Tea in the Park

Join us on Saturday 31st May from 2-5pm at St Columb’s Park House for an afternoon of tea, chat, and gentle movement in this get together for people aged 50+. Echo Echo Dance Theatre will get the energy flowing with a gentle movement and mindfulness session followed by a reminiscence and storytelling gathering facilitated by Janice Witerspoon of Armstrong Storytelling Trust around the theme of a cup of tea, social gatherings around tea, traditions, and personal histories. We will provide tea, coffee, and scones.

This is a project supported by PEACEPLUS, a programme managed by the Special EU Programmes Body (SEUPB), funded under the theme of Community Regeneration and Transformation, and it is funded through Derry City and Strabane District Council’s PEACEPLUS Local Co-Designed Action Plan.

Waterside Together is a project run through Waterside Neighbourhood Partnership.

This is a PEACEPLUS project for communities within the Waterside and therefore the attendees must be from the area. We wish to apologise for any inconvenience caused.

Gentle Movement and Mindfulness

Led by dancers from Echo Echo Dance Theatre Company and accompanied by a live musician, participants will engage in a creative movement and mindfulness session. The emphasis is on everyone finding enjoyment in moving and remembering that we all are naturally creative in this.

Echo Echo dancers will lead the group through various breathing exercises, physical explorations, movement improvisations and sequences. Participants will be encouraged to see themselves as creative movers and explore their physical range and the artistic possibilities. There is plenty of room for adaptation in the exercises and explorations and the improvisational nature of the movement content means that it is accessible for everyone.

Reminiscence and storytelling

Janice Witherspoon is an experienced storyteller and facilitator who has been working with many different community groups of all ages for the last 15 years.

Her special interests are environmental storytelling, helping people to connect with nature and the folklore and stories of place. She has helped collect oral history stories for Clifton House in North Belfast where she grew up and conducted interviews around the theme of Tea and Me for an oral history project for an arts organization among many other projects.

Cover image: courtesy of Kampus Productions

Images below: Patrick Duddy Photography

Also check out other Arts events in Londonderry, Theatre events in Londonderry.