Lapwing observes 3 changes of morning light at Grantchester Meadows 52.1906316,0.1042692, just where the river bends and there is a small handmade wooden ladder down into the water.
The story begins in 1681 with a swimmers voice that is split into the call of the Lapwing peewit peewit. Each minute exposes, through a slightly paler light of day, the bleached bright forms of river swimmers crossing paths, a swimmer folding her clothes, a musk beetle resting and the movement of water, the voice and the breath.
Coinciding with World Water Day, the Lapwing performance at Kettle’s Yard marks a space to reflect on the meditative, spiritual and healing properties of water through ceremony, song and gesture.
Lapwing is a poem to be sung and inspired by a series of workshops with river swimmers in Cambridge, exploring water, healing, the breath and the voices that are found through swimming.
Swimmers Susannah Cass, Elisabeth O’Flaherty Madeline Pratley, Orla Woodward, Judith Goodyear, Baiju, Melbin & Pethuraj, Hermione Fairbairn, Hannah Welchman, Julieta Galante, John Behm, Oliver Scott, Megan Setchell, Glenys, Hannah Forde, Emily & Mia.
Movement by Orla Collier, Hannah Mason & Soledad de la Hoz.
Choreography & performance devised by Daisy May Kemp & Joshua Bilton
Lapwing is commissioned by Kettle’s Yard and generously supported by Arts Council England and New Adventures.
The Lapwing ceremony at Kettle’s Yard takes inspiration from a passage in an East Anglian folktale, where a community calls out across water for help, after the fens have been drained, land misused and their children have fallen Ill. They tip a small stoup of fresh water into the dyke and call out to a water spirit.
In the folktale their voices are returned as the sound peewit peewit, which is the song of the Lapwing bird. This is the most powerful moment of the folktale that stood out for me, this need in times of hardship hitting both the land and the body, the community returns to asking questions through nature and ritual. In these few lines nature is animate and gives them a non-verbal response through the song of the Lapwing, that touches, kisses and flutteres around them. The song is described as a mournful greeting but it also signifies hope and spirit for the land and the body to recover.
I used this folktale as a starting point for a series of workshops with river swimmers in Cambridge to explore through rituals and swimming, the voices they found through the river. These voices, along with the folktale became the basis for a poem and ceremony of song, story and dance at Kettle’s Yard.
The folktale is called Tiddy Mun, from the Old Stories, folk tales from East Anglia and the fen country by Keven Crossley-Holland.
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Lapwing observes 3 changes of morning light at Grantchester Meadows 52.1906316,0.1042692, just where the river bends and there is a small handmade wooden ladder down into the water.
The story begins in 1681 with a swimmers voice that is split into the call of the Lapwing peewit peewit. Each minute exposes, through a slightly paler light of day, the bleached bright forms of river swimmers crossing paths, a swimmer folding her clothes, a musk beetle resting and the movement of water, the voice and the breath.
Coinciding with World Water Day, the Lapwing performance at Kettle’s Yard marks a space to reflect on the meditative, spiritual and healing properties of water through ceremony, song and gesture.
Lapwing is a poem to be sung and inspired by a series of workshops with river swimmers in Cambridge, exploring water, healing, the breath and the voices that are found through swimming.
Swimmers Susannah Cass, Elisabeth O’Flaherty Madeline Pratley, Orla Woodward, Judith Goodyear, Baiju, Melbin & Pethuraj, Hermione Fairbairn, Hannah Welchman, Julieta Galante, John Behm, Oliver Scott, Megan Setchell, Glenys, Hannah Forde, Emily & Mia.
Movement by Orla Collier, Hannah Mason & Soledad de la Hoz.
Choreography & performance devised by Daisy May Kemp & Joshua Bilton
Lapwing is commissioned by Kettle’s Yard and generously supported by Arts Council England and New Adventures.
In each workshop by the River Cam we explored rituals, movement, the voice, healing and the breath with groups of swimmers.
Swimmers Susannah Cass, Elisabeth O’Flaherty Madeline Pratley, Orla Woodward, Judith Goodyear, Baiju, Melbin & Pethuraj, Hermione Fairbairn, Hannah Welchman, Julieta Galante, John Behm, Oliver Scott, Megan Setchell, Glenys, Hannah Forde, Emily & Mia.
Choreography and performance devised by Daisy May Kemp and Josh Bilton with movement by Orla Collier, Hannah Mason and Soledad de la Hoz.
Video documentation by Charlotte Ginsborg, edited by Josh Bilton.
