A journey, to the Andes, deep into the subconscious

Waking Life – an interesting journey through ideas about consciousness and reality.

Powder – this blew me away when I saw it 20 years ago, still one of my all time faves.

Tomorrowland – comes across as a kids flick and box office wasn’t grand but I loved this movie, some great ideas and the ending was super!

Frequencies – found this by accident, about how the ‘frequency’ of each individual affects their reality, and each other.

Cloud Atlas – just astounding, had me by the heart the whole way through. Love love love it.

The Hunger Games – Jennifer Lawrence, say no more. First saw her in Winters bone many years ago, and all the hollywood hype hasn’t shaken the depth in her work. Lots of action, I actually preferred Part 1, but this was pretty great.

Matrix – can’t offer a top 20 without this gem. One of the first moves that gave me hope that someone else out there was making sense of this world.

Aeon Flux – Super control world and its rebels, Charleze Theron is amazing. Another breaking free of the chains kinda movie, done well.

Black Snake Moan – dark, sensual, and breaking a bunch of rules that makes you wonder if they should be broken or not. Intriguing and Samuel L Jackson is rad as always.

Stardust – one of my favourite Robert De Niro characters ever, enchanting, super cute, funny, and the nice guy wins yay!

The Dark Horse – Very rarely I see a movie and i realise I haven’t had a single thought the whole time as I’ve been thoroughly absorbed in the story, and this is one of those rare few. Some of the most incredible performances I’ve seen.

Whale rider – Just gorgeous, belonging, duty, tradition, and all that comes with it. A beautiful story of courage and strength.

Strings – achingly beautiful, a whole movie created with puppets, and with a stunning relationship to the puppetry itself.

Winter’s Tale – timeless, magical, stunning.

A knight’s tale – just for fun, really real fun, Heath Ledger was a super star and he’s just wonderful in this. All the actors are.

Thrive – one of those super charged ways to make the earth a better place. A bit glossy but lovely ideas and ideals, and practical ways to make it  happen.

Peaceful Warrior – after reading the book had to delve into the movie. Great fable.

The Shadow Effect – Debbie Ford, Marianne Williamson, Deepak Chopra. Working through and bringing to light the parts of self we repress in order to be nourished rather than hindered by them. Fascinating.

The Fisher King – One of Robyn Williams stand out performances, and Jeff Bridges was amazing too. A journey into the depths of struggle and wonder that reside in the minds post trauma. Heart warming, and breaking, and funny and all the things.

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This is one of my alltime favourite Ted Talks. Enjoy!!

Elizabeth Gilbert talks on TED… love it!!

Music and social legend Amanda Palmer

Performing Arts: Claude Giroux at TEDxFortMcMurray

Theaster Gates

http://www.ted.com/talks_theaster_gates_how_to_revive_a_neighborhood_with_imagination_beauty_and_art

Ngaire Johansen

Artist * Educator * Musician

www.ngairej.com

Temple of Art

Temple of Art is a documentary that sets out to explore the questions around the people who dedicate their life to art. The film looks at what it means to be an artist, how to fail beautifully, and proceed with courage. Coming 2016. http://templeofart.net/shop/

Tjoni Johansen

Writer * Facilitator * Producer

www.tjoni.com

The post CREATIVITY appeared first on In-Spiral.

Melissa Pym

Why I paint? Painting is scary… Or at least that is what I used to believe. It goes hand in hand with change and ambiguity. You never know exactly how it will turn out. It takes curiosity, strength and determination to see it through.

I started painting in 2012. My first painting was with a Native American Indian dream-catcher I’d made that I stuck onto the canvas. Because I was confident in making dream-catchers, it helped me to make the transition to painting. When I finished that painting (“Aquamarine 2012”) and was pleasantly surprised at the results, it ignited a passion inside of me and a willingness to keep on experimenting. Little did I know at the time, that I wouldn’t stop painting from that moment on…

Still today, I lose the ability to use my hands and arms (from Chronic Lyme Disease). I have become somewhat ambidextrous; when my right hand is too painful to use, I experiment painting with my left hand with more abstract or impressionist work. However sometimes I go through periods where I am unable to sit upright at all. These are the hardest to deal with. I never know where or how severe my symptoms will be day to day.

