For 15 years Striking Attitudes has celebrated the older dancer by offering life-affirming performance opportunities in our films and live theatre work.
Work choreographed by Caroline Lamb, artistic director, with Janet Fieldsend, rehearsal director includes some material devised, during our creative sessions, by our uniquely mixed group of trained and untrained participants.
Our performance work has been shown in many venues throughout Wales over the last 15 years, and at Sadler’s Wells in London for the Elixir festival 2014, 2017 and 2019, Older People Dancing Conference, Sadler’s Wells, London 2009, Time To Move conference, Taunton 2009, The Laban conference in London 2011, Dance Ireland, Dublin for the Bealtaine festival 2011, The Crucible Theatre in Sheffield 2011, Bristol for the Full Bloom festival 2018, 2019, Festival of British Cinema 2012 Hay- On-Wye, Dance Base, Edinburgh for the Luminate festival 2019.
We have received support and project funding from Arts Council Wales, Ffilm Cymru – Film Agency For Wales, National Theatre Wales, Community Dance Wales, Coreo Cymru, Gwanwyn Age Cymru, Legal and General, The Foundation for Sport, Arts and Business, The Laura Ashley Foundation and the Sherman among others.
A chronicle for our times, a response to the pandemic and climate change, a giant tapestry of stories in Welsh and English inspired by the Welsh blanket, from Welsh Creative Artists and Older Citizens, led by Artistic Director, Caroline Lamb with Janet Fieldsend and Aleksandra Nikolajev Jones.
How Shall We Begin Again? – 2021.
Jo Fong was the lead artist on this movement performance project in collaboration with Striking Attitudes and guests.
A Series of Autumnal Portraits with Alicia Richards, Caroline Lamb, Cath Noyes, Inga Burrows, Janet Blackman, Shirley Stansfield.
‘Summer’ – the strangeness and uncertainty of Summer 2021. Work in development made from material created in Striking Attitudes’ summer creative Zoom sessions with Caroline Lamb, Janet Fieldsend and Aleksandra Nikolajev Jones, filmed by David Heke.
Looking back on our childhood Springtimes. Looking forwards to the hopes and unknowns of Springtime 2021.
What I need to tell you – 2020.
THE UPS AND DOWNS OF THE 2020 PANDEMIC
We can’t see each other.
We can’t touch each other.
We can’t hold each other
Time Breaks The Threaded Dances – 2019.
Performed at Full Bloom festival, Bristol 2019.
We used a voice recording (probably from 1953) of W.H. Auden reading his poem ‘As I Walked Out One Evening’, written in 1937, and J. S. Bach’s piano Prelude in B Minor.
Eleven members of the Striking Attitudes community group took part, including our oldest member, Dilys Price who is still dancing at 85.
When Thomas Brought The News – 2018.
Created for In Full Bloom- a festival of dance for and by older people at Trinity Community Centre, Bristol
The work was choreographed for Striking Attitudes by Caroline Lamb assisted by rehearsal director, Janet Fieldsend and featured projections of John Piper’s paintings of the mountains of North Wales and included text from the Philosopher Emperor Marcus Aurelius and John Piper
A look at who and where we come from…
‘A place where something originates or is nurtured during its early life.’
Work in progress.
The Long Winter – Wales Dance Platform – 2015.
Something unknown before, unrecognised, lurks concealed in the shadows. Scissors cut, paper drifts, darkness falls. Twigs snap and bird bones break. A piece that hints at the fragility of life and the shock of the unexpected.
Past Lives at Dyffryn House – 2015.
Past lives, ghostly presences, Victorian ladies drift slowly in and out of the stately rooms of Dyffryn House.
Based on a collection of letters to a Miss Griffiths from Wales in the 30s and 40s, this work remembers hopes, disappointed dreams and a time long gone when formality was of consequence and life revolved around simple seasonal pleasures; holidays in Talgarth, the opening of the church fete, the knitting of a new cardigan.
Water drips, sand trickles through fingers, feathers float and fall. Time slips away; the body shifts and re- shapes, everything changes.
An evocative dance theatre piece using text and strong visual imagery.
Each For All: All For Each – 2013.
This work is a collaboration between Artistic Director and Choreographer Caroline Lamb and poet and playwright Patrick Jones. It marks the centenary of the tragic mining disaster in Senghenydd on October 14th 1913.
Once Upon a Time in the Dark, Dark Wood – 2013.
“Deep down in the dark, dark wood and further beyond, in the sinister, brooding forest, secrets and stories lie, waiting to be revealed.
‘Repeat’ music video for the Manic Street Preachers – 2012.
Patrick Jones (poet, playwright and film-maker) invited Striking Attitudes’ professional dancers to collaborate with him on a music video for Manic Street Preachers who are re-releasing an album from 20 years ago.
Footfalls is a brand new dance/art film from Striking Attitudes. It celebrates the older dancer, involving both professional dancers (aged 46-63) and a ‘chorus’ of community dancers (aged 50 to 93) from various regional groups around Wales.
The Eerie Art of Taking Tea -2011.
Striking Attitudes was invited to create a piece for Taliesin’s Dance Days at the National Waterfront Museum in Swansea. ‘The Eerie Art of Taking Tea’ was performed by 15 professional and community dancers and actors.
What Might Have Been Pt. 1&2 – 2011.
Striking Attitudes was invited by Theatre Felinfach in West Wales to choreograph a piece of work as part of an evening shared with Rhodium that celebrated the older dancer for the Gwanwyn Festival 2011. ‘What Might Have Been Part 1’ was performed by June Campbell-Davies, Geraldine Hurl, Belinda Neave and Shirley Stansfield.
The Art of Taking Tea or Illicit Liasons – 2009.
The Art of Taking Tea: A 1930’s tea shop – five women wait in eager anticipation for illicit liaisons that never materialise. As their unfulfilled desire turns first to disappointment and then to angst, it seems only taking of tea followed by a large plate of sweet stuff will appease the anger of these spurned women and satiate their appetite. Five rebellious waitresses compound the chaos that ensues as each makes her own desires and cravings felt.
Remains To Be Seen is a short film celebrating the particular skills and attributes of the older dancer, featuring compelling, moving and intimate images set by the sea, the weathered exteriors of Caerphilly Mountain and the atmosphere interiors of Cardiff’s Victorian architecture.
Three Parts Iced Over – November 2005.
‘Three Parts Iced Over’ was an atmospheric work at the heart of which was the birth to death journey of a twenty first century man, Rhys Williams tragically orphaned at an early age. As his life unfold, he becomes mysterious entwined with ‘Victorian’ Catherine Helstone who lives to dance.
Striking Attitudes 