Dash Arts Podcast

More than half the world's population is voting in elections this year. Dash Arts dives into one of those elections, speaking to artists in Georgia about how they are responding to the political turmoil in their country. The ruling party, Georgian Dream, is fighting for an unprecedented fourth term at the end of October 2024 and continues to be accused of silencing free speech, taking control of arts and culture and using fear to intimidate any criticism.

As part of Dash Arts’ exploration into protest and the public voice, Josephine Burton speaks to three Georgian artist activists who are uniting artists from across the sector, shouting for democracy and pushing for change.

In this episode you will hear from:

Josephine Burton - Artistic Director, Dash Arts

Thomas De Waal - Journalist, author & specialist in Eastern Europe and the Caucasus region

Ana Riaboshenko - Artist & one of the Initiators of Culture for Democracy

Paata Tsikolia - Theatre Director and Playwright

Levan Mindiashvilii - Artist

Thanks to Mariam Uberi and musician Aleksandre Kharanauli. Hear his work on Spotify.

To hear more podcasts on protest, art and activism by visiting the Dash website.

Levani’s art - https://levanm.com/ 

More information (in Georgian) on Culture for Democracy: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61556194792093 

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“I’ve long nurtured a dream to get out and finally explore what it was about the forests and seas of Laulasmaa, ‘the land of song’, in Estonia that inspired Arvo Pärt and so many musicians.”

Join Dash’s Artistic Director, Josephine Burton as she travels to the Arvo Pärt Centre in Laulasmaa, Estonia to investigate the mystical musical relationship between nature and the people of Estonia

From the Arvo Pärt Centre Josephine wanders the forest, swims in the sea and explores Helikula, ‘the village of sound’, where musicians from the Union of Composers were given summer houses during Soviet Times.

We started collaborating in October 2020 during the pandemic with a widely celebrated online event with the Arvo Pärt Centre combining a pre-recorded concert and a conversation with musicians Andres Kaljuste, Sophia Rahman and Arvo’s son Michael Pärt. You can hear this previous episode here.

For more on the trip you can read Josephine’s blog and see more photographs of the incredible Estonian landscape on the Dash Arts website.

In the podcast, we hear from:

Josephine Burton - Artistic Director, Dash Arts 

Michael Pärt - Music Editor and Chairman of the Arvo Pärt Centre

Sophia Rahman - Pianist

Andres Kaljuste - Violinist

Rein Lang - Former Minister of Culture of Estonia

Liisa Hirsch - Composer 

Kristina Norman - Artist

Title music by Fakiiritanssi by Marouf Majidi

Compositions by Arvo Pärt played by Sophia Rahman and Andres Kaljuste:

Fratres 

Für Alina

Spiegel im Spiegel

With thanks to the Estonian Ministry of Culture and Estonian Cultural Counsellor in London for enabling Josephine’s trip. 

Artwork: A PHOTO JOSEPHINE’S TRIP

Reference to the previous episode (Jan 2021) -https://open.spotify.com/episode/7pN6oLyNmgxVEqjNjZW8Dg?si=34666bcd1c984ba6 

Blog link -https://www.dasharts.org.uk/blog/arvo-prts-inspiration-discovering-the-magic-of-estonias-forests-and-sounds

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On 4th July millions of UK voters will take to the polls. Candidates are vying for our attention through speeches and debates. In this special episode Artistic Director, Josephine Burton, catches up with four former speech-making workshop participants across the country on how they are experiencing the election campaign, and analyses our political candidates and the quality of their speechmaking with Alan Finlayson, Professor of Political and Social Theory at the University of East Anglia, and collaborator on our national workshops.

To find out more about our plans for the theatre production go to www.dasharts.org.uk/our-public-house 

Our Public House is funded by Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), Arts Council England, National Theatre’s Generate Programme, Three Monkies Trust, The Thistle Trust, and individual giving.

In the podcast we’re grateful to hear from:

Kate, Max, Devika and Jonathan - Workshop Participants

Josephine Burton - Artistic Director, Dash Arts

Professor Alan Finlayson - Professor of Political and Social Theory at the University of East Anglia

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Whilst the country builds up to a general election, we’re in the midst of creating Our Public House, Dash Arts’ state-of-the-nation theatre production.

Hear from Artistic Director Josephine Burtonandplaywright Barney Norrison how our play weaves together the ideas and speeches of over 150 voices from across England and the ever shifting political landscape. Plus catch us in the rehearsal room at Theatre Royal Stratford East, performing some of the draft script and songs on stage at HOME in Manchester and in a speech-making workshop with Manchester Deaf Centre as we reflect on the long research and development process behind a Dash Arts production. 

Our Public House is funded by Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), Arts Council England, The Thistle Trust, Three Monkies Trust, and individual giving.

In the podcast we’re grateful to hear from:

Josephine Burton - Artistic Director, Dash Arts

Barney Norris - Writer, Our Public House

Professor Alan Finlayson - Professor of Political and Social Theory at the University of East Anglia

Cristina Catalina - Senior Producer, Dash Arts

Jonathan Walton - composer and musician

Nick Pynn - composer and musician

Mina Anwar - actor & singer

Matt Hill - composer and musician

And the participants from the speech-making workshops around the country. 

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In the still of a spring night, we journey into the woods with musicians Sam Lee and Jack Durtnall to hear the beautiful and increasingly rare song of the nightingale with a concert and conversation around the campfire. 

Artistic Director Josephine Burton treads lightly in the footsteps of a historic partnership between the nightingale and humans. The BBC’s first ever live outside broadcast was recorded exactly 100 years ago in May 1924 as cellist Beatrice Harrisonplayed alongside a nightingale. Our episode is the start of a new series of Dash Arts podcasts exploring the relationship between art and nature, and part of Dash's current season, Albion; an investigation of modern Englishness in all its complexity. Join us as we travel across landscape and language, digging deep into folk and written histories, oral traditions, music, storytelling, theatre and performance. 

Visit the Singing With Nightingaleswebsite to find out more about Sam’s work and to join him on such a magical evening in the woods. 

In the podcast we’re grateful to hear from:

Josephine Burton - Artistic Director of Dash Arts

Sam Lee - Musician and Conservationist

Jack Durtnall - Musician

Audience members from Singing with Nightingales

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“In many ways, I owe everything to the band.”

It’s been over 25 years since two students ran into each other on a street corner in Oxford and decided to set up a band. Oi Va Voi, rooted in Jewish and Eastern European musical traditions, would eventually reach hundreds and thousands of people across the world. 

Dash’s Artistic Director Josephine Burton and Jonathan Walton, also known as Lemez Lovas, knew they needed more people and more instruments. Soon after Sophie Solomon, Steve Levi,Leo Bryant, Nik Ammar and Josh Breslaw joined the band and they began fusing together klezmer, jazz, funk and drum and bass.

Last summer, their breakout album, Laughter Through Tears, turned 20 and the band marked it with a celebratory reunion gig at EartH in Hackney. In this episode we hear from the original members of the band and moments from last summer’s reunion.

As with all enduring families - there have been many moments when both life inside and outside the band got really tough, butOi Va Voilives on and this podcast celebrates these stories, the music and the people who made it. Josephine also shares whyDash Arts delayed releasing this episode back in October 2023.

