Knocknagin community group
Title of Work: Feel Good Grooves
Facilitating Artist: Charmaine McMeekin
‘Feel Good Grooves’ - Living Well – A Tale to Tell…. With the Knocknagin Community Group. What a wonderful group of Women!! And after 2 years of being at home they were ready to live well through dancing and connecting with each other face to face and they had a tale of resilience, community, and humanity to tell. This group of women are filled with an enthusiasm, openness and joy for life that exudes from their moving bodies as we danced every Friday night for 8 weeks as part of the Arts Care Here and Now Festival. The Ladies danced their tale of living well and shared their stories through their moving bodies, moving as one as a collective. As I looked out around the room, I was met with big beautiful smiles from a group of women who were ready to embrace something very new and creative. It was time to warm up and explore some ‘Feel Good Grooves’, because these ladies had a tale to tell, that for them living well was community, being with each other and dancing with their neighbours. From the opening song ‘You are my sunshine’, I knew that this was going to be a project filled with laughter, warmth, energy, and connection. We danced to feel good in body and mind, we danced to Elvis, Fats Domino, and Doris Day. As each week passed the women grew in confidence and creativity. We explored ‘Living Well – A Tale a Tell’ through different themes each week, such as ‘Self Care’, ‘What makes us happy?’ ‘Morning Practice’ and ‘Bringing colour into our day’. Each theme welcomed discussion and thoughts shared by the group that then informed how we moved our body through the space. Through their dancing bodies, the women brought colour and vibrancy to a dark, rainy Friday night in November and December. The women’s final dance piece called ‘JOY’ was a celebration of friendship, creativity, and humanity. They were dancing their own tale of how to live well through creativity and moving their bodies. They danced to ‘Over the Rainbow’, and in that moment as we hit record on the ipad I could see each woman smile from the inside and begin to spread their warmth and colour to everyone who watches them dance. I hope that the Knocknagin Community groups dance piece, ‘JOY’ will encourage anyone who watches it to dance and move their body, to actively live well and tell their tale and in doing so bring colour and joy to their day and let their true light shine BRIGHTLY. Let’s move to feel good - ‘FEEL GOOD GROOVES’. Go tell your tale of living well.
