Wednesday, 9 December 2015

Happy Holidays!

While we get all our bizniz affairs in order after a busy year with SpectreTown, Elspeth is off beginning development on a new project with Glasgow Life called Buaireas anns an Uisge / Trouble the Water. She's going to be teaming up with our Assistant Director from SpectreTown, Rob Jones, and working with dancers/actors for 2 weeks in January 2016, before presenting a sharing of a work in progress at Tramway, Glasgow. Here's a bit more about the piece so far, below. Stay tuned for more info!

Stoirm Òg xxx




Buaireas anns an Uisge

Aig toiseach na linne seo, 2000, bha Uilleam Ruff, fear ainmeil mar neach-ciùil jazz Amairicanach, ag agairt gu robh mòran de cheòl African-Amairigeanach, gu mòr an crochadh air modh seinn nan salm as na h-Eileannan an Iar, a chaidh tarsainn a'Chuan Mhor nuair a bha am malairt nan tràillean a'tachairt. Is ann do dhualchas Africa-Amearaga a bhuinneas Ruff, is na bharailsan, ‘chan eil a’ bhreug ann an ceòl’ - ged tha e doirbh gabhail ris a-seo; bhon an uairsin chaidh a’chàineadh mar neach-brathaidh do chinneadh. Mas e an fhirinn gu bheil dualchas an latha an diugh air a’ sniomh a beartais is co-ionnanachd a’chinne-daoine, carson a theireamaid gur ann a-mhàin leinn fhein a tha e? Is e seo turas nan òrain is dannsa, a’ rugadh le cràdh an fhulangais, is gu h-aithghearr a dh fhàs gu glaodhaich is casaid.

Trouble the Water

In the early 2000s, eminent American jazz musician Willie Ruff suggested that much of African American music has its roots in the Gaelic psalm singing of the Western Isles, which crossed the Atlantic in the same years as the slave trade. Ruff, an African American, insists that although it’s painful, ‘the music can’t lie’, and he has since been called a traitor, and a puppet of white polemic. If most of contemporary culture is a maelstrom of influences, why do we want to claim ownership of it? This is a journey of dances and songs which begin as cries of suffering, and become the most urgent calls of protest.