For me, painting is a leap of faith with each brush stroke, hoping that things will naturally and eventually come together and work out in harmony. This painting metaphor echoes the path of my healing. It is still a mystery and unknown as to what it will take to heal me, but I keep trying, seeing new doctors, getting new treatments and taking risks. I hope I can complete this healing journey and share it with others, so that no-one will ever have to go through what I do every day. “It makes me feel uplifted and the pain recedes to the background a little.”

I haven’t got my happy ending, yet… But for me, painting keeps me on track with a sense of achievement. Facing the unknown, moving through the process and achieving victory when I finish a piece. This motivates me to paint and paint and paint… A reminder of the health and the life I could have. Reminding me that I may be powerless with my Chronic Lyme disease at this point in time, but I can move through it by focusing on the canvas right in front of me and completing something of beauty and inspiration, and in a small way I take back some of my power.

I paint images from my dreams, meditations and mini sweat-lodges in my far infrared sauna. I like to meditate before I paint and find the act of painting meditative. After four years now, when I sit down to paint I am overcome and taken over by the creative process. It makes me feel uplifted and the pain recedes to the background a little. I am in the present moment. It is maybe the only activity (besides eating coconut ice-cream – a truly sublime experience) that lifts my spirits! I want you as the viewer to also have a positive experience connecting with my work and the spirit in which it is created. I would also love you to accompany me on this journey of healing and growth of my painting skills. This connection with people who admire my work, friends and community is vital to me. My painting creates a bridge to making these wonderful and valuable connections…

To contact Melissa please email twofeathers2020@gmail.com

Stay connected via the social media links below;

Facebook

Instagram

Twitter

Please visit the shop listings below if you are interested in buying some of her amazing creations.

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Ahhh daaahhlink, you look like you need a future…..now just relax, this won’t hurt a bit…

The world is fraught with dangers… bad hairs days, ingrown toe nails, high waisted pants, soy dandies parading as lattes, it’s a sea of obstacles designed to trip you up… but don’t worry; we can aide you on your journey through the wild ride of life.

• Have you ever wondered what the future has in store for you?
• Do you even have a future?
• Does it involve a walrus?
• Will Khalu the god of overheated curry visit your house… ever?
• Does someone else have the same mismatched socks as you?
• Do all Brazilians have Brazilians?

Performance details;

Roving entertainment – Highly interactive character Desmerelda is great for meet and greet, at festivals and events, as one on one roving entertainment.

Future booth – For a greater level of guest participation I can set up a future booth with a gorgeous table and zany props. Guests have readings which undoubtedly require their involvement in song, dance, or other silly shenanigans to appease a deity or two. Great for team building too!

MC – Available for all manner of corporate, community and social occasions, Desmerelda and Miso will bring magic and mystery to your event. With an assortment of lighthearted and intriguing segues on offer they can be as interactive or as minimalist as required.

Psychic Party Host – Would you like a party with a difference? With an emphasis on having fun and getting everyone involved, bring your event to life with interactive psychic games that will make you giggle and squirm and maybe even show you skills you didn’t know you had! Great for hen’s nights, birthday parties, corporate team building events, festivals, and psychic fairs.

Ritual – If you want to delve a little deeper we can co-create a beautiful ritual for the celebratory person or event, such as for someone having a birthday or celebrating an anniversary.

