We were overwhelmed by the quality and integrity of thought in the applications that we received and are thrilled that we are able to offer two more bursaries than originally planned thanks to the generosity of Gill Clarke’s estate.

The four bursaries have been awarded to:

Kate Genevieve and Genevieve Maxwell - Genevieve is a Dance/Movement artist and Choreographer, with a practice rooted in Anthropology and Somatics. Kate is an Audio Visual Artist and researcher whose work focuses on immersive performance experiences. Genevieve and Kate both fell and broke their spines some years ago, an experience which led both of them to an ‘out of body experience’ during the fall, encouraging a line of enquiry into where and how movement can be felt. The rituals experienced in attempting to heal from this experience contrasted greatly, from Kate’s experience of ritual in the Amazon, to Genevieve’s alienating NHS experience and subsequent disability, wielding different results. They will be working in collaboration with the Sackler Centre for Consciousness Science, including a series of meetings with Neuroscientist Dr Anil Seth (Co-Director) structured around his research into the neurocognitive mechanisms of conscious presence. Their research will focus on the phenomenal possibilities of immersive and body responsive technology, to build firm foundations for further artistic development as well as an opportunity to for a public showing.

Carolyn Deby - is a choreographer who will be working with UCL Urban Laboratory (Director 2005-11) Prof Matthew Gandy, Urban Geographer; Prof Ben Campkin, Director, UCL Urban Laboratory / Lecturer in Architectural History & Theory; Alexandra Baybutt — freelance performer, choreographer, facilitator, analyst, writer and collaborator and Pia Nordin — freelance dancer, teacher, and sirenscrossing performer/collaborator. Carolyn writes…I am interested in the collision between the built environment of cities and the forces of the natural world. It seems to me that the human body is itself the repository and the meeting point for all the conflicts, dreams and fragments that are generated on the border between concrete and green. I am most interested in the places where the city cracks open, or is forgotten: the places where decay and dereliction open up the possibility of seeing the city in an altered light. — C Deby eflyer_citycity.pdf

Adam James - is a visual artist and Royal College of Art graduate who will be working with movement practitioners Andrew Graham and Paola Di Bella, with David Gothard as their Mentor. Their enquiry proposes a collaboration between movement practitioners and visual artist in which body-based movement is used as a tool for questioning the paradoxical relationship between the artist’s role as spectator, and the notional ‘outsider’ lurking within society. In a series of compositions exploring oppositions and equivalents referred to in Jaques Ranciere’s ‘The Emancipated Spectator’, Adam will investigate the equivalence of theatre and community, seeing and passivity, externality and separation, mediation and simulacrum; oppositions between collective and individual, image and living reality, activity and passivity, self possession and alienation.

Frank Bock - is a performance maker, dance artist and psychotherapist who will be collaborating with Astrid Shillings, a clinical psychologist/ whole body focusing teacher from Cologne. They will explore the concept of body laid out in Eugene Gendlin’s ‘ A Process Model’ (1997), a philosophical text which sets out to describe interaction as being first before there is anything else. Gendlin’s conception of the living body is interaction. Implications of this work are being discussed across science and arts and this text is an early precursor to these new paradigms of thinking.

PAL Chair, Roanne Dods, is working closely with PAL’s Founder Artistic Director, Susan Benn, to oversee these pieces of research and to continue the further development of the Movement and Meaning enquiry. All the bursary winners will be presenting their work-in-progress as a part of a 2 day symposium at the Siobhan Davies Studios to be held on May 12th-13th 2012.

More information about this gathering will be published in due course. For further information please call Susan Benn on 07824636933 or email susanbenn@pallabs.org

• In 2011 we launched If Not You Who Else?, PAL’S first non-residential Lab for and with young people.  This represents a point of departure in which 16 young people, with the most diverse backgrounds, explored the relationship between young people, the arts and their local communities in London.  In 10 days over four months, including the time of the riots in Britain, the group worked with six established artists and two Lab Directors to create three new group led youth projects which contribute to greater public participation and community cohesion.  Members of the group have formed strong bonds and they continue to support each other in person and through social media.

• As a result of this experience, PAL has made a longer-term commitment to a new strand of work with young artists, issuing an invitation to recent Lab participants to be part of PAL’s Board with direct involvement in the development of future programmes with and for young people.  In September PAL received a generous grant from the Comino Foundation to further develop this work in partnership with young people from London and their RSA Academy in Tipton.  We look forward to making youth voices much more prominent and active in the future of our organisation.

