Category Archives: blog posts

It’s almost the winter break, and this session was the very last one for now. We imagined a fire inside of us, representing our inner strength, energy and resilience. We also imagined a bonfire, around which all of us could sit and share songs and stories. Even when we can’t be together physically, the virtualContinue reading “Online Sessions: Around the Fire”

Guy Harries, who has devised and run our workshops, recently shared the underlying ideas and methodology guiding his teaching and facilitation techniques at a conference titled Dance AND Research at the national dance academy in Rome. Examples Guy mentioned included not only the Red Hat Opera workshops, but also a participatory public project at TateContinue reading “The thinking behind the workshops”

Summer has arrived, and we’re still online, making sure everyone keeps safe. We have decided to work on a longer piece over several months, with the aim to create a video opera about our experience during this strange time. Each member of the group created a character, represented in colours and shapes. Following this, weContinue reading “Online Session: Masks and Characters”

During this strange time, we are all the more aware of how we wish to connect with others. Working with the image of a web, we imagine the group as connected, with each one of us on a node of a community in flux. Red Hat Opera Workshop · Lockdown session 10 May 2020: WebsContinue reading “Online Sessions: Webs”

With spring in the air, this week in our online workshop we connected with the idea of a garden. As an image, we imagined how we are taking care of our inner garden. What is growing in it? What is flourishing? How are we taking care of our garden, and in a sense – ourselves.Continue reading “Online Sessions: Gardens”

This is a very emotional time for all of us, so this session’s aim was to connect us all through the heart. The heart as a source of energy and connection with the whole body. The heart as a symbolic seat of our feelings. We drew, wrote and vocalised as a group, connecting with eachContinue reading “Online Sessions: Heart”

During this lockdown, we are closed in our individual spaces. Can we start imagining how we are growing, developing, hoping, transforming into something new? We worked with the idea of a cocoon, sheltered and growing, with a future ahead of turning into a beautiful butterfly, flying freely in the world. Drawing, movement, words and voicesContinue reading “Online Sessions: Cocoon to Butterfly”

Lockdown is here, with all its overwhelming implications and uncertainties. One consolation is the stability of the sun, rising every morning. Spring is here, and the appearance of the sun is giving us some hope in the midst of it all. Our online session was a meditation on the sun, its comforting warmth as wellContinue reading “Online Sessions: Sun”

29/03/2020 As social distancing has become essential for our safety during the pandemic, we are no longer meeting in person. We made the move online straight away, to enable the continuation of our workshops and keep our little community together. Today was our second online session as we gathered together to start moving the mostContinue reading “Online sessions: Colours”

With the global pandemic affecting everyone’s reality, we need to keep safe. That means we can’t meet in the studio, but we can meet and keep moving, writing and singing online. We decided to do this right away. Sadly, some members can’t join us, due to health issues, aversion to the online medium or lackContinue reading “Moving online!”