phil is a father of three young girls, a Visual Artist and engagement specialist with an interdisciplinary background across the Sciences and Arts. His Arts practice shares and develops an understanding of Ecology, Sustainability, Philosophy, Learning and Creativity - working in painting, drawing, ceramics, film, alternative photography, surveys and with specific communities.

    His practice considers the reasons for making works, the significance of the subjects, the provenance of the materials and then how to share them. Recently his work has been focused around soil, for example, working with the Reading University Soil Security team doing observational painting using local soils and photographic prints developed from an old soil assaying technique that looks at soil vitality.

    DAY 2 - FRIDAY, MARCH 4TH: A DIVE INTO THE LIVING BODIES 

    9.30am - 11am - Getting your hands and minds around today's session @Lounge and Lawn 

    A morning conversation to lay the foundation on the topic of Living body/ies. What are we talking about? How do we talk about it? Do we all have the same references when it comes to ecology and sustainability?

    Facilitator: Stéphane Segreto-Aguilar - Head of International Relations / Circostrada Network Coordinator (France) & Heba El Cheikh - Outdoor arts producer and manager (Egypt)

    11am - Welcome by Articulture & Circostrada @Village Hall

    11am-12:30pm - Keynote: "The internationalization of the arts: how to rethink international ambitions to be translocal?" @Village Hall

    Facilitator: Heba El Cheikh - Outdoor arts producer and manager (Egypt)

    For many artists, art workers and organizations mobility is becoming an essential part of the work conceptualization, development and touring. We travel to collaborate, and to exchange, to be inspired and to get exposed. 

    Even if our practices and works are strongly locally defined, we often relate to what is happening in the broader art field. What does that mean, and what kind of impact it may have on our work, our communities and our collaborations. How can we still be aware and sensitive to our surroundings, and communities? Most of all, how can we be rooted and responsive to our local reality and keeping an eye on the international landscape and context.

    The session will explore all the questions related to the practices beyond the local context and the questions that need to be addressed when we are inviting artists or travelling into a different context to develop our work and projectss. Concepts and prototypes used during the session are inspired, and developed by the researchers, artists and practitioners of the Trans/Post-National working group, part of the Reshape Network project. 

    To know more about the project and these prototypes please visit: https://reshape.network/about 

     

    12:30-2pm - Lunch 

     

    2pm-5pm - Simultaneous workshops

    • Workshop1 - Ogham: The Celtic Tree Alphabet 

    Facilitator: Cheryl Beer (UK)

    Thousands of years ago, the ancient Celts spoke in a language considered so sacred that Kings banned it, but the Ogham Alphabet is much more than a collection of letters. It is a system of symbols based entirely on the cultural & spiritual significance of trees, giving us a window into how our ancestors respected, appreciated & understood their environment. 

    Join Cheryl to learn about this ancient form of writing, found on wood, in stone & in the hands of Celtic people as sign language. We will talk about the relevance of Ogham to the Druids, unearth how they applied Ogham to daily life & draw each of the symbols to understand its meaning. If the weather wishes it, we will learn of Ogham in the presence of trees, if not, we will meditate a wooded space into being. Joining Cheryl is special guest, Welsh interdisciplinary/site-specific artist Marc Rees, explaining how his recent British Council supported work CRO|PAN explored Ogham as gestural dance in rural Wales, through collaboration with the Pickle Factory Dance Foundation, Kolkata, India.

    • Workshop 2 - From the wastelands: Focus on ecology-based new aesthetics

    Facilitator: fin Jordao - Biologist and educator (Wales/Portugal)

    Ethics are inherently relational; aesthetics are inherently political. Thinking together across disciplines to expose the lineage of "being ecological" and ask: what needs to be broken down to make space for a breakthrough? We will be engaging our bodies as entangled subjectivities, inviting the effects of invisible agents of transformation, and working on an ecological artist manifesto as a futuring device. 

    • Workshop 3 - Fungi: the missing link

    Facilitator: Karine Décorne - Co-founder of Migrations (Wales/France)

    We often think of nature as separate from human kind; something we’ve learnt to control and use to our advantage. Humans have created a hierarchy of intelligence of living beings placing ourselves at the top, followed by those who look more like us (chimpanzees)… placing plants and fungi right at the bottom because they don’t look, behave or have a brain like us. The truth is, this anthropomorphic interpretation of the world only shows how ignorant and profoundly disconnected from nature, and more particularly fungi, we are, and the major role it plays in ensuring our existence in the first place and our survival.

    Fungi belong to an entirely separate kingdom of life from plants and animals and are found in every habitat on Earth… including our own bodies! Through an introduction to the fascinating and enlightening work of biologist Merlin Sheldrake, we will explore the world of fungi and the under-discovered and fundamental part they play in making our world, change our minds and shape our future in helping us address the greatest issues of our times: Climate Change.

    Karine has been working in the arts for the past 25 years in London, Geneva and Wales. She co-founded Migrations in 2004 and developed projects focused on bringing arts, nature and science together through cross sector partnerships, aiming to reconnect people with nature and engage with climate change related issues. She is also a co-founder and active member of European network AREA, focusing on contemporary arts in rural places.

    5pm-6pm - Informal networking over a beer 

     

    6pm - 7:30pm - Dinner 

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    Booklet

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    Picture Gallery

    Photo credits: 
    © Dan Boyington
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    Provocation video

    Provocation: Sita Thomas, Artistic Director of Fio and Osian Meilir, Performer, Dance-maker and Movement artist take personal reflections on outdoor arts practice in Wales, and its future. 

    Fio exists to create a seismic shift in the arts and cultural sector in Wales. Their vision is that Global Majority people of all ages are embedded and thriving in all aspects of theatre and arts in Wales. 

    Osian Meilir is Performer, Dance-maker and Movement Artist originally from Pentre’r Bryn, on the west coast of Wales, who creates and collaborates nationally and internationally. He premiered his first mid-scale outdoor arts production - the ambitious and genre defying ‘Qwerin’, as Director and Choreographer in 2021. 

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    Aftermovie

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    PARTNERS

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