For most small arts organisations in Britain, 2011 brought about financial challenges.  Our response is both frugal and bold.  PAL Trustee, Rehana Mughal, a talented Cultural Partnerships Producer, is now working with me and our new Administrator, Peter Combes, to design, manage and implement a set of new programmes and create a team of PAL Associates who will support our future work.  We are setting up a new commercial arm called PAL+ to offer more people in the UK and abroad the PAL experience and to bring additional income into our long established charitable enterprise.  Supported by a strong board and exceptional talent pool accrued over 22 years across the UK and overseas, our imagination, as ever, drives us forward.

Over the coming months there will be more opportunities for you to engage in out work through Art of Enquiry conversations, symposia, and new Lab programmes so please follow us on Twitter to hear about what’s happening and ways to get involved.

As Geoff Mulgan says in his recent blog for NESTA: “watch out for a new generation of frugal innovators, frugal laboratories and frugal innovation programmes trying to maximise creative impact for the minimum expense.”

She was herself up to the end, knowing her body and her strength. She kept
working up to the last minute. She went into her hospice at 11am on Monday
morning, and was working with a group of dance artists and thinkers by
midday at Siobhan Davies Studio. She died the next day surrounded by love
and friends, and in her way, made the decision herself about when she was
going to leave us.

She prepared beautifully for her succession - connecting people, making sure
that Independent Dance has a long life, and that her work on her Meaning and
Movement research will continue and have an impact for years to come. She
has given us a huge gift and will be remembered as an inspiration to all of
us in the dance world and beyond.

We at PAL are honoured to be able to continue with Gill’s Movement and
Meaning research, with a donation from Gill to facilitate this. We will let
you know more about this through our website, and will be continuing our
collaboration with Independent Dance, and Siobhan Davies Dance. Our next
Movement and Meaning talk with Nigel Thrift takes place at 7pm on Tuesday
November 22nd at Siobhan Davies Dance in the roof studio, 85 St George’s Road,
SE16ER. This session will be chaired by Professor Sarah Rubidge.

The term ‘emerging’ will be treated flexibly, although the aim to establish a climate of trans-disciplinary interaction from the beginning of an arts and academic research career will be borne in mind.

The research will be shared in an open-studio presentation at the Siobhan Davies Studios in spring 2012.

Your proposal should include an outline of the idea (max one side of A4), biographies of those involved, a budget and timescale.

Each project should be completed by March 2012.

Send your proposal to by 22 October 2011

Further information about the PAL Movement & Meaning Lab programme led by Gill Clarke can be found here.

The programme in generously supported by Arts Council England, The Jerwood Charitable Foundation and Esmee Fairbairn Charitable Foundation.

Tickets are £6 (£4 concessions) and can be booked by phone on 020 7091 9650 or by contacting .

Dancers’ attention is focused on being present in the moving body as the raw material of choreographic creation and performance. Can the skills and knowledge that are the fruits of their inquiry and labour have a wider currency and relevance beyond Dance? What are the questions current within dance inquiry and what kinds of knowledge embedded in its practices might fuel fruitful connections with experts in other fields?  These are the questions that underpin the Movement and Meaning Lab programme.

In February 2011 PAL hosted a residential Lab, directed by dance artist Gill Clarke, with the aim of putting movement experience and embodied knowledge at the heart of an inter-disciplinary discussion. Participants explored ways that the concerns of dance practice could act as a catalyst to promote future conversations and collaborations beyond the dance world. The Lab was followed by three further gatherings which widened the enquiry, bringing together an exciting mix of disciplines.

The four talks aim to stimulate further inter-disciplinary conversations fed by dancers’ knowledge and acknowledging our embodied nature. Come along a join the conversation.

The Movement & Meaning Lab programme is funded by ACE Managed Funds, The Jerwood Charitable Foundation and the Esmee Fairbairn Charitable Trust

In the 120 reviews aggregated, just one review has not been favourable to an extent, which only reconfirms that I AM KALAM is the best-reviewed film of the year. Besides winning the hearts of millions across the world with 12 awards, even bloggers in Pakistan acknowledge ‘I AM KALAM (movie), tribute to Indian Nuclear Scientist. That’s how Nations give tribute to their hero; wish we could do the same’

Critics are unanimous in saying that I AM KALAM’s story-telling stayed true to the issues it was propagating in an entertaining way without straying to commercialization like other big Bollywood multi starrers…It spoke of the issues with ‘Integrity’, which is more relevant of the right to education to every child in the country, and freedom from illiteracy.

I AM KALAM offers an extraordinary range of outlook towards the expansive world of Indian Cinema, besides Bollywood, and in tune with world cinema artistically, with significance that invites comparison to cinematic gems from Iran, Brazil, France, Mexico, Korea etc.

Talks are also abuzz in the film federation circles on how I AM KALAM reflects world cinema and has accorded dignity to Hindi cinema with its universal cinematic language and is a front runner and should be sent as India’s entry to the Oscars, as the core message of the film is universal, besides the film is based on Indian ethos.

