Haud the Gither

18/01/2023

Another new year has dawned

We’re all of us a year older, if we’re lucky enough, fortunate enough, privileged enough, to have made it this far. Something to be celebrated, and knowing that, feels like one of the joys of growing old.

Like most folks, at the turn of the year resolutions were made, roots of resolve, to bring more, better, into being. There’s no doubt there’s much that weighs heavy and needs changing in us, in society, in the world, and for us, society, and the world.

Here are mine:

  • Be the change – not always possible, but attainable in lots of ways and important to aspire to
  • Slow down – the world goes too fast and demands too much, find simplicity, sufficiency, sustainability, degrowth, more open-ended time, and time for deep care and care-fullness
  • Haud the gither and haud oan tight – hold together, hold onto each other, work for the greater good and the common good, we need each other
  • And, to bring these all into body and into being – how we move and why, swim against the tide at times, share practice, be responsive, work alone, work with others, the small things count

May these reveal themselves, and act as guides and anchors, in this up-and-coming work:

  • Not Brittle Not Rigid Not Fixed : a publication resulting from work with Edinburgh Art Festival and the Union Canal, last August. With contributions from responder/witnesses architect Suzanne Ewing, visual artists Audrey Grant and Mathew Arthur Williams, and commissioning artist Emmie McLuskey. An invitation to sink more deeply into our cities, and to move differently within them and within ourselves.
  • The Strange Undoing of Prudentia Hart : by David Greig and Wils Wilson. An absolute gem of a show, full of life, spirit, soul and a big touch of magic. It’s been on the go for 12 years now and about to embark on another American tour. What a joy to be Movement Director, and to bring dance artist Jack Webb into the mix as associate in this gloriously physical show.
  • Castle Lennox : my last but one pre-covid commitments. With Lung Ha Theatre Company. Written by Linda McLean. Part of Edinburgh’s Lyceum Theatre’s current season. An important social political story, one that couldn’t be told 50 years ago. What a thrill to be working with the company again and with MJ McCarthy on music and song. There will be dancing! Catch it 30th, 31st March, 1st April
  • To Avoid Falling Apart : a co-commission with artist Emmie McLuskey made especially for the Travelling Gallery on the experience of finding counterbalance between us, and creating physical reciprocal acts of connection, support and interdependence. Emmie and I share an interest in how we live together and how we experience our moving bodies in society; asking what might happen if we led with our movement and our ordinary/extraordinary human bodies. Touring with the gallery from 10th March to 5th May
  • Weathering Well : Edinburgh School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture as part of the Architectural Design: Tectonics course that draws parallels between human ageing and the weathering of buildings. I’ll be offering a workshop and lecture discussion and really look forward to collaborating with the students. I’m as passionate about shifting perceptions of ageing as I am about movers and movement
  • Daily Movement Practice : in the park or on the street, alone, with others, with the weather, with the land, with the buildings all around us. Some you will find on twitter – @janicemparker – as a way of sharing practice and a gentle invitation to move in the ways that makes you feel good. We all have the right to deeply enjoy the sensation of moving with the fullness of our physically intelligent selves and to experience freedom in our knowing bodies. It’s all there for the asking #WinterDances

Here’s to resolve and a good 2023 for us all, that brings into being, in some small way, change for the better. Happy January everyone, may you enjoy the light in the dark

Janice

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