And Spontaneously - change. Tramway Beyond Walls
(This is in response to current project I am facilitating "10 Seconds of Joy" part of Tramway Beyond Walls. It is part dancing Disco Chicken, Part Outdoor Dance parties with kids in the schools, part film spectacle and part shared film premiere. May/June 2021. It is all groovy and fabulous).
Spontaneous laughter. Spontaneous dancing. Spontaneous feelings of happiness.
Spontaneously something changes for a moment. Shoulders relax. Eyes brighten. People are joyous. Change. When I "did" the Dancing Christmas Tree for my son's school in December, the first newspaper report to come out said 'Mystery Woman Dances Dressed as Christmas Tree'. Anyone who knows me, and there are many of you, laughed *at THAT*. 'Mystery, ha ha, that's Kate E. Deeming'.
Last week I captured a tiny moment of Glasgow workmen dancing in response to my chicken shenanigans. Truth be told - THAT is MY normal. Sometimes i think I am the pavlov for dance, folks just start to have a boogie when I am around - and in particular if I am dancing to. I love that so much.
There are hundreds of such moments in my memory. The majority were *not* part of a project, or related to a venue, just 'projects' I created in my inbetween moments - something I felt drawn to do. It's like turning on a light, if there is darkness metaphorically, psychologically then I can create some sort of light, and people respond to that. Most are not captured by camera, many existed before the internet (yes even then!). And yet I do believe they are a catalyst for something greater and so important. These wee flutters, sometimes seconds, sometimes minutes, sometimes longer of us dancing with and in spite of the chaos.
When I worked in Sri Lanka during the war (and after), I made dance with Tamil and Sinhala children. These children only ever had the experience of 'the other' as a demon, a shadowy force who had destroyed their lives. And indeed, the force of the war was based around this. And yet they found a space in their lives to dance with 'the other', to create new stories, to reinforce the light, what was shared, not what divided.
If we do not take time to celebrate and build upon what we have in whatever way is possible, then I ask, what are we actually fighting for? I do feel there is so much anger and fear, and subsequent virtue built around these emotions we forget what it means to actually be alive.
Dancing with children of Pollokshields this week, our own brilliant JOY TEAM, is a wonderful validation of what we are because and despite all our differences. I do believe in a better today and tomorrow.
And so this Disco Chicken will continue to dance, and invite each and every one of you to find space in your life to do the same.
Thanks to all for being my light.
Squawk squawk Squawk!!! xxoo
https://www.tramway.org/events/Pages/Kate-E--Deeming.aspx
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