Smile Foundation’s I AM KALAM is the first film in the world to be produced by a development organization. Smile Foundation proactively took initiative and the challenges therein to come up with a mainstream Bollywood film. It is believed that the best way to reach and sensitize the masses is by combining awareness on urgently complex topics with the entertaining aspect of cinema that inspires!

And it has paid off rich dividends. The review-o-meter is ticking bullishly on positive reviews for I AM KALAM proving to be the best reviewed film of the year so far. The reviewers are unanimous that I AM KALAM is a cinematic essay that delivers its essential social message, reinforcing the need to re-evaluate the importance of role models in our society. It’s an entertainingly sparkling gem of a film, a vibrant depiction of optimism. I AM KALAM is more polished from other children’s films and finally articulates a near-perfect children’s film, with an equal appeal for adults too.

Gauging from the word of mouth buzz, schools, colleges and the corporate houses are on a block booking spree, and the future earnings from the film will be ploughed back to the cause the film propagates in an entertaining way. I AM KALAM is proving to be a huge, resounding success in its intent, reviews and the box office stakes in terms of profitability ratio. The film rich in content was made on a shoestring budget.

I AM KALAM directed by Nila Madhab Panda, a critically acclaimed and an award-winning entertainer, is proving to be a triumph of the Independent cinema.’

PAL has been working with Madhab and his Delhi-based company Eleeanora Images to create a ‘new wave’ of Indian cinema for young people and family audiences around the world. Our first Lab in this programme was in 2009 and we are currently working towards our second.

“Life changing. Honestly. It’s changed the way I look at things in life. From my journeys on the London Underground to how I’ll approach a scenario in drama.
I’m going to try my best to make ‘You can flip the script’ and ‘I own the world’ my mantras for as long as I can.

Due to this project I will actually encourage my friends to heckle the government into supporting the arts as the arts can be used as a fundamental for anything and everything.

I’ve taken a lot of what I personally learnt in those three days into my National Youth Theatre course and I’m sure it’s added to my overall enjoyment.

…I will spread the word about PAL because more people need this. Please never stop”.

Kareem

If Not You, Who Else?

Flipping the scripts we
weave a web, of ideas. We
Are Ready To Jump

Greta

I think it’s artists’ responsibility - we’ve got these skills to make a difference. The Lab has given me the confidence to think that I can actually do something, realize those ideas I’ve been coming up with and go on a journey with those ideas with more confidence. Sian

The programme started in July with an intensive three-day Lab to establish a strong group which will continue to work together over seven Saturdays between now and November.

In February 2011 PAL hosted a Lab, directed by dance artist Gill Clarke, with the aim of putting movement experience and embodied knowledge at the heart of an inter-disciplinary discussion. Participants explored ways that the concerns of dance practice could act as a catalyst to promote future conversations and collaborations beyond the dance world.

This event now aims to bring forward ideas generated within the Lab. We hope to stimulate further inter-disciplinary conversations fed by dancers’ knowledge and acknowledging our embodied nature.

This gathering is for dance and other artists, academics and researchers working in and between multiple fields, arts strategists interested in bringing movement into a wider social context and funders interested in the possibilities for developing the future of this work.

The Lab will be followed by a workshop for young dance artists and other practitioners to develop ideas seeded in the last day of the Lab. This will feed into a one-day Symposium which will disseminate findings and ideas from the Lab, and also facilitate meeting and exchange between a larger group of young artists and practitioners from the various disciplines. Three ticketed public ‘conversations’ at Siobhan Davies Studios, involving expert participants from the Lab, will draw a wider arts audience, alongside invited policy-makers and key experts in other disciplines.

Gill Clarke writes:
“Dance has only relatively recently become a fully graduate profession, thereby expanding the intellectual inquisitiveness as well as skill of its workforce. As an English/Education and Social Science graduate, I have spent my career as an independent dance artist, becoming very involved in the education and transition of young artists into the profession and supporting their career-long learning. Whilst the traditional perception of dance as a skilled, decorative art can feel all too slow to expand, I am increasingly aware of the strong appetite of independent artists to develop their ideas through increased interaction with other ways of thinking, and in relation to wider social and cultural issues. This project aims through its three stages, to act as a catalyst for greater future trans-disciplinary collaboration and to enhance available networks and opportunities through which dance artists might expand the future scope of their work and the cultural contribution of their art form and practices.”

After the Lab, nano-scientist Andrei Khlobystov wrote “I felt really privileged to participate in the PAL/Ignition Lab this year. It was a wonderful experience of freedom to create, only limited by my own imagination!”

This three-year Lab programme has now come to an end, but we are determined to find ways of continuing this valuable work.