In the podcast, we hear from:

Josephine Burton - Artistic Director, Dash Arts and former Singer, Oi Va Voi

Jonathan Walton/Lemez Lovas - former Trumpeter, Oi Va Voi

Josh Breslaw - Drummer, Oi Va Voi

Leo Bryant - former Bassist, Oi Va Voi

Sophie Solomon - former Violinist, Oi Va Voi

Nik Ammar - former Guitarist, Oi Va Voi

Steve Levi - Clarinetist, Oi Va Voi

KT Tunstall - former Singer, Oi Va Voi

Music:

Recorded live at EartH, Hackney on 22nd July 2023. Used with permission of Oi Va Voi.

Intro: Fakiiritanssi by Marouf Majidi

Artwork:

Album Cover taken from an early ep, Odessa, recorded in early 2000. Photo credit lost in the mists of time!

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In this second episode on the journey towards our production, The Reckoning, we hear from journalist and author, Peter Pomerantsev who co-founded The Reckoning Project and who first shared with Dash the hundreds of witness testimonies from survivors of the Russian war in Ukraine. Dash’s Artistic Director, Josephine Burton and Podcast Producer, Marie Horner hear about Peter’s motivations for starting the project and why he asked Dash to bring these stories to the stage. The Reckoning Project trains journalists to work with lawyers and analysts to collect stories of the horrors of war, detentions, torture and shelling that can be submitted as evidence in court. 

Peter and Josephine explore the relationship between the lawyers, journalists and witnesses, and how this has influenced Dash’s production. We also hear from Peter’s colleagues at The Reckoning Project, Nataliya Gumenyuk and Kostiantyn Korobov, on what has changed since the war began two years ago and what justice could look like for the people they speak to.

Peter joined us while he was in London to promote his new book, How to Win an Information War: The Propagandist Who Outwitted Hitler. To find out more visit Faber’s website.

Josephine will be sharing more about the production in Cambridge on Wednesday 20th March alongside Rory Finnin, Professor of Ukrainian Studies at the University of Cambridge. Get your tickets here.

In the podcast, we hear from:

Josephine Burton - Artistic Director, Dash Arts 

Peter Pomerantsev - Journalist and Author

Nataliya Gumenyuk - Journalist

Kostiantyn Korobov - Archivist

Marie Horner - Podcast Producer

Music by Fakiiritanssi by Marouf Majidi

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We’re in the pub for the next stage of Our Public House, a state-of-the-nation theatre production. Hear the show take shape in the studio and how Artistic Director Josephine Burton and playwright Barney Norris are being led by the speeches and writing of extraordinary individuals and communities from across the country. How do you pull together over 120 voices, ideas and stories to lock in a play that will resonate with our audiences?

Our Public House is funded by the National Theatre's Generate Programme, Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), Arts Council England, Three Monkies Trust, and individual giving.

In the podcast we’re grateful to hear from:

Josephine Burton - Artistic Director, Dash Arts

Marie Horner - Podcast Producer, Dash Arts

Barney Norris - Writer, Our Public House

Actors Alex Austin, Ed Gaughan, Syreeta Kumar, Mark Quartley, Saroja-Lily Ratnavel, and Sophie Stone Musician - Nick Pynn

And the participants from the speech-making workshops around the country.

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“Finding a way to keep the darkness but continue to keep the joy so that there’s moments of relief in the theatre, that the actors feel it, that the audience feel it too. That’s really the challenge for me - how to make powerful theatre.”Josephine Burton, Artistic Director, Dash Arts

This year Dash Arts is developing a new theatre production, The Reckoning; based on personal accounts of survivors of the Russian war in Ukraine from the vast testimony archive shared by The Reckoning Project, who has been gathering testimony from survivors of detentions, torture and shelling. Journalists are working with lawyers and analysts to collect these stories that can be submitted as evidence in court.

Josephine will be in Cambridge on Wednesday 20th March to share excerpts from the latest version of the production and will be speaking with Rory Finnin, Professor of Ukrainian Studies at the University of Cambridge, about our research on the war in Ukraine for The Reckoning.Get your tickets here.

In the podcast, we hear from:

Josephine Burton - Artistic Director, Dash Arts 

Anastasiia Kosodii - Playwright 

Lou Platt - Psychotherapist and Artist Wellbeing practitioner

Cristina Catalina - Senior Producer, Dash Arts 

Cristina Catalina, Vadym Golovko, Sam Kyslyi, Yulia Litvinenko, Mark Quartley and Olga Safronova - Cast of The Reckoning Research and Development Week (December 2023)

Music from The Reckoning by Anton Baibakov

Outro music : Fakiiritanssi by Marouf Majidi

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As 2024 arrives we look back on a year of new beginnings for Dash Arts. Join Artistic Director Josephine Burton and Dash’s Podcast Producer Marie Horner as they explore what we’ve learnt and what we haven’t learnt…yet. From the persecution of the Crimean Tatars in Crimea 5am, touring England to support the writing and delivery of over 120 speeches with communities in Our Public House and our first steps to create The Reckoning, a theatre show based on personal accounts of the Ukrainian war.  

In the podcast we hear from:

Josephine Burton - Artistic Director, Dash Arts

Marie Horner - Podcast Producer, Dash Arts

Maria Romanenko - Journalist and Performer in Crimea 5am

Boris Dralyuk - Poet and Translator

Anastasiia Kosodii - Playwright and Director

Professor Alan Finlayson - Professor of Political and Social Theory at the University of East Anglia

Henriette van der Blom - Reader in Ancient History at the University of Birmingham

Cristina Catalina - Senior Producer, Dash Arts

Kayley - Participant and Speech Writer

Michael - Participant and Speech Writer

Intro music : Fakiiritanssi by Marouf Majidi

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“Grasp the subject, the words will follow.” Attributed to Cato The Elder 

Artistic Director, Josephine Burton and Podcast Producer, Marie Horner regroup in the studio to reflect on a series of live events in Manchester and London that were the 2023 culmination of this year’s Public House project. We heard from speechwriters, activists and academics as we explored the ingredients of a great speech, the power of activism and words, and their ability to change people’s minds and lives, along with passionate speeches given directly by some of our extraordinary cohort of individuals from communities across England.

Coming in 2024, we’ll be creating Our Public House, a state-of-the-nation theatre production, inspired by the speeches and writing of participants from across the country.

Our HUGE thanks to all the participants from Underground Lights, Coventry; St Hilda’s Community Centre, Tower Hamlets; HMP Styal; The Writers' Block, Redruth; Citizens UK, Brighton; Arbourthorne Men’s Social Club, Sheffield; Manchester Deaf Centre and Deaf Explorer; Banbury and Bicester College, Bicester; individuals through Theatre Royal Stratford East, Newham, St Hilda’s Community Centre in Tower Hamlets, and residents of Mile Cross, through The Common Lot, Norwich.

Our Public House is funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), Arts Council England, Three Monkies Trust, and individual giving.

In the podcast we’re grateful to hear from:

Kayleigh Roach - Participant and Speech Writer

Maral Mamaghanizadeh - Participant and Speech Writer

Charlie Caine- Participant and Speech Writer

Edith Hall - Professor of Classics, University of Durham

Rinkoo Barpaga - Artist and Stand-up comedian 

Zara Manoehoetoe - Youth worker and community activist

Josephine Burton - Artistic Director, Dash Arts

Marie Horner - Podcast Producer, Dash Arts

Alan Finlayson - Professor of Political and Social Theory at the University of East Anglia

Cristina Catalina - Senior Producer. Dash Arts

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“Take a deep breath in, now think about the future you want” Heidi in Cornwall. 

