blog

Our first workshop began by dividing into pairs and chatting with the conversation starter:
“your good dreams”...
Nine weeks later and three hours before we perform our co-created piece 'And from that day on, I always wear green' to an audience of womxn and children, my pockets are full of clothes pegs. I'm securing a washing line between the Church's stone pillars, hoping it will take the weight of the objects selected to represent each of our dreams. It holds! I take the things off the line and pile them on top of each other in preparation for the scene in the performance when each of us goes to the washing line to hang up a dream. In other parts of the piece each woman speaks about or dances their dream. To introduce our group I will describe each woman's dream; some are the sort you have when you're awake, describing hopes and aspirations, some are the sort you have when you're fast asleep:

Ahlam (bright green shirt) - “When I was younger, I lived in Iraq. I dreamt of having my own clothes shop. I did it. I was 19 years old. Then the war came. I lost it. That's life. Now I'm here. I enjoy my new life. I never give up.”

Cavita (toy fish) - “One day I dreamt of a big and beautiful fish. I woke up and I felt happy and calm. After this day I always wear green.”

Marianne (a picture of a pineapple cradled in the crook of an arm) - “One night I dreamt of a pineapple baby”

Monisola (house made of tin foil and paper) “Ladies and gentlemen, before I came to England I dreamt I was standing inside a house made of glass. And when I came to England it became true.

Isabella (post card) “Before I came to England I dreamt of many people from different cultures sharing moments with each other. And look at us here today.”

Maryam (leaf) “I dream that our children will see a greener planet than me. I am a vegan and I save water. I dream for FREE BUS PASSES!'

Performers: Isabella, Maryam, Cavita, Ahlam, Monisola
Commissions: Cavita, Monisola, Ahlam
Meeting Point project leader: Judith Shalkowski
Creative producer: João Maio
Artistic director: Marianne Tuckman
Live music/ voice workshops: Georgie Buchanan
Photography: Mahshid Alavi

The first time I worked with the women's group at Meeting Point, an organisation offering practical and emotional support in Armley, Leeds, was in 2015. My collaborator Megan Haines and I invited a group of women to participate in our final year choreography project during our studies at Northern School of Contemporary Dance. Thanks to the enormous support and hard work of Judith (project worker at Meeting Point) I have been able to return to work with the women's group three times, all of which were funded by Leeds Inspired and two were produced by my dear friend João Maio.

This latest venture is the most ambitious and largest scale participative project that I have lead to date. It spanned nine weeks, encompassing weekly dance, theatre and singing/ songwriting workshops and culminated in a live performance for an audience of womxn and children to celebrate Refugee Week 2022. In addition to the co-created group piece which involved elements of live dance, theatre, song and harp music, there were three paid commissions from womxn performing artists from refugee and asylum seeker backgrounds.

For the 2021 workshops, singer, songwriter and harpist Georgie Buchanen kindly gave me recordings from her unreleased album. It felt so good dancing together to Georgie's music that I was excited when she agreed to collaborate on this project, playing live for the dance/ theatre workshops and facilitating the voice/ singing workshops. During a pre-project planning meeting we decided on the framing theme 'new beginnings'. This Spring-like theme was chosen because we hoped it was open enough for the women to engage with it in a way that felt emotionally appropriate for them; lightly, seriously and all the shades in between. Offering these options is something I have learnt to be important when working with women and young children (as yet I have no experience working with men) from traumatised backgrounds.

Georgie suggested re-writing the song Bella Mama with our collaboratively written lyrics. After the movement workshop and a physical vocal warm up, we spread images selected to represent 'new beginnings' on the floor. We split into smaller groups to have conversations about new beginnings in our lives and hopes for the future. The group engaged very well with this task and we wrote a patchwork song, with each woman sharing her story through a different verse. The content was personal, political,playful, hopeful, courageous and deeply moving.

