Art, Dance and Theatre

Everything to do with artistic activity.

Picasso now

~ Kate Wilson ~ 3 Comments

This week we are ‘doing’ Picasso in the summer school. It neatly fits in with the circus activities as Picasso often painted clowns and travelling circus people in his early work.
Before I write about the art work I just want to say what fun it was to do an introductory clown class. We had to imagine our eyes on the ends of our noses and walk around the room, looking with our noses. It makes a huge difference to how you walk!
Then we walked one by one across the room, as normally as you can when a group of children are watching you.  After deciding what stood out most about our way of walking, we then copied and exaggerated it. This class only lasted about 10 minutes as the group was suffering from an attack of Attention Deficit Syndrome but I could have done it all day.

We tried out doing Picasso portraits of each other.  If you fancy playing around with this I also found a great web site where you can make Picasso Heads.

A Hard Days Night

~ Kate Wilson ~ 1 Comment

Last minute change of plan.  I was ready to set off for Barcelona for tango and time with friends when a summer malaise crept up on me. I decided an evening at home was needed rather than a hot sweaty walk to the train, followed by a stuffy night in the city.  And tonight there was an open air showing of A Hard’s Day Night in the Plaça de Can Sínia, just five minutes down the road.
There is always something special about watching a film outside, in short sleeves and sandals, with warm air brushing your skin.
I remember seeing this first time round. Sitting in the cinema with my mother and turning to her midway through asking ” shall I scream now?”

It would be nice if John Lennon was still around, no?
Next week they will be showing MASH!

The Miro Show

~ Kate Wilson ~ 2 Comments

This weeks work on Miro culminated with a show of paintings, costumes, dance, songs and theatre.

It was beautiful!
We had looked at Miros paintings and picked out some of the themes – his use of earthy colours and strong reds, blacks, and yellows. The basic recurring images  of suns, birds, stars, the moon, and abstract lines and points which remind you of dreams and night time imaginings.
The day of the show was exciting. Somehow it all came together.

One of the boys wanted to paint a spider – he made it a huge one with big furry legs and we cut it out of cardboard and painted it black and red. He wore a black cape and had his face painted with a web design. His part in the show is to enter Miro’s dream and crawl around the floor, scaring the audience, tickling the feet of the sleeping artist and then finally enter the picture that is created at the end when they all stood together making a picture of their own.
Another girl, often a little shy, chose to paint eyes. The One who Looks. She came on stage so proud and confident that I almost cried. She danced with her cardboard eyes attached to her head and hands, looking at all the other images.
The smallest one – aged 5 – had chosen to paint the sun so she wore orange and red, face painted with hot colours and carrying a beautiful sun. In rehearsal she was a little overwhelmed but at the show she stumbled on entering the stage and almost fell. This made her laugh and she carried on with her dance in such a funny smiling giggly way that everyone relaxed and she really was the Sun giving warmth.
I love seeing the faces light up with excitement, watching how those who were nervous find confidence, seeing them do things they at first said ‘No Puc!’ (I can’t)

Me too – I did things I thought ‘No Puc’ and hopefully my face too brightened when it went alright.

summer school

~ Kate Wilson ~ 6 Comments

Today I took Duna for a walk down by the river. We met a new dog, one of the tiny variety that is so common here and for once Duna let it sniff her without raising her lip and snapping. You can never tell with these small ones – she really doesn’t like some of them but others pass some secret test and she will chase them around for a while. Here they are at the back of this picture getting to know each other

And here is Duna with the horrible flats in the background but….look at those glorious flowers!

I talked to the owner  – in Castellano this time. When I asked ‘Com es diu?’ (what is he called?) he answered   ‘Se llama Nury’.
It’s complicated like that here. You can’t be sure who speaks what until the conversation begins. And sometimes people who actually are Catalan change to Castellano because they think I will prefer it. Oh it makes life interesting!
In the summer school we did automatic drawings and also drawing with the non-dominant hand. To help us get more into the Miro world of imagination and dreams. I led this exercise which is the first time I’ve done that and managed to do it in Catalan.  The language wasn’t the problem, it was more getting 6 children to stop chatting and asking questions. They loved doing the drawings of moon and suns and stars and birds with their eyes shut and were amazed to see what they had done without all that intense ‘trying to get it right’ energy.
Then it was the rehearsal and it was wonderful to see them getting nervous behind the scenes then coming out and playing their parts, acting out a little story about Miro.  Songs, dressing up, props that we made, dancing, drama, the final bows.   All in one week – to my surprise it comes together and creates magic.
Tomorrow is the show. The audience are the parents and we are there to whisper prompts. No-one minds if things go awry. But it absolutely is the real thing – the nerves, the adrenalin, the buzz., the applause.

I will let you know how it goes.

Summer School

~ Kate Wilson ~ 5 Comments

Today was my first day working in the summer school. This year we have chosen Famous Artists as our theme.
First Miró.
Now I know a lot more about him than before. He lived to be 90. Was born in Barcelona in the Gotic Area and lived the last 20 years of his life in Majorca. He was shy and liked working with images from his imagination, like the things you see when it is late at night and you are tired and there are patterns in front of your eyes.
The children found it easy to relate to these forms of suns, stars, ladders and insects.
And I noticed that my Catalan is so much better this year. Now I can communicate with them about more than just drinks and toilets!
It is lovely to see them gain confidence on the trapeze – first nervous and not wanting to take the risk. Then the beam of joy when they are up high with arms outstretched and swinging without support.
Can you see the spider in this pose?

What I love is seeing them working away on paintings and sculptures in the workshop – we produced some lovely cut out forms to use in Fridays show. When they are finished I’ll add a photo.
I used to be scared of children – they can be frightening when they just stare at you and then, when they have formed some secret opinion, turn their heads away to look for someone more interesting.


So it’s a challenge taking part in the summer school and it’s not over yet – four weeks to go – but today I felt much more relaxed about it all. Isn’t it funny how some things take almost your whole life to get to grips with? I was very shy at school and found the others terrifying with their confident games and loud voices. Of course I have moved on from there but still the presence of children can reactivate that fear of being rejected.  My mother ‘not-in-law’ once told me she felt the same – one of the many very nice things she shared with me to help me feel comfortable here.  It’s so nice to know you are not the only one!