Conversation Starters

As part of Rajni Shah Projects Beyond Glorious symposium Sheila was commissioned to lead a Sunday Brunch Session that would create a space for conversation.  So, Sheila made a series of conversation starters in the form of paper flowers. Participants were encouraged to each take a magnifying glass and:

"Become like Botanists, Study your specimen, See if anything about it opens up a conversation. A word, A colour, A desire to crush it. Be playful. Don't edit". 

Sheila has used the conversation starters since and will more than likely make them a regular part of her workshop repertoire now.

Conversation Starters

4 Week Schools project

In tandem with developing Rat Rose Bird at Chelsea Theatre Sheila has run a series of workshops with 9-10 year olds from local school Ashburnam Primary.  The workshops kicked off with the children visiting the Rat Rose Bird set.  They then went on to develop their own stories and mini sets informed by this first encounter and eventually ended up making a short film documenting the fragments of their stories and ideas. 

In amongst the Rat Rose Bird set

Rat Rose Bird Performances coming up!

Sheila is showing Rat Rose Bird in two spaces over the next month - at Chelsea Theatre as part of their Spring/Summer Sacred season on April 25th, 7.30pm and at Z Arts as a double bill with Michael Pinchbeck’s ‘The Middle’ as part of Word of Warning's Summer Collection on May 31st, 7.30pm.

The piece has been given a facelift, so is worth catching again, even if you've seen it before...

Rat Rose Bird, Photograph by Adam Levy

From Me To You With Love

Sheila has been awarded a Clod Ensemble Extravagant Acts For Mature People commission so will be working with two London day centres. One in Camden and one in Tower Hamlets.  Sheila will work on an 'exchange' project with the two centres - taking objects, letters, audio etc from one group to the other.  At the end of the project Sheila will produce an artistic response of some kind - containing elements of the project as a whole.  The project will run from January - June/July 2013  

From Me To You With Love

Performance Labs

In 2012 Sheila was involved in the teaching of two performance labs.  The first was a two week pilot ArtSchoolLab at The Barbican (based on their exhibition about the Bauhaus), and the second was a module with MA performance students at King's.  The module at King's ran between September and December and culminated in a final showcase of the student's work whereas the Barbican's ArtSchoolLab was a two week intensive. Both were fantastic teaching opportunities with Sheila learning as much from the other tutors participants and students as they did from her!

Escalator Performing Arts

Sheila has been selected to be part of the Escalator Performing Arts cohort 2012-2013 overseen by Cambridge Junction. She will be using the opportunity to explore the development of a new project called Rambles with Nature and to undertake some work in Cambridge itself.  Sheila last performed at The Junction with Blast Theory sometime around 2003/4ish!

Blast Theory Can You See Me Now

Lecture demonstration at Roehampton

Sheila has been invited by the Centre for Dance Research and Dance Diary to present a lecture demonstration at Roehampton University Michaelis Theatre, Oct 17th, 6pm entiled Culture, Gender, Identity. Sheila will read excerpts of Rat Rose Bird, show images of her work and invite someone in the audience to break a Covet Me Care For glass heart and take home its contents. This lecture demonstration is followed by a discussion with Dr Jennifer Parker-Starbuck (Senior Lecturer in the Drama Theatre and Performance department of Roehampton University) and Anita Ratnam, an internationally renowned bharatanatyam performer who weaves through the many disciplines of dance, theatre and feminist issues.

Grafting & Budding at What Matters,  Photograph by Andrew Downs