What do you want to change? What do you want politicians to understand?

We’ve travelled over 3000 miles and asked these questions to over 120 people during speech writing workshops across the country. The creative team at Dash Arts and our academic partners gather to reflect on what we’ve learnt and what’s surprised us, and to listen back to some of the incredible speeches from participants who took part in Our Public House.

To hear more, book your tickets for Speak Out! - a series of live evening events in Manchester; on Tuesday 21 November we discuss the ingredients of great speech with classicist and cultural historian Edith Hall, and former speechwriter to David Cameron, Jessica Cunniffe. Plus academic Henriette van der Blom and Artistic Director of Dash Arts, Josephine Burton. 

On Wednesday 22 Novemberwe’ll explore activism and how we speak out, with artist and stand-up comedian Rinkoo Barpaga, alongside journalist and academic Alan Finalyson and Josephine Burton. This event will be BSL interpreted by Winston DenerleyandSamantha Vanterpool. 

Then we travel to London on Thursday 23 November where you can hear behind-the-scenes insights into the world of politics and speechwriting with Philip Collins, former chief speechwriter to Tony Blair, and Shareefa Energy, poet and activist. They will be joined by journalist and academic Alan Finlayson, and Josephine Burton.

Coming in 2024, writer Jude Christianand director Josephine Burton will create Our Public House, a state-of-the-nation theatre production, inspired by the speeches and writing of our national participants.

Our Public House is funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), Arts Council England, Three Monkies Trust, and individual giving.

In the podcast we’re grateful to hear from:

Participants from Underground Lights, Coventry; St Hilda’s Community Centre, Tower Hamlets; HMP Styal; The Writers' Block, Redruth; Citizens UK, Brighton; Arbourthorne Men’s Social Club, Sheffield; Manchester Deaf Centre and Deaf Explorer; Banbury and Bicester College, Bicester; individuals through Theatre Royal Stratford East, Newham and residents of Mile Cross, through The Common Lot, Norwich. 

Josephine Burton - Artistic Director of Dash Arts

Professor Alan Finlayson - Professor of Political and Social Theory at the University of East Anglia

Henriette van der Blom - Reader in Ancient History at the University of Birmingham

Cristina Catalina - Senior Producer of Dash Arts

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Join us on the road as we travel the length and breadth of England to hear what people want to change. In communities across Cornwall, Yorkshire, Norfolk, the North West, South East and the Midlands, we’re supporting people to write and deliver speeches on what difference they want to see.

Robust public debate and the freedom to make arguments and counterarguments are essential to democracy. Today, however, political dispute is ever more sectarian and angry, fears of misinformation are widespread and political discussion is often confined to groups of the like-minded talking to each other online.

Together with our partners at the Universities of Birmingham and East Anglia, we’ve been exploring this 'crisis of rhetoric' throughout the year with a series of workshops exploring persuasive speaking across diverse communities in England. Our research will eventually lead to Our Public House, a state-of-the-nation theatre production, inspired by the speeches and writing of our national participants, from writer Jude Christian and director Josephine Burton.

Book your tickets for Speak Out! - a series of live events in Manchester (21 & 22 November) and London (23 November), where we’re bringing together participants from our workshops, speechwriters, activists, politicians and academics to explore speech making's ability to provoke, persuade and empower.  

In the podcast we’re grateful to hear from:

Participants from Underground Lights, Coventry, St Hilda’s Community Centre, Tower Hamlets, HMP Styal, The Writers' Block, Redruth, Arbourthorne Men’s Social Club, Sheffield, Manchester Deaf Centre and Citizens UK, Brighton. 

Josephine Burton - Artistic Director of Dash Arts

Professor Alan Finlayson - Professor of Political and Social Theory at the University of East Anglia

Henriette van der Blom - Reader in Ancient History at the University of Birmingham

Cristina Catalina - Senior Producer

Marie Horner - Podcast Producer

Jude Christian - Writer and Director 

Our Public House is funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), Arts Council England, Three Monkies Trust, and individual giving.

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How might the stories of a Jewish man, writing in Russian, based in Odesa 100 years ago help us understand what’s happening in Ukraine today? Join Dash Arts’ Artistic Director Josephine Burton at the very start of an exploration into bringing to the stage the life and work of Isaac Babel.

This episode catches up with Josephine as she gathers together artists, writers, composers and translators to venture into Babel’s turbulent life and rich writings. We uncover how having a coffee with the artist and performer, Golda Amirova, sparked the beginnings of a music theatre production about this prolific writer Babel, born in today’s Ukraine. 

Translator of Babel’s Odessa Stories, Boris Dralyuk, shares Babel’s brutal and beautiful Odesa as well as the contemporary resonance of a violent era of early Soviet history through his translation of Red Cavalry.Plus we eavesdrop on the rehearsal room as Josephine pulls apart the imagery and possibilities that can be found in  Babel’s work with composer Jonathan Walton and playwright Mark Rosenblatt. 

We don’t know exactly how this will end, but this episode uncovers how we’ve begun.

In the podcast we’re grateful to hear from:

Boris Dralyuk - Poet and Translator

Golda Amirova - Artist

Jonathan Walton - Composer

Mark Rosenblatt - Director, Playwright and Screenwriter

Music : Леонид Утесов – Ты одессит, Мишка // Leonid Utyosov - You are from Odessa, Mishka

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Crimea 5am brings together the voices of extraordinary women, bound together by the Russian persecution of Crimean Tatars in 2014. In this episode, Artistic Director Josephine Burton looks back on how Dash Arts brought together a cast of actors, activists and journalists to stage this unique piece of verbatim theatre in London during January 2023.

Through personal stories and testimonies of love and struggle in Crimea today, and combining victim and activist interviews, Crimea 5am highlights the stories of 10 political prisoners and their families. The piece celebrates the sheer determination and activism within this oppressed community, the bravery of the prisoners in documenting abuses, and its defiant women holding the ravaged community together.

Since  2014, civil activists and in particular representatives of the indigenous people of the Crimean peninsula, Crimean Tatars, have been persecuted by Russian occupying forces. Obscured by a news blackout, we know little of these events, little of the prisoners themselves, their families  and life in Crimea under occupation. 

In this episode, our Artistic Director Josephine Burton and Podcast Producer Marie Horner listen to archive clips of the performance as well as journalists, academics, activists and the cast. We hear from:

Music: Ey, Güzel Qırım sung by the cast from Crimea 5am

Crimea 5am was produced at The Kiln in January 2023 as part of the British Council and the  Ukrainian Institute UK/Ukraine Season of Culture. The original production of Crimea 5аm was initiated by the Ukrainian Institute and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine as part of the Crimea Platform. The original performance was directed by Dmytro Kostiumynskyi and produced by Dollmen.

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Welcome to Albion. A world with a legendary past, fallen present and hope-filled future. 

This podcast marks a new season of work for Dash Arts. We’re exploring what it means to be English today, searching through workshops, performances, events and podcasts for a way to talk about who we are as a people and as a country, and who we want to be. 

In this episode, our Artistic Director Josephine Burton and Podcast Producer Rachael Head discover the myths of Albion with guests:

Carrolyne Larrington, an author and professor of Medieval English Language and Literature who has featured on the BBC Sounds series ‘The Lore of the Land’ about British Folklore. 