“Everything is new
I feel surprised
I feel strong also quite lost
New life is coming everything will change

When I came to England my life changed a lot
When I came to England my life changed a lot
I have everything that I need
I have lots of experiences

When i came to England I was scared
I didn't know where to start
But now i feel accepted
I've made friends
When i wake up i feel safe

I feel proud of myself
My heart is my very best friend
I care about sharing and generosity
We must help each other
Never give up

We must save water and use less
We hope for a future without cars
More greens spaces, more green spaces, more green spaces
When i am outside I feel free

We need our documents so things can change
We need our documents so things can change
I want to go to school i want to work
I want to walk in green spaces

I hope that our children can see
A greener planet than me
Free bus passes, free bus passes, free bus passes, free bus passes
Free bus passes for us."

During the nine weeks our workshops were attended by different women, some came every week, some, due to their extremely complicated living situations dropped in an out. Senait, wrote the verse

“We need our documents so things can change
We need our documents so things can change
I want to go to school i want to work
I want to walk in green spaces”

She could not attend our workshops again because she was waiting for her ID card from the home office. She couldn't take the risk of not being there when it arrived in case someone else in her shared accommodation would take it. The card was weeks late and once it did eventually arrive, the pressure to work and study was such that she didn't have the time to attend our workshops. I kept in touch with Senait, sending her pictures of her lyrics through whatsap, to which she replied “O lovely, thank you darling'.

One week in May we were visited by a young woman from Eritrea and her daughter who stayed sleeping in a push chair, while her mother danced and sang. We began the workshop with the question “what did you dream last night”, she said I dreamt of my baby son who I left in Eritrea. I dream of him most nights. After our workshop we had lunch together and stayed to watch women from Meeting Point read their poems as part of the planting and writing project Roots Shoots Bloom Fruits LS12. During the performance she rested her head on my shoulder. She asked me my age. I told her 27. She was shocked! Don't you have any children? I said not yet. I asked her how old she was. She said 19. She is living alone with her 6 month year old daughter in a flat in Armley. I said is the flat nice? She said not really. I feel quite lonely. I need to focus on learning English so that once I am 18 I can work for this reason I will not come to dance again.

M.Scott Peck defines community as "a group of individuals who have learned how to communicate honestly with each other, whose relationships go deeper than their masks of composure, and who have developed some significant commitment to "rejoice together, mourn together," and to "delight in each other, make others' conditions our own."
this definitely describes the women's group at Meeting Point. Each Wednesday after our workshop, we go into the main hall where other women and children were gathered. Each week, women would come to eat a home cooked lunch, talk, laugh, tease and care for each other. After the meal Judith would introduce the afternoon activities such as sewing, bingo (a definite favourite!), haircuts and English classes. She would also describe what practical materials she had to offer such as baby products and clothes.

Community is one of the core interests and governing principles guiding of how I live my life; I live in a housing commune, am a member of many artist collectives and take care to nurture networks of friend and working relationships. I have however, never experienced a stronger community that the women's group at Meeting Point. This is a group of women who have all been forced to leave their homes and experienced deep pain. From my experience, for many Northern European cultures it is understood that such experiences mean that people will have less energy available for others. In contrast, there is an overwhelming atmosphere of empathy and openness in this room (important to note that this is a space without men). Something else that strikes me is the palpable feeling of enthusiasm and determination to experience life fully and unapologetically.

“To be sensual... is to respect and rejoice in the force of life itself and to be present in all that one does from the effort of loving to the baking of bread.”
James Baldwin, Down at the Cross

Ahlam (bright green shirt) - “When I was younger and living in Iraq, I dreamt of having my own clothes shop. I did it. I was 19 years old. Then the war came. I lost it. That's life. Now I'm here. I enjoy my new life. I never give up.”

Instead of recognising and rewarding this spirit, our establishment offers asylum seekers a pitiful amount of support. For this reason, providing bus passes to the participants was crucial to enable attendance to the sessions. We ended our piece 'And from that day on, I always wear green' punching the aire and chanting 'FREE BUS PASSES FREE BUS PASSES FREE BUS PASSES FREE BUS PASSES FOR US'.

