In the City Still by Feathers Ensemble for Surge Festival 2021

In the City still by Feathers Ensemble for Surge Festival Glasgow

Performances dedicated to my friends Nora Rampinelli, Sean Conway and Alex Braun who sadly passed this year.

We had an emotional return to our street show ‘In the City Still’ for Surge Festival in Glasgow July 2021. One and a half years without performing together made our first performance even sweeter. We arrived four days before the festival to make our show, nothing like a bit of pressure after the longest break.

I had never been to Glasgow but I instantly fell in love, there was a vibrant energy about it. Glasgow definitely has an edge, from the people, to the architecture and of course my favourite the ‘Barras’. Our dressing room was in the famous venue, the ‘Barrowlands Ballroom’, this place is very special and you could feel there was many a good night had there. It also feels like a museum, still reminiscent of the rebuild in 1960.

Anyway back to the show, we cased each street, let our imaginations run wild, visualised, choreographed and structured everything that we had compiled et voila, we had a show. We took our audience on a promenade through the streets of Glasgow accompanied with live music played by Jude and we invited them on our journey of the spaces, allowing our movements to be a catalyst for story telling.

It is always really interesting to hear what people tell you after the show, what they see, their story, their connection to the building or area we perform at. Our first show, I don’t think there was a dry eye in the house including myself. It was really cathartic for both us as performers and the audience members. You get that sudden realisation ‘oh this is what we have been missing’ and that feeling is overwhelming.

I am so happy to be back performing again and to share some images of what we did.

Feathers Ensemble Trio: Nicola Moran, Sererine de Maleingreau and Judenald Marcus Penders

Images by Ingrid Mur