*

Elegies is the first dance adaptation for the screen and stage of Hamish Henderson’s series of poems Elegies for the Dead in Cyrenaica, specifically curated to premiere as part of the 34th edition of the Scottish International Storytelling Festival at Edinburgh’s Scottish Storytelling Centre on 11 November 2023 and available to tour thereafter.

*

PROGRAMME NOTES

*

PRESS PACK

*

★★★★☆ Evocative and relevant
Allan Wilson in All Edinburgh Theatre

★★★★☆ Respectful and sincere. Sombre and considerate
Dominic Corr in Corr Blimey

“There is no beauty in war. But within Elegies, laced amidst the pain and harrowing truth, beauty flourishes in sombre and considerate ways. Superlative, short and concise, Elegies adapts Henderson’s work into a powerful recitation of spoken word, paired with tightly and nuanced choreography to offer a firm and resilient response which champions the skills and power of storytelling as a first line of defence of natural, communal, and reverent good against those who would utilise it for ill.” Dominic Corr in Corr Blimey

Elegies premiere night marked four important anniversaries – the 105th anniversary of the signing of the agreement to end the fighting of the First World War; the 104th birthday of the author Hamish Henderson (1919-2002); the 75th anniversary of the first publication of Hamish Henderson’s Elegies for the Dead in Cyrenaica and the 75th anniversary of the adoption by the United Nations of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights resonating with the festival theme Right To Be Human and issues of social justice, peace movement and anti-militarism. It explores aspects of our common humanity.

*

The Elegies for the Dead in Cyrenaica are considered by many as the finest poetic writings to come out of the Second World War and have won the Somerset Maugham Award 1949. The epic poems highlight the tragic chaos and waste of life without losing sight of humanity and what we can do even now to save ourselves from ourselves.

To listen to Hamish Henderson‘s own reading of the Prologue and the First Elegy, explore this audio recording from 1964 here.

*

“Our ambition is for this new adaptation of the Elegies for the Dead in Cyrenaica to become an innovative dance celebration of Hamish Henderson, the soldier-poet and scholar-folk revivalist, but also a dance poem of serious reflection – a lament for all lives lost in our challenging world of wars and pandemics, political and economic oppression, ecocide and inequality.”

Jim Mackintosh, Iliyana Nedkova and Wendy Timmons, Elegies co-curators/producers

*

This new dance theatre production is led by a duo of dancers and choreographers Helen Gould and George Adams who together with a community cast of dancers from DannsEd, including Nicola Thomson and Edwin Wen, will embody and represent the characters from the ten elegies by interpreting swing and lindy hop – the popular social dance culture of the 1940s whilst creating a cultural bridge to the present day.

“We intend to explore various aspects of these social dance forms, including those that express the social conventions and traditions of the Home Front in the late 1930s and early 1940s, such as the rituals, leisure and mass forms of dance hall entertainment that boomed during this time. We will also reflect on the fact that social dance is a complex form of discipline and social control, yet also pleasure, intimacy and connection. The Elegies choreography and dance will thus convey the ubiquitous time and place of the social dance but also connect with deeper concerns of the social body, trauma, fragmentation and wholeness of the soldiers as depicted in Hamish Henderson’s first-hand accounts.”

Helen Gould and George Adams, Elegies dancers/choreographers

*

Photographs of Elegies rehearsals at the Dance Studio at our academic partner Moray House School of Education and Sport, University of Edinburgh featuring Helen Gould, George Adams, Nicola Thomson and Edwin Wen. Images by Jeyden Xie. Watch the accompanying video on our Instagram feed here auhored by Ling Hong.

*

Through their movement directorship Gould and Adams will also weave in the reading of the Elegies for the Dead in Cyrenaica by spoken word artists Morag Anderson and Stephen Watt. The reading and the dance will be accompanied on the stage by specially composed and newly arranged trad music by Cera Impala. Elegies will also be set against a backdrop of newly-commissioned audio-visuals by filmmaker Roddy Simpson. The visuals will utilise still and moving imagery reflecting the #RightToBeHuman festival theme. The costumes will be designed by upcycling artist guru Katie Duxbury.

*

*

All of those attending the world premiere of Elegies will also be able to pick up a FREE copy of the book Alias MacAlias. Writings on Songs, Folk and Literature by Hamish Henderson, edited by Alec Finlay and published by Polygon Books, Edinburgh in 2004. The donations will be warmly welcome towards the further development and tour of Elegies.

*

Through the production of Elegies, we continue to celebrate the bonds of trad dance and poetry and mark National Poetry Day – the annual mass celebration on the first Thursday of October that encourages everyone to make, experience and share poetry with family and friends.

On #NationalPoetryDay 2022 we launched our newly commissioned poem Beira and Bride by storyteller extraordinaire Donald Smith as part of Scotland’s Year of Stories 2022. Donald’s epic poem became the starting point for our new screen dance To Begin the Dance Once More and show Dances with Ouds and Fiddles reimagining the river landscapes inhabited by the Celtic and Egyptian mothers of Earth, including Beira and Bride. Listen to Donald’s reading of the poem as part of our Trad Dance Cast podcast (about 19.50 minutes in)

While devising our new production Elegies and to mark #NationalPoetryDay 2023, we selected a work penned and performed by each of the featured poets inspired by Hamish Henderson‘s Elegies for the Dead in Cyrenaica.  

Listen to Elegy for an Island by Morag Anderson performed by the artist herself.

*

*

Watch Stephen Watt perform his award-winning poem Deep Fried Nationalism.

*

*

*

Elegies is produced by Traditional Dance Forum of Scotland. Curated by Jim Mackintosh, Iliyana Nedkova and Wendy Timmons. Commissioned by the Scottish International Storytelling Festival through the Scottish Government’s Expo Fund. Additional funding provided by Creative Scotland. 

Further research and development enabled through Cultural Bridge’s Strictly Schottisch and Scottish project. Cultural Bridge is a celebration of bilateral artistic partnerships between the UK and Germany through the collaboration between Arts Council England, the Arts Council of Northern Ireland, British Council, Creative Scotland, Fonds Soziokultur, Goethe-Institut London and Wales Arts International / Arts Council of Wales.