Past Shows;

Include; Jun 18, Old and Gold, Strumpet Salon, Brunswick Heads; Nov 17, Hen’s Party, La Di Da, Melbourne; Aug 17, Betwixt and Between festival, Wadeville; Jul 17, Splendour in the grass, Byron Bay; Mar 17, Melb Polytechnic Open Day, Greensborough; Jan 17, Rainbow Serpent Festival, Beaufort; Oct 16, Community Halloween Event, Officer; Jan 16, Rainbow Serpent Festival, Beaufort; Jan 14, Rainbow Serpent Festival, Beaufort; Jan 13, Dandenong Community Festival, Dandenong; Dec 12, Bon Bijou, Melbourne; Dec 12, Corporate Event, Melbourne Zoo, Parkville; Feb 12, Corporate Function, Sumac, Melbourne; Jan 12, Rainbow Serpent Festival, Beaufort; Mar 09, Bizarre Festival, Wangaratta; Nov 09, Private Party, Brunswick, Dec 09, Mont Albert Festival, Mont Albert

Biography;

After over fifteen years of theatrical involvement mainly behind the scenes, especially costume making, Tjoni took to the stage ten years ago after falling in love with the art of spinning fire. Since that momentous occasion, and the fiery obsession that sprouted from it, she has performed around in an eclectic variety of shows, including fire shows, clowning, bellydance, African dance, burlesque and physical theatre. 
 
Presently Tjoni’s focus is on exploring elements of performance art as a medium for healing, self-empowerment, spiritual growth, and social awareness. 

She is also passionate about education and has started running Creative Bootcamp programs in schools and festivals, fostering empowerment collaboration and community through the arts.

Technical requirements

MC – radio mic, music player if required.

Legal

Fully insured P/L up to $20M and P/I up to $10M.

Current WWCC

Contact;

Tjoni Johansen

Luxor, Egypt

Email; tjonij (@) outlook.com

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The imaginative students came up with the idea of  and Alice in Wonderland themed show this year, so we proceeded to co-create Alice in Tumbleland; Curiouser and Circusier.

Stretching some seriously brave creative minds and bodies we created a landscape to draw Alice through a foreign land of poi, staves, juggling, acrobalance and tumbling.

We had the awesome support of Year 8 Co-ordinator Sarah Carr who was amazing as always in ensuring everything behind the scenes was smooth for all involved. And past student Elisha came on board again with her fabulous make up and facepainting skills which was super.

We were lucky to have the help of super talented acrobatic and theatrical superstar Joana Joy on board this year. She coached the students through the physical aspects of circus, while I focused on object manipulation and story, which created a balanced foundation to collaborate with students.

The audience, staff and students were all thrilled with the results. My highlight was having some involvement from students that were initially not keen on circus, but with gentle invitation ended up being integral parts of the production and performance.

We are looking forward to more circusy goodness next year!

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Book – Maps to Ecstasy

Talks and interviews

Gabrielle Roth at the Breath of Life Conference, London 2009

Interview with Gabrielle Roth

5 rhythms links

5rhythms website

Moving Essence – Melbourne

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Monday:

Joined by Luth Wolff from Solid State Circus, we begin with an introduction to all the skills we are going to be learning and cocreating with during the week. They are picking skills up pretty fast, and are surprisingly aware of their bodies for their age group. After warm up games and chatting about the storyline we will weave, we delve into tumbling, acrobalance, sliding table, hoops, staff, poi and movement.

Excitement – 95%, Skill – 15%

Tuesday:

Today we begin creating patterns for each of the skills, so everyone has a basic choreography to come back to. Some pick it up straight away, but many find it confusing to work with the music, moving to a beat and counting out spins on staff and poi. Still have 2 days til showtime though!

Excitement – 80%, Skill – 30%, Confusion – 15%

Wednesday:

Now it is time to work the pieces into a story line so we have a full performance. Somehow I have managed to create two entirely different beginnings for the staff piece. Students are confused but patient. Co-ordinator is worried. I have faith.

Excitement – 60%, Skill – 50%, Confusion – 50%

Thursday:

We only have the morning sessions to fine tune and rehearse, as the afternoon is full of facepaint, sorting costumes and setting up the performance space. A show is emerging. The students are knackered. I ditch the last classroom rehearsal in favour of 20 minutes of yoga nidra (relaxation) By the end nearly all the kids are asleep. I let them sleep into lunch, they’re gonna need their energy!