Stephe Harrop, an academic writer and performer who loves telling “English and Scottish fairytales, the fiery folklore of the Anglo-Scottish Borders, and salvaged stories from England’s historic and mythic pasts.”

Professor Jason Whittaker, who has written extensively on William Blake. His most recent book published in 2022 is titled Jerusalem: Blake, Parry, and the Fight for Englishness.

Intro music: Fakiiritanssi by Marouf Majidi

Image: William Blake Milton poem Plate 33 copy B 1811 Huntington

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We take a look back on a crazily packed year at Dash Arts, reflecting on the highs and lows of our three productions, Songs for Babyn Yar, The Great Middlemarch Mystery and Dido's Bar and all our podcasts, and look forwards to what 2023 holds, with Dash Arts Artistic Director Josephine Burton and Podcast Producer Rachael Head.

Music Credit:

Image Credit:

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Dash Arts' production of Dido's Bar was developed and made in Newham. As part of our year-long programme, we were privileged to work with Community Links, an amazing hub which offers young people advice, employment skills, and the chance to develop their audio skills in their top-notch production studio. 

We've brought some of these young people into the world of Dido's Bar through our podcast. Dash Producer Cristina Catalina and Podcast Producer Rachael Head worked in the studio with our participants, talking through the universal themes of Dido's Bar and exploring how those themes have affected their lives.

Music Credits:

Script excerpts read out are from Hattie Naylor's Dido's Bar.

Hosted by Rachael Head, featuring a short conversation with producer Cristina Catalina.

With thanks to Amanda Brown, the whole Community Links team and the Royal Docks Team

Dido’s Bar is produced by Dash Arts with imPOSSIBLE Producing.

Dido's Bar is co-produced with the Royal Docks Team, OCM (Oxford Contemporary Music), andJourneys Festival International and co-commissioned by OCM, with additional support from Arts Council England, Backstage Trust, The Foyle Foundation, Projekt,Cockayne – Grants for the Arts, The London Community Foundation, Genesis Foundation, Finnish Institute in the UK and Ireland, The Marchus Trust,TINFO – Theatre Info Finland, Austin and Hope Pilkington, Royal Victoria Hall Foundation, The Leche Trust and individual donors.

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In our latest episode: 'Dido's Bar: What Makes a Good Story?' we chat with the Director and Writer of Dido’s Bar about the ingredients of a good story. Listen to hear how they tackled telling the story of a refugee and how music has been weaved into the fabric of the performance.

Featuring interviews with Dido’s Bar Director and Dash Arts Artistic Director Josephine Burton, and Playwright Hattie Naylor. 

Music Credits:

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In our latest episode, 'New Mythology: Reclaiming the Story', we chat with artists about how their work makes space for underrepresented gender identities in ancient myths. Listen to explore how storytelling can reclaim lost stories within our mythological canon and how we’re rebalancing the gender dynamics in our next production, Dido's Bar.

Featuring interviews with Dash Arts Artistic director Josephine Burton; stand up storyteller Alys Torrance; drag artist Len Blanco and Dido’s Bar cast member Lola Mayand some sneaky preview of some of the music from the rehearsal room!

Music Credits

Intro music: Fakiiritanssi by Marouf Majidi

Music from the Dido’s Bar Rehearsal room: Smokey Nights, 100 Moons, I Know This Heart

Please note this episode is explicit.

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In this episode, we explore the epic poems, The Aeneid, The Shanameh and The Odyssey, and their relevance today.

Delve into the narrative of these epics as we investigate why and how these stories are compelling in their contemporary renditions, as well as how oral storytelling traditions have shaped how we interpret them.

Featuring interviews with Dash Arts artistic director Josephine Burton; Kurdish Iranian musician Marouf Majidi; director and former Dash Arts co-artistic director Tim Supple; writer and lecturer Tajinder Hayer;writer and performer Tristan Bernays; and storytellerClare Murphy.

Music Credits

Intro music: Fakiiritanssi by Marouf Majidi

Music from Dido’s Bar

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Protest Songs: Bella Ciao

In the final episode of our Protest Songs mini-series, we discuss the history and ongoing significance of the Italian protest song ‘Bella Ciao’.

Josephine Burton speaks to Professor Philip Cooke about the origins of the song and how its history has been gendered throughout time. Italian singer and songwriter, Virginia Sirolli, speaks of her personal connection to the song and its adaptations, and Composer Orlando Gough discusses how he used it in a recent production at The Globe and its powerful adaptability across multiple cultures and countries.

Music Credits

Intro music: Fakiiritanssi by Marouf Majidi

Bella Ciao Acoustic, Virginia Sirolli

Bella Ciao - Royalty Free Italian Music, Casa De Papel Gemaf

Bella Ciao, Grégoire Lourme/abr Título de Música: Bella Ciao (Epic Cover)

Bella Ciao in Punjabi, written, performed and produced by Poojan Sahil

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In the third and final episode of Making Middlemarch, the cast and crew reflect on their experience of The Great Middlemarch Mystery.

Listen to director Josephine Burton chat to actors Aimee Powell and Ryan Van Champion and podcast producer Rachael Head about the realities of modernising Middlemarch, Otherness and much more.   

Music Credits

Intro music: Fakiiritanssi by Marouf Majidi

Wes Finch:https://wesfinch.bandcamp.com

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The second episode of Making Middlemarch brings you conversations straight from the rehearsal room. 

Listen to cast members Tom Gordon, Amanda Hurwitz and Ryan Van Champion discussing their characters’ fears of change, and how those opinions are realised in the show. 

Featuring clips of some of the actors reading lines in the rehearsal room and snippets of the show’s sound design.

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In this first episode of Making Middlemarch, discover how the idea of The Great Middlemarch Mystery was conceived and why the source text’s author, George Eliot, continues to enchant us today.

Delve into the inspirations behind this adaptation and the creator’s theatrical visions. Uncover the real life stories from Coventry locals and how they will be woven into the show.

Featuring a conversation between creator and director Josephine Burton and co-writer and researcher Ruth Livesey, interspersed with clips from our community workshops in Coventry.

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Protest Songs: The Internationale

In the first episode of our Protest Songs series, we explore the history of 'The Internationale' and how it continues to inspire social change.

Josephine Burton speaks to singer-songwriter Billy Bragg, who was motivated by the collapse of communism to rewrite the song and devote an album to it in 1990. Other speakers include historian Robert Service who gives an overview of the history of the song and its many adaptations, including its role as the first national anthem for the Soviet Union and ProfessorJohn Street,who discusses his new online resource devoted to English protest songs ‘Our Subversive Voice’, and how music can change the world.

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After its genesis in Berlin and its London premiere, our initial journey of Songs for Babyn Yar culminated in a performance in Kyiv, Ukraine, on 7 December 2021 - the city in which more than 100,000 people were massacred in the ravine of Babyn Yar during Nazi occupation. 

In this podcast episode, the three artists involved and its director reflect on this climactic performance, and the emotional and creative journey it took to get there. Ukrainian musicians Yuriy Gurzhy, Svetlana Kundish and Mariana Sadovska,alongside director Josephine Burton, discuss their experiences of performing such a raw, personal and emotionally demanding work in their country of origin, to an audience who live in the long shadows of the Babyn Yar massacres. The musicians explore their shared grief, its catharsis, the impact the production has had on audiences worldwide, and the questions it has raised.

