Author: alan

  • wildfeet

    wildfeet

    Wildfeet workshop fosters connections with nature, the environment, sustainabillity and the body-mind. I provide a safe space to re-connect with yourself, with each other, and with the surrounding environment. I offer simple practices from my wildfeet toolkit to enhance presence, mindfulness and imagination. We will playfully and seriously explore walking and writing, including different ways…

  • research

    research

    Performing the art of community, community as the art of performance  focuses on the collaborative practices of Goat Island Performance Group (Chicago) and BodyWeather (originating in Japan) and includes investigations of strategies of embodiment and intervention in these practices. These practices and strategies lead to a particular ‘formation of attention’ to others and the surrounding environment, which has implications…

  • movement medicine

    movement medicine

    Movement Medicine is a dance and movement practice which promotes holistic health, a sense of wellbeing and a greater awareness of our relationships with others. Movement Medicine is designed for anyone who can move and facilitates a variety of movement exercises to music that release energy, reduce stress and improve flexibility and vitality. I trained…

  • hinterlands

    hinterlands

    workshops for artists and makers exploring the intersections between bodies and environments a rich weekend of embedding, inter-creativity, fruitful kicking against boundaries, going deep into the body, fragments of discovery that fit somehow, attending,  gathering .. gathering .. moving away from rigorous thought into the more unknown

  • healthcare

    healthcare

    A lot of my creative workshops and approaches have been valuable in healthcare settings – I have been lead artist and producer in a variety of projects (see also portfolio section). Most of the images you see here are of cARTrefu workshops across Wales – I worked with elders and the training of carers in…

  • creative pilgrimage

    creative pilgrimage

    Creative Pilgrimage days offer bite sized artistic dives into the essence of pilgrimage. These days offer a sense of the special connection between pilgrims – a chance to connect with others in a creative context, as well as with the pilgrimage route and landscape itself. In 2022, four artists, of which I was one, undertook a…

  • Creative Camino (2022)

    Creative Camino (2022)

    Four artists, four community pilgrims, a film crew and pilgrimage guides made the first modern pilgrimage along the full 160km walking route from Ferns to St Davids (now called the Wexford – Pembrokeshire Pilgrim Way )  Dubbed the ‘Creative Camino’, part of the wider Ancient Connections project, this cross-border journey further demonstrated the shared heritage of…

  • Bristol Museum and Art Gallery (2017-2020)

    Bristol Museum and Art Gallery (2017-2020)

    In a three-year engagement at Bristol Museum, I designed managed creative projects for people living with dementia and their carers. [Read my blog at Bristol Museum.] There were three main pieces of project development: Creative Cafés for people living with dementia and their carers. ArtBox A ‘miniature museum’ that could be taken out to care…

  • Creative Cafés

    Creative Cafés

    The Dementia Friendly Creative Cafés were pop up cafés developed during my engagement with Bristol Museum & Art Gallery for people living with dementia and their carers and family members.  We invited people from across the city in collaboration with the charity Alive, Linkage and the Dementia Wellbeing Service (NHS, North Bristol). At a creative café, we started by warmly…

  • Being Human Moves

    Being Human Moves

    A  series of seven laminated activity cards inspired by sculptures in Bristol Museum and the Being Human exhibition there. They were initially designed for care homes and hospitals with people living with dementia and their carers in mind – but they can be used by people of different ages and abilities. They were developed as…

  • ArtBox

    ArtBox

    beyond this bright gold frame distant trees draw light breathing in such rich patterns how we paint our voices poetry from Creative Cafés engraved on the lid of the boxes Artbox is an activity box, game and ‘miniature museum’ that draws on the sessions in the Creative Cafés and inspired by the 550 year old painting, St Luke Drawing the Virgin…

  • cARTrefu residencies (2015-2017)

    cARTrefu residencies (2015-2017)

    Here is a sound piece edited by Jake Whittaker from recordings of work by Ailsa Richardson during artist residencies in care homes. You will hear musical interactions and conversations with residents and staff of Ashton Park (Newport), Porthceri (Barry), Pantanas Care Centre (Treharris) and Crick House (near Chepstow) (best listened to on headphones). And here…

  • 5 broken cameras … in the language of grasses (2014)

    5 broken cameras … in the language of grasses (2014)

    in the language of grasses was first conceived on summer residency with National Theatre Wales in 2014 and was first performed on that residency. The piece responds to atrocities in Gaza in July 2014 through a dialogue between the artist-performer and a rural, coastal environment in Southwest Wales. in the language of grasses has also…

