Fleeting Moments

On the 4th and 5th of September with support from The Bluecoat, we produced two more shows of Fleeting Moments.

On the 4th we presented a performance exclusively for BUPA care homes. Eight BUPA care homes came together to sponsor the performance. This was a new approach for Chaturangan and also for the care sector. The manager of the lead care home Hillside attended and gave us a real boost of confidence. All this was possible for the support and hard work of the activities coordinator Alice Lenkiewicz. I requested freelance arts consultant Sri Sarker to project manage the BUPA involvement part of the project. We thank her for time and expertise to make it a successful partnership.

The 5th was our public performance which was graced by the lord Mayor of Liverpool and the Mayoress. We had a good mixed audience representing different sections of the wider community. There were residents of care home, medical centres, students, University lecturers, arts practitioners, community groups, individuals living with dementia and their care partners. People travelled from London, Nottingham and Manchester. Notable absence was from the DAA partners Huge thanks to all artists who gave their time and effort so freely to make the performance a success, particularly Karen Wynne who at a very short notice came to our rescue by providing
excellent music for the show. Our usual musician was touring in Europe. We want to extend ur thanks to Eimear Kavanagh for making beautiful props and Kali for stage managing on both days.

Images by Simon Richardson here.
Images by Vipoy Sangoi here.
More images here.

Creative Dementia Conference, Oxford

Bisakha delivered a workshop cum lecture on Dance and Care of Dementia at this conference.

Elixir Festival

Sadler’s Wells in London organised a three day festival to celebrate dance and ageing. Bisakha was invited to deliver a workshop on Choreographing for Elders. She was assited by Anusha Subramanyam and Kali. The workshop was appreciated by all the participants.

Creative Dementia Conference

A very interesting and valuable conference for care workers in Somerset was held on 25th October in Wells. It was organised by Alice Allen and Dr Sue Jennings. Dr Jennings is a Churchill fellow and highly respected for her work with People living with Dementia. It was a comparatively small conference but highly informative and offering practical support to the care staff. I had a large group. Many of the participants thought that they will be able to use the ideas introduced in the session. Alice attended my session at the Oxford conference and felt that the workshop ideas will be useful for their participants.She was an excellent host and a very good contact in south of England, I have already consulted her for my work. The participants were introduced to the Fleeting Moment and the dance resource on the Art4Dementia website.

Delivering Dignity Conference

Throughout last year The Kings College Hospital London, nursing staff have been engaged in a year long initiative to develop good practice for caring with Dignity. The conference was the final event of the project. I feel extremely honoured to get this opportunity to deliver the Keynote lecture to the right group of people who can, and are, making a difference.

Time to Share

On 4th of June 2014, on the initiative of the activities coordinator of Moss View Care home in Page Moss 6 care homes belonging to HC-ONE company came to a church hall in Page moss to attend a culturally vibrant and diverse afternoon performance arranged in line with the format of Fleeting moment. There were about 70 care home residents and their carers came for this unique performance of combining different art forms and varied cultures. We had dances from Hope university students, Fenfen and Bisakha, live music by Chris Davies, a new live arts performance of drawing a liver bird with Ali Harwood. We tried a different idea of birds and trees to engage the
audience in simple physical activity.The centres brought cakes and biscuits and the church provided the drinks, space and the projector.

Pulse Tagore workshop

This was the introductory event of the pulse Tagore centre conference later in the year.Bisakha delivered a workshop which was a happening where exchange, experimentation and sharing allowed all to grow. A large group. largest ever for Tagore centre of dancers and non dancers thoroughly enjoyed moving and understanding “Tagore between the lines”.

WCMT award ceremony

This was a beautiful event at the historic Assembly HalI of the Church House, in London Dame Mary Peters gave the awards to the recipients of Churchill fellowship.

NW Churchill Fellowship

On the 27 th of September Bisakha was invited by NW Churchill Fellows Association to give a lecture on her fellowship travel to Canada,

Liverpool university

Julie Hanna invited to deliver a lecture for a group of students of Occupational Therapy at the Liverpool University. This was an interactive session focusing on Ageing and Age appropriate activity.

Hop (1+2)

With Our HOP(Happy Older People) funding we worked in partnership with West Derby Christian Women’s Fellowship and delivered two very enjoyable sessions for them. The group meets on Monday afternoons The Millennium Centre in the west Derby. I could tell them about HOP and encouraged them to attend HOP events in the future. I was pleasantly surprised to see the interest with which they wanted to learn about the cultural background. The first session introduced Indian dance and music and the second one was on Chinese cultural dance. It was very good to connect with this local group. Thanks to my friend Kathy Yates for the introduction. They would like to invite us back, There were representatives of other groups as well who expressed interest to invite us for their meetings. The sessions were delivered by Chris Davies, Bisakha and Fenfen