Songs featured: 'Lullaby for Babyn Yar', 'Mipney Ma', 'Live' and 'Vald' from Songs for Babyn Yar 

All music was created and recorded in the rehearsal room with Yuriy Gurzhy,Svetlana KundishandMariana Sadovska for Dash Arts

Intro music: Fakiiritanssi by Marouf Majidi

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The second in our mini-series of episodes about our Dido's Bar project delves into the creative process of the three artists at the heart of this production.

Hear about how director Josephine Burton, playwright Hattie Naylor and composer Marouf Majidi crossed paths and came to collaborate on this project, and how our recent music and creative writing workshops with communities in London and Oxford have inspired and fed into the production.

Dido’s Bar is an immersive multi-lingual gig theatre production that reimagines Virgil's Aeneidplanned for Autumn 2022 in London, exploring this timeless tale of migration through the lens of the current migrant crisis.

Music credits

Intro music: Fakiiritanssi by Marouf Majidi

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80 years ago this autumn, Nazi occupying forces murdered more than 33,000 Jews in the ravine of Babyn Yar in the suburbs of Kyiv, Ukraine, over just two days. In the following two years of Nazi occupation, Babyn Yar became the site of over 100,000 deaths.

This month, Dash Arts marks this anniversary by premiering a new music theatre production, Songs for Babyn Yar, in London and Ukraine with a work-in-progress sharing in Berlin. This performance sees three Ukrainian musicians explore the legacy of these massacres, drawing on survivors' testimonies, traditional Yiddish and Ukrainian folk songs, poetry and storytelling, and asking how we can move forward.

This podcast episode reveals the story of the making of the show, its vision and the creative journey we have experienced as we explore how to commemorate atrocity through the medium of performance. Featuring interviews with the show's director Josephine Burton; musiciansYuriy Gurzhy,Svetlana KundishandMariana Sadovska; and Dr Uilleam Blacker, Associate Professor of Comparative Russian and East European Culture at UCL.

Music credits

Songs featured: Mipney Ma and Rabbi Yuriy's Dance from Songs for Babyn Yar

All the music was created and recorded in the rehearsal room with Yuriy Gurzhy,Svetlana KundishandMariana Sadovska for Dash Arts

Intro music: Fakiiritanssi by Marouf Majidi

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Welcome to the first in a mini-series of podcast episodes dedicated to the creation of our upcoming show Dido's Bar, planned for autumn 2022.

Dido's Bar is an immersive site-specific gig theatre production set in a cabaret bar on the borders of Europe that reimagines Virgil's Aeneid, exploring this timeless tale of migration through the lens of Europe today.

In this podcast episode, discover the myth of Aeneas, his dramatic flight from Troy, his doomed love affair with Dido and his founding of Rome, and how the myth has retained so much resonance and significance in the context of the questions facing society today. Delve into the inspirations behind the production itself, its origin story and its theatrical vision.

Featuring interviews with Josephine Burton, Dido's Bar creator and director; Shadi Bartsch, Guggenheim Laureate and award-winning translator of Penguin Random House's edition of The Aeneid; Liv Albert, creator, host and producer of popular Greek and Roman mythology podcast Let's Talk About Myths, Baby!; and Kurdish Iranian musician Marouf Majidi, Dido's Barcomposer whose migration story partly inspired the production. 

Music credits

Music from Dido's Bar

Lyrics by Hattie Naylor

Music was created and recorded in the rehearsal room with Marouf Majidi, Samira Brahmia, Tuukka Leppänen, Riku Kantola and Josephine Burton at Meidän Festivaali with Globe Art Point for Dash Arts.

Songs featured: Love Spell; Sour Cherries

Intro music: Fakiiritanssi by Marouf Majidi

Link notes

The Aeneid, translated by Shadi Bartsch: https://shadibartsch.com/books/the-aeneid/

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In the final episode of The Identity Series, our investigation into what happens to identity during moments of great national change brings our attention to Brexit and its impact on our own national identities in the UK. What does Europe mean today? What do we want from Europe, post-Brexit? 

This podcast series forms part of EUTOPIA, our multi-year project that emerged as a direct response to the 2016 EU Referendum; as the UK voted to leave the EU, we felt the need to explore what it means to be European.

Speakers include Maria Alberg, founder and director of theatre company Projekt Europa, which makes work by migrant theatre makers in the UK; author and academic Timothy Garton Ash, Professor of European Studies at the University of Oxford; and David Furlong, theatre director and Artistic Director of Exchange Theatre, who presents an excerpt from his monologue Un-Settled.

Links

Find out more about and participate in European Moments: https://europeanmoments.com/moments

Music credits

Alger Alger, by Samira Brahmia (before David's Un-Settledmonologue)

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In this third episode of The Identity Series, we deepen our investigation into fractured national identity across Europe, through one of its most contemporary and violent examples: the collapse of Yugoslavia and subsequent wars that ripped across the former country.

Hosted by Josephine Burton, a range of artists and historians discuss the tensions leading up to the collapse and its heartbreaking aftermath. Together, we explore how this shaped the artists born out of it and changed the artistic output of a nation, what Yugoslavia meant to its artists and how that spirit endures today. 

Speakers include Milena Dragićević Šešić; professor of cultural policy and cultural management and former president of the University of Arts, Belgrade; Alma Ferovic Fazlic, a Bosnian singer and music producer; Maja Milatovic-Ovadia, a theatre director from former Yugoslavia and PhD researcher on devised comedy theatre in the context of post-war reconciliation; and Albanian-born Rigels Hallili, a lecturer in modern history and Balkans culture at Warsaw University's Centre for East European Studies.

Music credits

Srebrenica by Fun-Da-Mental, featuring Alma Ferovic Fazlic

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In this second episode of The Identity Series, we delve into the fraught and complex topic of empire, examining the decline and collapse of various empires across Europe, their aftershocks and their impact on the identity of their citizens.

Speaking to experts and artists from a range of backgrounds, we discuss topics including the legacy of empire, the impact of colonisation, how different cultures and nationalities have shaped British music, and the power of music to shape identity and express displacement.

Speakers include Sathnam Sanghera, journalist and best-selling author of Empireland: How Imperialism Has Shaped Modern Britain; Lloyd Bradley, one of the UK's leading black music experts and cultural commentators; and Samira Brahmia, a French-Algerian musician.

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In this first episode of The Identity Series, we explore the meaning and power of identity through the fascinating case of Polish-Lithuanian Nobel Prize-winning writer Czeslaw Milosz.

Born in Lithuania, Milosz survived the Nazi occupation of Poland, became a member of the Polish Foreign Service under the communist regime, and was then exiled for being a strong critic of communism. His famous collection of essays, The Captive Mind, reveals his struggle with his own sense of identity and belonging as an artist under a communist regime and became symbolic of the Baltic-Eastern European cultural, national and geopolitical ‘borderlands’. 

We also explore other artists who were affected by the shifting of national boundaries during the first decades of the 20th century.

Speakers include British singer-songwriter Katy Carr, known for her songs about Polish history; Katia Denysova, a researcher on the influence of socio-political factors on Ukrainian art in the early 20th century; Professor Clare Cavanagh, specialist in modern Russian, Polish and Anglo-American poetry and a biographer of Milosz; and Rigels Halili, lecturer in modern history and Balkans culture at Centre for East European Studies at Warsaw University.

