2020 Wrap + 2021 News
2020 started well at the centre de création with some new beginnings. Then in March Covid arrived. We were in the middle of the delivery of our annual Guildhall MA module with 8 students and 4 performers on site with artistic supervisor Catrin Osborne. I was settling down into my yoga teacher training in the South of France. Then everything stopped.
Students were recalled back to London and I needed to return to the centre. Unfortunately, work also dried up very quickly for Anystage. At that point Rachel Schiffer a tight-wire and cradle artist from the US who was assistant supervisor for us on Guildhall decided not to go back to the States but to reside here for an extended residency. So, for the next few months we set about developing a small piece of work which involved Vivaldi and the walnut grove and a lot of homemade cake! and a short video was created by videographer Iwan Essery. We also had Imogen Huzel and Milla Kurronen at the beginning of their concept creation phase in fact they didn’t think they would create any work but after a week they produced some interesting material that was filmed involving a front room and two antique chairs.
Anthony Weiss took up residence and did some research towards a large show project that will premier in Avignon festival next year. Finally, Francesca Mari arrived and juggled tirelessly and created some beautiful work.
We also took this time to build a new website and have been thinking of all sorts of new and exciting projects for 2021.
We will be launching our new retreats that we hope people will enjoy. We are happy to host the Stokey Yoga retreat run by Catrin Osborne and the return of Summer Solstice retreat with Lisa Hood. We will also be running our very first DADA event in June (Dordogne, Aerial, Dance, Atelier) DADA was also an anti-art movement in 1915. The word also means Hobby Horse in French. We have some amazing teachers and there are only 25 places, so come and hang out with us in hot and sunny June. We will continue running our yearly classes, check out our yoga classes. I have finally managed to obtain my Ashtanga certification and we have dedicated our small studio into a Yoga Shala. In August 2021, our bi-annual REDFEST will be happening. It has been a very hard year for artist all around the world so we hope this event will happen and we can celebrate some great work as we need to support creation to help the industry recover. So please come and support us and join in with the festival.
So, as the seasons change we continue to make nettle soup, rose hip gin, walnut liqueur (with our own walnuts) turn over the vegetable plot hoping it will feed all the artists in next year’s ‘redfest’ and we continually hack back the land and build endless bonfires throughout the winter months. We haven’t quite gone down the road of wwoofing but we are tempted to get some help in exchange for a residency.