summer school

Nellie the Elephant

~ Kate Wilson ~ 2 Comments
Picasso Week at the Summer School

We were going to work on circus things. I tried to think of an English song to teach.
What about Nellie the Elephant?
And so the show began to take shape and in the end Nellie was the star!

Or one of them. Here is one little tiny student who walked on the red ball – The Ball Of Fire!!! – all the way to the trapeze and then amazed everyone with her high flying act
Picasso made plates at one stage of his life so we did too

And everyone managed to sing Nellie the Elephant in English while wheeling her around in a final parade as she said goodbye to the circus and trundled back to the jungle!

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.

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 ~ 3 Comments

 

Schools here stop after Sant Joan ( June 23th) but many parents continue working until the end of July.  So it is common for children to go to summer schools or summer camps this month. I think I mentioned before in another post that at the back of our house is a building that used to be a textile factory run by the parents and grandparents of my partner. Just as in the UK old churches often change into pubs (something he found very strange when we visited Scotland) here many old factories turn into Art Centres.

Here in Granollers there is La Troca, in the old Roca Umbert factory which was built in 1904 and is now a large Arts Centre with cafe and library and spaces for performance and rehearsal and courses.

And here at home, what used to be a small family run textile business has now transformed into Llançadora Association of Artists.  The name Llançadora comes from the word for the shuttle which was used in the  textile industry.
There are three areas – upstairs a beautiful light room with a wooden floor for dance classes, circus and theatre workshops, movement, singing and exercise

 

There are trapezes

and silky ropes of material called Teles for climbing and performing incredible aerial feats

And lots of interesting things like spinning plates and clubs to juggle with.

Downstairs is a work in progress.  There is a small stage for performances and a space with tables and chairs for parties and meetings and musical jam sessions. Alongside this is a separate area for art workshops – for painting and sculpting and making masks and theatrical props. There are lots of materials available – some which were originally produced or used in the factory. Some of the old machinery is still here.

It is an interesting place full of history and memories and dreams.

And there is a Summer School

For three weeks in July, children from 4 – 10 years old come to Llançadora to enjoy a summer school of artistic activites. I have been helping – a new experience in every way as I have never worked in theatre or circus, I can’t juggle, I don’t speak Catalan beyond the very basic and I have had almost zero practice in working with children. But it has been great fun and the children are lovely and full of ideas and energy.

How I would have loved this when I was young!