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In this episode recorded from our online Dash Café in May, we return to the iconic 2009 Estonian documentary Disco and Atomic Warand the topic of borders, propaganda and censorship.

Audiences enjoyed excerpts from the film and conversation from speakers including Estonian TV journalist and Disco and Atomic War co-producer and co-screenwriter Kiur Aarma; Soviet-born British journalist and author Peter Pomerantsev; former ambassador of Finland to Estonia Kirsti Narinen; and political analyst and Counterpoint director Catherine Fieschi.

Playful and provocative documentary Disco and Atomic War (Winner of Best Documentary at Warsaw International Film Festival) by Jaak Kilmi recounts the Soviet Union's repressive grip of Estonia in the 80s. Much of Soviet power derived from its ability to censor cultural life. Rock and roll was but a rumour and the only television shows on the air were dreary propaganda – until one day, a few miles across the border in Finland, a huge television antenna was built broadcasting Western signals into the heart of Tallinn, the Estonian capital.

With thanks to the Embassy of Estonia in London and the Finnish Institute in the UK and Ireland for their support of the live event featured in this episode. Part of Dash Arts' EUTOPIA series, investigating what it means to be European.

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The fourth and final episode of our podcast mini-series, Breaking Silence, explores issues of censorship, self-censorship and cancel culture in the creation of art.

Artistic Director Josephine Burton speaks to arts consultant Manick Govinda, who co-founded Brexit Creatives, about what he sees as the art world's censorship or 'cancelling' of pro-Brexit views; Samuel Beckett scholar Dr Jackie Blackman on Beckett's use of silence in his plays as a form of self-censorship; journalist Mayssa Issa,about the silencing of artists during the coronavirus pandemic with arts being considered 'non-essential'; and Turkey's 'standing man' Erdem Gündüz, whose 2013 silent protest against the Turkish government went viral.

Through conversations with a range of acclaimed speakers across a range of disciplines, Breaking Silence explores ways in which voices, stories and cultures have been silenced both in current times and recent history, when silence can be a positive force for change, and what role the arts can play in breaking silences.

Links

Watch the music video for Danser Encore: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SyBEMRyt6Qg

Buy Beckett and Ethics: https://uk.bookshop.org/books/1605839840_beckett-and-ethics/9781441151179 

Find out more about Brexit Creatives on their Twitter @brexitcreatives

Photo credit

Erdem Gündüz, standing in Istanbul's Taksim Square in June 2013 as a silent protest against the Turkish government.

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The third episode of our podcast mini-series, Breaking Silence, looks at the silencing of cultural identity across national, ethnic and religious borders and ways in which international artists are unearthing these issues in their work.

Artistic Director Josephine Burton speaks to theatre-maker Krzysztof Czyzewski, whose Borderlands project aims to revive the multicultural heritage of Poland’s Sejny region in the aftermath of war; Kurdish singer Nawroz Oramari, who was forced to flee his homeland of Iraq for his politically-charged music and eventually seek asylum in Europe; and theatre director Athina Kasiou about the Cypriot endeavour to claim authorship of its own identity and how her work and that of her fellow artists navigates this.

Through conversations with a range of acclaimed speakers across a range of disciplines, Breaking Silence explores ways in which voices, stories and cultures have been silenced both in current times and recent history, when silence can be a positive force for change, and what role the arts can play in breaking silences.

Links

Citizens of the Word Choir: https://www.citizensoftheworldchoir.org/ 

Photo credit

Cast members in Borderland Foundation's 2008 production The Sejny Chronicles at La MaMa Experimental Theater Club in New York as part of the Borderlanders: Finding Their Voice festival. Photography by Jonathan Slaff.

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The second episode of our podcast mini-series, Breaking Silence, features writers and practitioners who are addressing the silencing of women and giving voice to female experience through artistic mediums. 

Dash Arts' Artistic Director Josephine Burton speaks to theatre-maker Lucy Dear(All in Your Head); screenwriter and playwright Rebecca Lenkiewicz (Ida; Her Naked Skin); theatre director Athina Kasiou (A Thousand Ships); and art therapist Diane Waller. Topics range from hidden stories of domestic abuse and coercive control, to the forgotten experiences of suffragettes, to the marginalised women of classical literature, to the power of theatre to give voice to those that have been silenced. 

Through conversations with a range of acclaimed speakers across a range of disciplines, Breaking Silence explores ways in which voices, stories and cultures have been silenced both in current times and recent history, when silence can be a positive force for change, and what role the arts can play in breaking silences. Don't forget to rate, review and subscribe to help boost us in the charts!

Content warning: this episode contains conversation about domestic abuse and mention of suicide, so please take care while listening.

Links

Lucy Dear’s play All In Your Head: http://www.lucydear.com/#all-in-your-head 

Project Sezon, Athina Kasiou’s theatre company: https://www.project-season.org/ 

Rebecca Lenkiewicz’s film Ida: https://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/ida-a-film-masterpiece 

Rebecca Lenkiewicz’s play Her Naked Skin: https://www.theguardian.com/stage/theatreblog/2008/aug/08/hernakedskinagutreaction

Music credits

Intro music: Fakiiritanssi by Marouf Majidi

Outro music: On the Edge of your Spring by Sasha Ilyukevich

Photo credit

A still taken from the 2013 film Ida, co-written by Rebecca Lenkiewicz.

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In the first episode of our four-part podcast series Breaking Silence, we examine Pacto del Olvido,Spain's 'pact of forgetting' - a collective decision to forget the thousands of crimes against humanity under Franco's 40-year dictatorship. Many of those who committed atrocities have still not been prosecuted and held to account, and Franco's victims continue to seek justice to this day.

Dash Arts' Artistic Director Josephine Burton speaks to filmmakers Almudena CarracedoandRobert Baharabout their multi-award-winning documentary The Silence of Others, Executive Produced by Pedro Almodóvar, which reveals the struggle of Spanish activists to organise a groundbreaking international lawsuit.

Speakers also include film director Manuel Huerga, whose film Salvadoris based on the life and death of Salvador Puig Antich – the last person to be executed by garrote under Franco's regime; and author Aaron Shulman, whose book The Age of Disenchantmentsbrings to life the regime's devastating impact through the eyes of one family and the works of poetry and art that they lived by.

Through conversations with a range of internationally-renowned speakers, Breaking Silence explores ways in which voices, stories and cultures have been silenced both in current times and recent history, when silence can be a positive force for change, and what role the arts can play in breaking silences. Don't forget to rate, review and subscribe to help boost us in the charts!

Supported by Foundation for FutureLondon and City of London.

Links

The Silence of Others: https://vimeo.com/ondemand/silenceofothers

The Age of Disenchantments – The Epic Story of Spain’s Most Notorious Literary Family and the Long Shadow of the Spanish Civil War: https://aaronshulman.com/the-book/

El Mirador De La Memoria: https://zm.lavilladusoleil.com/11056-el-mirador-de-la-memoria-the-monument-to-the-victims.html

Manuel Huerga: http://manuelhuerga.com/salvador/

Music credits

Intro music: Fakiiritanssi by Marouf Majidi

Outro music: On the Edge of your Spring by Sasha Ilyukevich

Photo credit

Almudena Carracedo © Semilla Verde Productions, from documentary The Silence of Others. Description: María Martín sits by the road which covers the mass grave containing her mother’s remains.

