Tamsin Haggis
Penny Chivas and Tom Pritchard set up @TheGlasgowJam in 2013 in association with Dance House and run a regular programme of jams and events at Kinning Park Complex.
Dancer, teacher and traveller, Penny Chivas is based in Glasgow with an interest in Contact Improv and cross-artform practices. She is currently working with visual artist Dominic Snyder on “The Snyver Project”, a series of investigations between dance, drawing and sculpture on performance and teaching projects.
Performer, Facilitator and Maker, Tom has worked internationally with, among others, Scottish Dance Theatre, CoisCeìm Dance Theatre, SmallPetitKlein Dance Co. and Company Of Wolves. Tom also works as a writer, focussing mainly on poetry. Here they talk about the creation of @TheGlasgowJam…
Brian Hartley
Just under two years ago I met with Dance House with a proposition that Penny Chivas and I take over responsibility for organising the Contact Improvisation scene in Glasgow. And so, with the support of the existing community, we co-founded @TheGlasgowJam with a good deal of hope and enthusiasm!
In February 2013 we hosted our first jam as @TGJ at Kinning Park Complex (KPC), our regular host venue ever since. 47 jams and six sell-out workshops later we are now preparing to host our second Autumn Workshop Festival (AWF ’14) and looking towards 2015 with great excitement.
But Tom, what is @TGJ and what is a jam?!
A jam, for us, is an open creative space where everyone can explore, through any art form, cooperative and playful ways of communicating. It is a space and an invitation to deepen our notion of presence, play and creativity.
We run at least two jams a month (sometimes more with Dance House’s generous offers of extra space). These regular jams consist of: an evening jam on the second Friday and an afternoon jam on the last Sunday of each month at KPC. These are attended by folk from all walks of life, all art forms and all experiences. And the age range of participants is about as wide as life allows!
Each jam has so far contained at least one person who has never attended before so it’s never too late to come and try!
Dominic Snyder
Observing the personal and social benefits experienced by participants and facilitators alike is a truly special outcome of Penny’s and my experience of @TGJ. There is something in the open invitation to explore play in a cooperative, non-outcome based and non-hierarchical environment that is a radical idea in our product driven, overly fast paced world. It is in the simple intimacies of connecting to others and ourselves in a safe environment that we uncover the permissions ignored in the hectic nature of our everyday lives. Sometimes these are joyful, powerful, subtle or exciting discoveries. And all arrive through the simple notion of discovering presence in a creative practice, whether we choose to do so in movement, song, visual art or text.
@TheGlasgowJam goes from strength to strength and we continue to grow in numbers, knowledge and variety. We offer classes through Dance House on Tuesday evenings for those wishing to gain more Contact Improvisation information and have an established a following of experienced jammers who have been with us from the beginning. But there is always room for more, so if you’ve not tried it, the invitation is always there.
And one place to start could be the upcoming AWF ’14 weekend festival. This year’s festival features workshops from Rosina Bonsu (a Glasgow institution!), Anna Porubcansky (Company of Wolves) and myself. We will focus on approaches to opening up voice and text as options to play with in jams, our creative practices or life in general! And as ever the weekend starts with a jam on Friday 14 November, 6pm at Kinning Park Complex and this is open to all to turn up and try it out. We hope to see you jamming there!
For more information on us and what we do, as well as more information on AWF ’14 (including how to book) please visit @TheGlasgowJam site. Or email Penny and I at: theglasgowjam@gmail.com
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