Excitement – 50%, Skill – 60%, Confusion – 60%, Panic – 20%

Creative development of The Toy Box

Thursday evening:

Parents and community members arrive for the performance. Staff have all pitched in helping with bits of production and logistics. It feels good to have so much support, especially from the Co-ordinator.

We are all set. Students are painted and costumed, stage is set, bums are on seats, time to announce.

I’m watching as if in a dream from the sound deck. They are nailing it. The start is a little wobbly, but by the time they get to the staff routine they are all in sync. I’m getting chills. I’m actually trying not to cry. I am so freikin proud of what they have managed to achieve in only 4 days.

They finish, they bow, the audience errupts. I don’t think i’ve felt this good in a long time. The Co-ordinator is crying. The Principal is ecstatic and already planning next year. The staff, students and parents are all jubilant and so thrilled.

Excitement – 95%, Skill – 80%, Confusion – 20%, Panic – 0%, Exhuberance – 100%

Friday:

We have time for one last run through before setting up for the lunch time show. This is for the students over the road at the primary school. Some of them I taught earlier this year in Performing Arts.

The kids nail it again. I couldn’t be more proud. After a late lunch we play the video of the performance for them. The best bit was seeing the kids cheering for each other when they did super cool somersaults and dive rolls. The comraderie among them was just wonderful.

Excitement – 100%, Skill – 90%, Confusion – 0%, Panic – 0%, Exhuberance – 100%, Pride 100%

Yes, this is what I love doing, helping these amazing young people bring out their best and absolutely shine – and do it together. I can’t wait to get back for the next amazing Circus Week at this school, and more, in the coming years.

Images from the circus show The Toy Box

Video of full circus show – The Toy Box

Would you like a Creative Bootcamp at your school, event or organisation?

We run collaborative projects and workshops fostering creativity, wellness and sustainability.

If you are interested in a Creative Bootcamp please email Tjoni Johansen at tjonij@outlook.com for a free consultation on how we can generate a program to suit your needs.

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Earlier this year we were blessed to be back at Swifts Creek P12 School, this time with a performing arts intensive for the Year 6s and 7s.

In collaboration with the contageously joyous Chris James from The Dreaming Space and talented actor and teacher David Clisby, the students were immersed in a swell of creative classes. Chris and David spent more time on the physical aspects included acting, clowning, improvisation and singing, offering loads of technical skill interspersed with time for creative development and presentation. I offered creative movement, puppetry, and the creative production aspects such as script and story writing, facepainting, music in theatre and costume design.

We spent three days on skills development with the students, helping them get comfortable with ‘playing’, building trust and starting to formulate an idea for their end of year production .The last hour was a chance for students to get up on ‘stage’ and present something they had been working on – and everyone loved the puppets!!

Creative Movement with Tjoni

Acting and Improvisation with David Clisby

Puppetry with Tjoni

Puppetry Intensive

They loved them so much in fact we did another bootcamp a few weeks later, to bring back more puppets!; this time with the exceptional talent of puppeteer David Splatt. As well as being one of a small number of traditional puppeteers left in Australia, he is also very well known for playing a saw with incredible precision, with which he did very well on Australia’s Got Talent.

David worked with the students on honing in their puppeteering skills, as well as deepening their improvisation, mime and clowning hats. Meanwhile I was working with them to create story lines, pepping up their facepainting, and bringing in more creative movement.

In the last few hours the classes all came together to begin writing a story together in collaboration, following the trail of the Heroes’ Journey. The biggest challenge was trying to keep the characters out of politics (it was Trump time on the media and half the class wanted to do a piece on that!)… but we managed to steer it steeply back to something more appropriate!

The students are now well on their way with the help of their dedicated teachers and staff to create their own performance for the end of the year.

I’m super keen to hear how it all goes!!

Creative Bootcamp runs collaborative projects and workshops fostering creativity, wellness and sustainability.

If you are interested in a Creative Bootcamp please get in touch with Tjoni Johansen VIA tjonij (@) outlook.com for a free consultation on how we can generate an inspiring creative program for your organisation or event.