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In this episode of the podcast, we delve into the remarkable history of 59 Brick Lane in London’s East End. With the Dash Arts base in East London’s Toynbee Studios and events regularly hosted at Rich Mix London, this ever-evolving building has long been our neighbour.

A spiritual and communal home to thousands over the centuries; 59 Brick Lane was born as a Huguenot church, later becoming a Methodist church, then a synagogue, and is now home to the Brick Lane Mosque.

To get to grips with this building’s huge legacy, host and Dash Arts Artistic Director Josephine Burton is joined by the Vice Chair of the Brick Lane Mosque Harmuz Ali, author Rachel Lichtenstein, who researched the building as part of her book On Brick Lane, architect and co-curator of the UK’s architectural pavilion at this year’s Venice Biennale Shahed Saleem, architect Dan Leon (who worked with Shahed on the Friday, Saturday and Sunday multi-faith architectural project), director of the Swadhinata Trust Ansar Ahmed Ullah, academic and curator Rosalind Parker, who has written about faith in the public space, and Rebekah Coffman, an American academic at NYU whose research focuses on architectural reuse.

Supported by Foundation for FutureLondon and City of London.

See Rachel Lichtenstein's online project A Memory Map of the Jewish East End here

To buy Rachel Lichtenstein’s book On Brick Laneclick here

Find out more about the Friday, Saturday and Sunday multi-faith architectural project here

Find out about the Swadhinata Trust here

See the Brick Lane Mosque website here

If you enjoyed the podcast, don't forget to rate, review and subscribe! It helps to boost us in the podcast charts and reach more people. Listen to more Dash Arts Podcasts here

Music credits:

Umbra Sumus - Jah Wobble

Pagamenska - Oi Va Voi

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In October 2020 we hosted our first ever Digital Dash Café EUROPEANS: ARVO PÄRT to celebrate Estonian composer Arvo Pärt’s 85th birthday, and were overwhelmed and delighted to be joined by almost 300 screens from 25 countries.

Due to popular demand, we’ve turned the event into a podcast, with some new, bonus content for our listeners. We were joined by son of the composer and Chairman of the Arvo Pärt Centre, Michael Pärt, violinist Andres Kaljuste and pianist Sophia Rahman to listen to Pärt’s music and discuss his life and work. Hosted by Josephine Burton, hear snippets of Spiegel im Spiegel, Fratres, Für Alina and Estonian Lullaby played at the Arvo Pärt Centre in Laulasmaa, Estonia, with brand new questions posed to our guests.

With thanks to the following organisations and individuals for supporting this event: Riin Eensalu and the Arvo Pärt Centre; Kersti Kirs, Kadri-Liis Turton and the Estonian Embassy in London (principal funders), Tammo Sumera, Kaupo Kikkas, Rebecca Dawson, Universal Edition and Deirdre Bates at MDS / Schott Music.

Compositions by Arvo Pärt played by Sophia Rahman and Andres Kaljuste:

Fratres 

Für Alina 

Spiegel im Spiegel

Estonian Lullaby

Listen to more Dash Arts Podcasts at www.dasharts.org.uk/podcasts

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As we release our final podcast of 2020, we're still muddling through Brexit in the UK, with the nation holding its breath to see what this momentous change will mean for us all In timely fashion, we're revisiting our live event Art on the Brink of Brexit, recorded in 2018, which hosted a panel of first and second generation migrant artists working in the UK, to discuss what Brexit would mean for them, and what it would mean for the future of the arts in Britain.

We were joined by Bojana Janković from theatre collective There There, a performance company which is 50% Romanian and 50% Serbian, Victor Pãtrãşcan, a comedian originally from Romania, and theatre maker Miriam Sherwood, whose cabaret Rendezvous in Bratislava is inspired by her Slovak grandfather.

We discussed the impact of the EU referendum on their work, how art can cross cultural divides and help heal the fractures caused by Brexit, with some very lively audience discussion on the differences between an expat and an immigrant and whether or not offensive comedy is worth the laughter.

A huge thank you to all of our listeners this year and to all of 2020's guests, who kindly contributed their time to bring the Dash Arts Podcast to life. Despite the loss of our live events, it was a pleasure to engage with our audiences through 16 incredible podcasts that we loved making.

You can listen back to all of the Dash Arts Podcasts by searching DASH ARTS on all major podcasting platforms, or on our websitehere

Song Credits:

Valentina by Dynamite Island

Is the Party Nearly Over? by Dynamite Island

Hear more tracks from Rendezvous in Bratislava here

Find our more about Miriam Sherwood and her company Dynamite Island here

Find out more about Victor Pãtrãşcan's comedy here

Find out more about Bojana Janković and ThereThere here. Also discover Bojana's latest project Temporary Workshere

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Can trauma be healed through art? Does it pass from generation to generation and how can we break the cycle? In this episode of the podcast, we look at memory, family history and inherited trauma through the eyes of artists and thinkers from around the world, who have investigated the impact of these issues in their work.

Hosted by Artistic Director Josephine Burton, with award-winning filmmaker Mark Rosenblatt, twice Booker-nominated Nigerian writer Chigozie Obiama, theatre director Maja Milatović-Ovadia (originally from former Yugoslavia, now based in the UK), Russian actress and filmstar Oksana Mysina, Berlin-based Argentinian artist Silvina Der Meguerditchian, poet Stephen Watts,clinical psychologistDr Sarah Lack and William Peterfield Trent Professor of English and Comparative Literature at Columbia University Marianne Hirsch.

Don't forget to rate, review and subscribe to help boost us in the charts!

Watch the trailer for Mark Rosenblatt's short film GANEF here. The film is currently available to watch online at:

Norwich Film Festival (online) until November 29th 

https://watch.norwichfilmfestival.co.uk/film/ganef/

Flickers' Roving Eye International Film Festivalon November 30th, alongside many other films exploring issues raised by this podcast. 

http://www.film-festival.org/RovingEye_JewishExperienceFALL2020.php

Music credits:

Intro music: Fakiiritanssi by Marouf Majidi

Outro music: On the Edge of your Spring by Sasha Ilyukevich

Listen to more episodes of the podcast at www.dasharts.org.uk/podcast

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At Dash Arts, we are in the process of developing our brand new production The Great Middlemarch Mystery, a site-specific production in Coventry based on writer George Eliot’s classic Middlemarch, one of the greatest novels written in the English language.

In this episode we return to our February Dash Café on George Eliot, hosted at Warwick Arts Centre by Artistic Director Josephine Burton with collaborator Professor Ruth Livesey and guests Martina Hall, producer of 2019 BBC Arena documentary Everything Is Connected – George Eliot’s Life, artist Redell Olsen, and writer Anna Lawrence, with an update from Josephine and Ruth on how our production was born and how it’s progressed since this event.

We explore what happened when Europe and Middle England’s philosophies and ideas met, how Eliot brought this to life in her novels, and why her radical work is still important today.

Listen to The Choir Invisible by Amy Kakoura here

Read Anna Lawrence's short story Quarry here

Read more about The Great Middlemarch Mystery here

Listen to more episodes of the podcast here

Don’t forget to rate, review and subscribe to help boost us in the charts!

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In this episode of the Dash Arts Podcast, we delve into the life and work of the Curaçaoan-born Dutch artist, filmmaker and director Felix de Rooy.Originally planned as a live Dash Café back in April (cancelled due to the pandemic), we had hoped to explore Felix’s work in a discussion with visual artist Charl Landvreugd and a panel of playwrights from the BOOM! Project, a Dutch-British theatre initiative examining and challenging colonial history and narratives.

