Ayse Balko

Following the fantastic response in 2013 from our audiences, the local refugee community and arts organisations alike, Journeys Festival sought to produce a brand new piece of work for the East Midlands.  Artists were encouraged to explore new ideas, opportunities, and to develop partnerships or collaborations that would positively contribute towards their future work. From a strong pool of proposals a commissioning panel selected  A Journey of UnBelonging .  A Journey of UnBelonging:   A Journeys Festival commission  The piece was then developed and performed again at Journeys Festival 2014, and the  short moving image above was  screened in the ArtReach Nanoplex. In 2015 as part of Journeys Extra, Aysegul and Mina were reunited to perform A Journey of Unbelonging once more as part of a showcase at the  Platforma Conference in Leiceste r.  A Journey of UnBelonging: the Moving Image The pi...

In the silence of the space, with sound and dance, a new space born in the tower we call human soul. Improvisation forces the participants to participate with their souls and the audiences to watch with their souls. It is an art form for the souls. It is provocative, mind twisting and incredibly calming at the same time. The moment of improvisation opens up new channels to breath in the creative force, clarity of thought/vision and allows to be. Dance, painting/sound improvisation. Creativity through spontaneity. Sometimes I am in my flow, sometimes I move in the space to fill it because my mind is thinking about how to move. If there ought to be rules, this is the first one. DON'T THINK OF HOW TO DO IT, DO IT WITH YOUR FLOW. It is as easy as it is said once you feel it. Practice is not to have expectations. The power of improvisation is in the authentic self. The power of thought is it allows the self to become the thought in that moment.  Let's do some maths. I...

The Declaration Kriol Project is embedded research projects funded by AHRC Transmitting Musical Heritage project, by university of Sheffield. The Community Partners of Transmitting Musical Heritage are Arts on the Run, Babelsongs, and Soundpost Community Network.</span> These organisations represent the range of musical experience occurring in Sheffield from refugee musicians, to long term residents with roots elsewhere, to indigenous traditions. Tony Bowring is the creative director (and bass player).  Arts on the Run is a broad network of individuals and organisations across the Yorkshire &amp; Humberside region with a common interest in refugee-related arts. This new Network was established in 2010 with the aim of using the creative power of the arts to promote social inclusion and integration. (Contact Tony Bowring:  tony.bowring@artsontherun.org.uk) There has been 5 live studio recording sessions so far.  Each music piece is composed...

When I arrived in Sheffield, I lived above a pub for 3 months then in a council flat with my former partner. The council flat looked like a match box. It was surprisingly spacious yet still was very oppressive and suppressive. On the first night my bike was stolen. There were only the poor living in these council flats and the flats were making me much more depressed. I started hide inside and possible haven't talked to anybody as long as we live there which was a couple years. TOWER BLOCKS IN ANCIENT TIMES High-rise apartment buildings had already appeared in antiquity ,  in ancient Roma and in the Roman Empire, some of  reached up to ten or more storeys, one reportedly having 200 stairs. Arab Egypt  initial capital city,  Fustat housed many high-rise residential buildings, some seven stories tall , could accommodate hundreds of people.  some of them rising up to 14 storeys with roof gardens on the top storey complete with ox-drawn w...