Sunday 19 February 2017

The mysteries of Fallibroome



Magic, mystery and wild imagination

Fallibroome Creativity Week

13 - 18th February 2017 

The Wizard of Alderley

  

What a week that was! I’ve arrived at Sunday after 5 days (Saturday was caught up in remarkably sensible discussions elsewhere)of giants and aliens, adventurous children, terrible dragons, a wizard, a horse and a set of sleeping knights, 100 painting, gluing artists, an eagle…

It begins to read like a shopping list for an adventure tale – but that would be another story

This week was Fallibroome Academy’s Creativity Week (this year’s theme was “Magic and Mystery”) where children from the partner primary schools all throw themselves (quite literally, there is a lots of dance and drama) into days that set imaginations free and running
Dragon 7
He arrives like curtains drawn across the sun
An exploding volcano of a dragon
His teeth are a saw,
Housed in the doom of his jaws
Eyes that glow as bright as lava,
Welcome you to the burning pools of his heart


first ideas for aliens
Trips to the Whitworth and Manchester Art Galleries, rub creative shoulders with adventurous science, dance workshops, Forest School and…I’m involved as one of the artists so tend to get swallowed by my sessions and don’t really build a sense of the whole thing other than the sheer scale of the organisation. But it is wild and wonderful and the Thursday evening sees a sharing event at Fallibroome where children and excited families fill the whole theatre. This year we saw dancing cats (well done, Mottram!), an almost abstract Wizard of Alderley (Nether Alderley – magnificent), the Wizard as a drama, Peter Pan in 5 minutes (well controlled, Tinkerbell). There were sound experiments on stage, a wonderful rescue of a stolen bride with fire breathers and jugglers and dancers (just what every rescue needs) and Fallibroome’s own dance club showed just what out of school clubs can offer determined young people. (Apologies for anyone I missed)

Dragon 5. 
Angry lightning,
A Lion’s roar,
A midnight evil,
Her heart a closed door

enchantment window in progress
But for my sessions….we went from charming – aliens from the book “The Loon in the Moon”, to mysterious – enchantment windows (you never know what you might see when you look through – we hoped for unicorns), to magnificent – a 3metre long frieze of Alderley Edge with contributions from 90 children, to captivating…images of the storytowers will follow. I did lots. The children I worked with did more. I thoroughly enjoyed myself and hope children did too!

a small but cheerful alien
Then we hit the Bollinbrook Dragons….I make no judgement, just post some of the reports below. The photos didn’t even get that far
 
Dragon 1. 
Diamond bright eyes in lizard scale skin
Dagger teeth are butcher’s knives
And his breath scorches in a shotgun blast
And his soul,
His frozen soul would freeze your heart


Dragon 2. 
She is a bright summer day until you open the wardrobe doors of her heart
Bedrock bones and dagger teeth,
With cheetah stealth she’ll stalk you,
Watching from eyes as cold as glaciers,
Welcoming you into the cauldron of her mouth
And the dark abyss of her winter soul

And we ended with the Friday afternoon giants of Mottram. At least we can end on some smiling faces. Don’t know what they are smiling about, of course...

Giant
Our giant is a stormy night in winter
With arms that cling as tight and wrap as strongly as a squid’s tentacles
His fingers prickles like cactus spines
He is an exercise machine of a giant,
Fast, strong, relentless,
Spring-loading his legs into trampolines,
He hammers people as nails into the ground,
But his hunger,
His hunger is a black hole that could swallow whole worlds.

at least some of our giants smiled!


With many thanks to all the staff and children (and apologies to the cleaners) of
Whirley Primary School
Bollinbrook Primary School
Upton Priory Primary School
Nether Alderley Primary School
Mottram St Andrew Primary School
And Fallibroome Academy!



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