Grounded

Last year I was involved in the Surealismo Festival in Bangor, North Wales. I created my screendance film "Surrealism In Everyday Movement" which can be accessed via my blog. This year, the Metamorffosis Festival came to life and this is where "Grounded" was born. It stemmed from a conversation with a friend whom I collaborated with on this project, Bethan Rose Young. This concept was created during lockdown, feeling the frustrations on other issues happening that we feel were being brushed under the carpet when people with power could be preventing the inevitable. Then we also wanted to find something comforting in what we had learned about ourselves and the world around us during a pandemic. It came from the one walk a day that we were permitted during lockdown and how encouraging it was to see so many people connect with nature. From a personal point of view, I was living in one of the most beautiful parts of the world, exploring the local areas around me that I didn't neccessarily do before lockdown. It made me appreciate and want to learn more about nature, such as the birds and the plants that surround me. It provided comfort and familiarity which was something that kept a lot of us going during lockdown with isolated feelings.

We wanted to create something that could be accessed in case there was not a live performance that could happen. Luckily for me, I was able to perform to a limited audience at Pontio in front of our screendance film. Once again, I really enjoyed the process of editing and producing this film. The main message we wanted to send was now that we all have an understanding of nature and what she provides, we need to take care of her in a whole new way. I didn't want it to be a completely negative response because I think some good has been done, but I wanted to have underlying tones of how serious the climate emergency is. Bethan's poem was a beautifully self-written piece that portrayed exactly this. Leading into my live performance of spoken word and surreal made music to send the audience on a sort of trance but guidence about the way I believe we need to ask questions and learn more about what we can do to prolong the inevitable.

This piece was set in site-specific locations specifically around Anglesey, North Wales. We use screen dance, poetry, music scores, spoken word and live dance to portray these messages. This was performed end of June, 2021 at Pontio, Bangor (North Wales). Please find the link below.