The first time I shared my dream, an image from my solo piece The Dirt, with the group was during a workshop task when we were all tangled up together in knot. I said 'One night, I dreamt of a pineapple baby', and all the women spontaneously reacted in an uproar of English learnt in Yorkshire 'You what??' 'oooh, that's lovely!' 'Come, on lov!' “Pineapple...?? Don't be silly!” I loved this moment of playful and spontaneous reactions and asked the women to re-create it as part of our piece. The women did this fantastically.

I had pre-conceptions that a group of women aged 40 and above from refugee and asylum seeker backgrounds would have a more of a preference for slower and sensitive movement and voice tasks. In our group there were individuals for whom this was the case, but the general group dynamic was a high level of energy and engagement with playful, theatrical and at times childish tasks. Favourites included Georgie's vocal warm up which involved walking in the beat to Nina Simone's 'Baltimore' while punching the air shouting 'Ha' 'He' 'Ho', pulling each other across the room and opening an imaginary curtain saying “excuse me, out of my way!”.

A challenge when working with non-professional performers is that spontaneity and risk taking in workshops can lessen when performing to a live audience. Not the case with this group! Our group (I performed too) were so in tune with each other and had such ownership of the material that during the performance, we surprised ourselves by adding an improvised scene of energetic voice and movement before returning to the set structure. On our final rehearsal before show week, Monisola dropped to her knees and offered a prayer to rejoice the opportunity we had as a group to share our songs, stories and dances with the public. This was a very moving moment for me. Throughout the process, the commitment of this group of women made the space shimmer with joy. If it were a colour it would be bright, bright green.

“It was an amazing experience to see the women that we had been working with develop and flourish in the context of the public performance. It felt important that they could share their work with a broad audience and that through their performance their personal expressions and life experiences could be made visible. It seemed that their passion for the work was infectious as the performances culminated in a spontaneous moment of singing and dancing where the audience got up to join in. The fact that there were only women in the audience definitely made the participants feel more comfortable.”
Georgie Buchanen

“Whao, it's fantastic. I really enjoy the performance. I wish it continue. Thanks so all the crew. I really enjoy myself”

“Excellent work. Enjoyed every second, wish you continue for many months. Don't stop doing good job. Bravo!!”

“Very nice, very good. I loved your show.”

“I loved seeing the group happy and dancing.”

“Inspiring and heart-warming to watch! All the women are incredible and I'm in awe of them!”

“I like this group xx”

“Very good to be together”

“Very good and interactive group. Involving all. Thanks.”
“Beautifully co-crafted! Moving glimpses into personal experiences. Free, safe expression. More please! :)”

“It was very engaging and fun watching.”

“Gorgeous!”

“Fabulous event. Very moving and uplifting. Never been to anything like this. Emotionally uplifting. Loved the dancing at the end. Thankyou!”

“YES! You filled the room and our spirits with hope, strength, joy and connection. So great to witness womxn being together, sharing, celebrating and thankyou for inviting us into that. Special stuff <3”

“Such a beautiful thing to witness and take part in. A true celebration of creativity and community. More please!”

“It was really very lovely dancing and singing. I have enjoyed it. Thank you.”

“Watching this performance was great. It showed confidence and connection within the women and how powerful this group is at bringing women together in their new community.”

“Very very very good. Very very good. Love to dance.”

“Loved to dance I feel happy.”

“Brilliant singing.”

“Very good made me happy.”

“Fantastic. Please come again”

“It was wonderful to see the women having the confidence to perform in front of an audience.”

“It was an excellent performance bringing together so many different parts of the world. A beautiful celebration of the diversity of cultures in the UK.”

“Loved it when we all joined in. Loads of noise. Children loved it too.”

“Good singing. I enjoyed very much”

“Good sing”