  • re-member (2004, 2014,…)

    re-member (2004, 2014,…)

    a solo performance in three parts  by ailsa richardson, video created in collaboration with video artist Mel Shearsmith performed at Aberystwyth Arts Centre, Dublin Fringe Festival, Towards Tomorrow International Conference, Articulate Practitioner International Conference, Small World Theatre; with support from Aberystwyth Arts Centre, Arts Council of Wales, Centre for Performance Research and Holy Hiatus. re-member (3)…

  • bodyweather (2014)

    bodyweather (2014)

    skye 2014 A workshop exploring the relationship between body and landscape led by Frank van de Ven (Body Weather Amsterdam). Words from the workshop publicity: Intensive 7-day workshop on the Isle of Skye, Scotland. The Isle of Skye (An t-Eilean Sgitheanach or Eilean a’ Cheò) is the largest and most northerly large island in the…

  • what now (2014)

    what now (2014)

    independent dance, Siobhan Davies studios, London; curated by Frank Bock Over four days and three nights, the 20 residency artists lived and slept in Siobhan Davies Studios in London, following strands of thought, feeding the guest speakers’ contributions into their processes, working on and with actions without necessarily producing choreographic objects. The initial call for…

  • hinterlands 2 (2013)

    hinterlands 2 (2013)

    the second of this series of workshops for artists and makers exploring the intersections between bodies and environments photos are by the participants Ann Rapstoff, Peter Kinsey, Mel Lavery, Fabiano Culora and Mel Shearsmith thanks to all for a rich weekend of embedding, inter-creativity, fruitful kicking against boundaries, going deep into the body, fragments of…

  • home landing (2011)

    home landing (2011)

    home landing was co-devised by myself and film maker Inga Burrows and was performed in a the gallery at the Old Library in central Cardiff as part of Burrows’ and David Green’s exhibition What’s Going On, Dec 2011. A live score was devised and played as part of performances by Rob Smith. home landing attempts to…

  • at the still point of the turning world (2007)

    at the still point of the turning world (2007)

    ‘at the still point’ – a 360 degree revolving video filmed in a forest featuring 5 dancers and a dog made with assistance from Welsh Independent Dance and Widelode shown at Chapter Arts, Cardiff August 2007 at the still point of the turning world   (a video installation) conceived by ailsa richardson and mel shearsmith…

  • exstasis (2006)

    exstasis (2006)

    Following on from the experience of making and performing my solo re-member (3) which explored loss, I found myself wanting to explore aspects of the state of ecstasy. This led me to propose a research period and associated funding to the Arts Council of Wales for a piece with the working title EXSTASIS. The research…

  • where the sky begins (2003)

    where the sky begins (2003)

    lle y dechreua’r ffurfafen performed at la scala – the new sculpture outside Aberystwyth Arts Centre, September 2003 ..the dancers play out an archetypal but strong objective, yearning for what is out of reach but not out of sight…a beautiful, creative and well executed performance. (Western Mail – where the sky begins)

  • the last supper (2002)

    the last supper (2002)

    Centre for Performance Research: performer in The Last Supper – a site-specific installation performance at the Fabrica Europa Festival, Florence, Italy: May 2002

  • the sung and unsung cello (2000)

    the sung and unsung cello (2000)

    a series of actions – taking my cello to remote places and positioning it and my body sculpturally in each site.  I documented each action with photographs and played the cello in each site.

  • from both sides (2000)
  • kneehigh theatre (1999)

    kneehigh theatre (1999)

    performer and musician in productions of  Mannel’s Mango and Ghost Nets 2 (Cornwall): July – Sept 99 In 1999 I spent the summer training the working with Kneehigh Theatre in Cornwall – attending their summer school in Landscape Theatre in the ‘Kneehigh barn’ near Gorran Haven, then performing in two outdoor shows, Mannel’s Mango at…

  • dreaming of flying (1998)

    dreaming of flying (1998)

    Dreaming of Flying was a site specific performance devised by By Word of Mouth that took place at Stapleton Road railway station in Bristol, at sunset on June 9 and 10th, 1998. I co-directed this with Max Holloway and Claire Mitchell and there were 15 performers. Here is the information given to the audience: This site-specific performance…

  • touching moments (1997)

    touching moments (1997)

    here is the press release for this performance:Imagine yourself in a furniture warehouse chock full of wardrobes, dressing tables and gas cookers. Spend two months in the space, which is both strange and familiar and what ideas do you come up with?This is exactly what  By Word of Mouth, a Bristol based company of performers…

  • 1 bloy street (1997)

    1 bloy street (1997)

    in 1997, five artists took up a residency in 1 Bloy St. Bristol – a condemned house on a condemned street – with the intention to make a performance. we worked by flashlight, in dark evenings behind eerily shuttered windows – it is freezing cold. we don costumes and play with dolls. we create acrobalances…