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Year 8s are fun. They have enough motor skills to do all the awesome technical things we teach, and enough playfulness to explore and create, and enough mind to bring their own ideas to the table.

I was glad to have the collaborative company of Luth Wolff from Solid State Circus. My background is mainly in fire manipulation, production, dance and theatre, so her awesome talents with tumbling, trampoline, acrobalance and more created a great balanced program. Learning front flips was one of the highlights for many students, as well as the opportunity to perform in front of their peers, “I’m looking forward to being able to show off how awesome we are!” was the comment from one young acrobat. Staff spinning was another favourite, as well as the opportunity to make some friends and deeper connections that weren’t obvious before.

By the end of our week together we had all managed to pull together a 15 minute show, and the students did an amazing job pulling off all their crazy antics and cool stunts to a receptive crowd of family, friends, staff and co-students.

Along with students and staff, Year 8 co-ordinator Sarah Carr who organised the program was thrilled with the result.

‘One of the great things for our year 8s has been that circus is all about communication cooperation and collaboration, compared to a lot of the activities they do which is all about competition. It’s been really good for the year 8s to work on their teamwork skills, communication with each other and to bond as a group. As an English teacher as well I can just see how their work together will impact their learning in the classroom in a really positive manner. It’s been an awesome week and we’re looking forward to doing much more circus in the future.’

Well, so are we! And we are super excited to be joining them again later in 2017 for another fabulous Circus Week.

Creative Bootcamp offers programs across performing arts as well as creative arts practises.

If you are interested in a Creative Bootcamp, please get in touch with Tjoni Johansen via tjonij (@) outlook.com for a free consultation on how we can generate an inspiring creative program for your organisation or event.

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Workshops in upcycled craft, roleplaying, facepainting and much more kept the children delighted. Stunning market stalls bearing handcrafted magical creations and a stage gently ebbing with a flow of musical treats laid a beautiful foundation for the mingling crowd. While food stalls and chai nurtured hungry bellies and people gathered around an open fire to warm their hands and hearts.

A goblin feast of Saturday night was a step back in time in a lavish setting as performers opened their hearts, faeries served plate after plate of festive offerings, and guests cheerfully nourished their bodies with culinary treats and shared jovial tales with their neighbours. All this was held in a stunningly decorated rustic hall in Wadeville, complete with toadstools and candles and flowers and all the things to make one feel at home.

The weekend was awash with faerie wings, facepaint, lavish costume creations and swirls of magic; and that was just the participants! But most of all there were smiles, many many smiles, and many many cuddles.

Personally I enjoyed bringing The Amazing Desmerelda’s mad hat antics to the festival, and Miso loved the magical kiddies on Saturday. There were many fortunes to be told, but to be honest I think the kids were more interested in my oracle fruit lollies in the present than their awesome futures.

So then the facepaints came out and my ‘office’ was probably the most relaxed and enjoyable to date! It was a choose your own adventure and the kids were playful enough to instruct me on their designs from Picachoo (Spelling?) to mermaids, superheroes and even… fairies.

On Sunday it was time for me to bring on Creative Bootcamp. We pulled out the craftings for puppet workshops, and wow do these gorgeous kids love to create!! We had superheroes and rockstars and unicorns and mermaids and all sorts of colourful creations. Using socks, feathers, beads, fun fur and chenille sticks, the little artists got super crafty and had an awesome new buddy to take home!!

Guests were so thrilled to be in a space where the parents could relax into their own experience, knowing their children were safe on their own adventures. And the focus on wellness and creativity offered such a supportive space for this to occur in a wonderful community environment.

I’m looking forward to the next stage of this lovely festival!! Hope to see you there too!

If you would like The Amazing Desmerelda or a Creative Bootcamp at your event, please get in touch with Tjoni Johansen at tjonij (@) outlook.com

For more information or involvement in future Betwixt and Between events please send a message via the the facebook page.Back to Latest News

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