WHO?
Somewhere
is a small organisation led by artists Karen Guthrie (based in the Lake
District) and Nina Pope (based in London), extending their interests in
working with new audiences and across artforms. Their
past work includes TV
swansong, a large-scale webcasting project.
Characteristics of their work together, which also dominate Welcome
To, are its accessibility, fun and emphasis on exchange
between disciplines, communities and social groups.
Welcome To is the first Somewhere project in Cumbria though the artists have worked previously with Grizedale Arts.
The project was initiated and developed over two years by Karen Guthrie, with the help of a network of dance professionals locally (thanks to Ludus, Dance Resource & Dance Northwest).
HOW?
Eventually, Arts Council Lottery funding enabled the project to go ahead,
with the recruitment of a small core team including Zoe Uffindell
- a choreographer whose work includes numerous TV projects such as C4's
'Smack the Pony'; and composer Tim Olden who has provided soundtracks
for many other Somewhere projects, with local dancer Pippa Colman
as coordinator.
The project started with open auditions taking place in early summer in Windermere, both for professional dancers and local volunteers including specialist dancer such as clog, garland and majorettes.
We found an extremely high level of skill and enthusiasm, and a few 'stars' who would go on to take lead roles alongside the professionals.
The audition turnout was great, and we quickly developed a structure for the project which would be both efficient (as the budget was very tight) and offer as many opportunities as possible for the volunteers and the professionals on the project to learn from each other.
Four
local dance leaders (Sue
Astley, Lucy Everett, Kathryn Irving, Helen Moffitt) were
appointed to lead local dance workshops teaching large-scale
dance sequences devised by Zoe. These workshops were held over the summer
in Ulverston, Kendal and Windermere to try and ensure that they were
as accessible as possible.
Dress rehearsals, just one week before the shoot at the end of August 2003, were the first opportunity for the volunteers to try out their steps together, whilst the 6 professional dancers (Peter Baldwin, Caroline Bridges, Millie Gair, Kathryn Irving, Claire Morris, Cydney Uffindell-Phillips) had rehearsed on site just twice pre-shoot!
Above
are the professionals learning to salsa with volunteer Stan Currier.
We also
developed other sequences for the pros by learning steps from, for example,
Furness Clog Dancers (see left). Karen and Zoe also worked on ideas
from Karen's storyboard as well as from simply rehearsing on site at
Grizedale, a place with an incredible diversity of backdrops from picnic
tables to breathtaking scenery.
In the meantime, we also watched a lot of Hollywood musicals from the 50's and prayed for sunny weather for the shoot at the end of August.