Outreach underway


Rehearsals are underway for A Thousand Faces, a full-length new work premiering on 27 November at mac Birmingham. Amina has been working with Harmage S. Kalirai on contexts of mime and Abhinaya, of which we will be covering more next week.
 
In the meanwhile, and equally importantly, our Outreach work has also begun for this autumn season- in Brighton, Woking and Birmingham, later of where Amina hosted a workshop for women from a Sheltered Home, all victims of domestic violence. The women don't leave the shelter often except to occasionally shop for food. Their tight budgets mean they have learnt to pool their money, buying and preparing food together to make it go further. Mealtimes are when the shelter comes together and feels like a home. However with rules and restrictions designed to ensure the safety of residents it can feel like a cage with one resident commenting that though she was now free from violence the strict rules of the shelter still made it feel as if freedom had been taken from her.
 
Our workshop was a chance for some respite from rules and regulations and gave women the chance to enjoy themselves, learn new skills and make friends. Despite their personal experiences the group enjoyed discussing the theme of violence against women, finding it very therapeutic.
 
Amina also ran a workshop in Brighton with the Banyan Tree, a community group set up to promote Black and Minority Ethnic experiences to children and families through a range of arts based activities.
 
More workshops are planned over the coming weeks in the above locations where we’ll look forward to engage dance and movement skills to interface with themes from our productions.