In many ways, we’ve done one better with this podcast. Not only did we get all of these fantastic guests, but we also got Felix himself, theatre director Ernestine Comvalius and artist Neske Beksalongside Charl and playwrights Jude Christian, Gable Roelofson and Enver Husicic, making for a jam-packed episode.

Described as “a source for all black arts in the Netherlands”, Felix’s work has been pivotal in reframing the narrative of Dutch identity - particularly the Netherlands’ relationship with its colonial history - and the legacy of the slave trade. Despite all this, chances are you haven’t heard of Felix de Rooy. Join Dash Arts Artistic Director Josephine Burton to explore why, going on a journey through Felix's work and exploring the lasting impact of racism and colonialism in the Netherlands and in the shaping of the European cultural narrative.

Hear Ernestine Comvalius’ State of Theatre poem Level Up! (which she performed at the opening of Nederlands Theater Festival in September 2020) on our websitehere

Music Credits:

Piauw Piauw by Max Woiski (2014)

Find out how to support Dash Arts here

Hear more podcast episodeshere

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Discover the fascinating life and work of Hollywood icon and beloved Swede Ingrid Bergman in this week's episode, hosted this time by Dash Arts Creative Associate and director Sophie Austin.

Taking a journey through Bergman’s life, we look at how her strength, determination and Swedishness made her into one of the world’s most famous movie stars. In the face of sexism, scandals and tragedy, Bergman’s strident independence and ambition saw her carve out a career led by passion and creativity.

We speak to Swedish actor Anna Lindgren, writers and academics Dr Ellen Wright and Dr Hannah Yelin and Stig Björkman, director of the brilliant documentary Ingrid Bergman: In Her Own Words (2015), which features Ingrid's own home footage, appearances from Isabella Rossellini and a voiceover by Alicia Vikander.

Don't forget to rate, review and subscribe to help boost us in the charts! Listen to more episodes of the Dash Arts Podcasthere

Watch Ingrid Bergman: In Her Own Words (2015) on MUBI here or rent it on Netflix here

Watch test shots of Ingrid for Intermezzo, as mentioned by Stig and Ellen, here

Pre-order Hannah Yelin’s book Celebrity Memoir: from Ghostwriting to Gender Politics here

--

Music Credits and notes:

A Song of Pompei by Renzo Rossellini and featured in the film a Journey to Italy which is a truly exceptional film and captures the subtle brilliance of Bergman’s skills.

Movie Magicby Eddie Waltman, from the album And the Oscar Goes To: Award Ceremonies & Red Carpet Music.

As Time Goes By written by Herman Hupfeld and performed by Dooley Wilson in the film. Dooley was actually a drummer so the piano was overdubbed by pianist Jean Plummer. This song has perhaps become as iconic as the film's stars.

Ingrid Bergman lyrics by Woody Guthrie and performed by Billy Bragg and Wilco. Apparently Woody Guthrie had a huge crush on Bergman and wrote this steamy song just for her. He never recorded it and Bragg found the lyrics in the Guthrie archive. 

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The Dash Arts Podcast is back! In this episode we look at the treatment of invited guest workers (Germany’s ‘Gastarbeiter’), economic migrants and relocating members of the British Empire.

Through music and poetry, we examine the similarities and differences between the UK’s Windrush scandal and Germany’s treatment of Turkish ‘gastarbeiter’ and the huge cultural legacy by these migrant workers.

Hosted by Artistic Director Josephine Burton, we were joined by poet Hannah Lowe, Artistic Director of ‘WINDRUSH70 - Brent’s Pioneering Windrush Generation’ Zerritha Brown, German-Turkish novelist Imran Ayata and artist, director and composer Bülent Kullukçu, co-curators of ‘Songs of Gastarbeiter Vol. 1’, which features music by guest workers and pays tribute to the cultural contribution made by the first wave of migrants to Germany.

Thanks to support from the Goethe Institute and to Rich Mix London for hosting the original event. 

Don’t forget to rate, review and subscribe to help boost us in the charts!

Hear more episodes on our website here

Check out Hannah Lowe's poetry here

See images and info from WINDRUSH70 here

Listen to Songs of the Migrant Worker Vol. 1 here

Listen to Cem Karaca’s Es haben Menschen an here

www.dasharts.org.uk 

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In this episode of the podcast we revisit our Dash Café ON THE BORDER, which explored the experience of living on the border through the prism of art, film, music, literature and economics.

We reflected on the actual borders that existed for our speakers growing up on the edges of the Iron Curtain and today’s visible and invisible borders with Berlin-based author, composer and editor-in-chief of Flaneur Magazine Fabian Saul, visual artist Mariana Gordan (originally from Romania), Norwegian-born economist and Financial Times columnist Martin Sandbu and live music from Slovakian vocalist Lori Secanskaand Greek-Cypriot guitarist Iakovos Loukas.

For more information and episodes, head to our website here

Get Mariana Gordan's book State Property here

Fabian Saul's project Traces of Resistance here

Get Martin Sandbu's new book The Economics of Belonging: A Radical Plan to Win Back the Left Behind and Achieve Prosperity for All here

We are taking a much-needed Summer break from the podcast in August. In the meantime, we wish listeners a sunshine-filled August and we'll be back in September with more audio delights! Don't forget to rate, review and subscribe to the podcast to help boost us in the charts!

Originally recorded March 2019 at Rich Mix London, with support from Goethe-Institut London. Podcast artwork by Mariana Gordan.

Dash Arts is a small charity that bridges divides between communities, cultures, borders and languages by creating incredible artistic experiences. Our work brings together international artists, nurtures new talent and tells powerful stories. Click here to find out more about how you can support our work.

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This episode threads together Ukrainian culture and history with memory, politics and the female perspective. We look at what we can learn about a country through the eyes of women; through their stories, songs and food. 

Cook borsch with Artistic Director Josephine Burtonand chef Olia Hercules, whose beautiful new book of recipes Summer Kitchen has just been published by Bloomsbury, discover Ukrainian history and politics with prolific writer Oksana Zabuzhko, who has just released a book of fabulous short stories Your Ad Could Go Here,get some insight from the outgoing director of the Ukrainian Institute in London, journalist Marina Pesenti, and listen to the music and stories of musician Mariana Sadovska.

Download the borsch recipe here to cook along with the podcast.

Head to our website here to see images of us making borsch, our guests and their books.

Buy Olia Hercules' book Summer Kitchen

Buy Oksana Zabushko's book Your Ad Could Go Here 

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Listen to more episodes at www.dasharts.org.uk/podcast

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In this LIVE episode from our 100th Dash Café (January 2020) we delve into the life and legacy of French Surrealist icon Dora Maar.

The photographer and artist’s radical work strikingly depicts the anxieties of interwar Europe and the internal horrors of the mind. Yet Maar was often overlooked, her role as Picasso’s lover and ‘weeping woman’ dominating world view, until now.

In January 2020 a major exhibition of her work travelled from the Centre Pompidou to the Tate Modern, introducing many to her work for the first time.

In this episode Dash Arts Artistic Director Josephine Burton talks to the exhibition's curators Damarice Amao and Karolina Lewandowska, along with discussion and performances from poet Victoria Adukwei Bulley and Finnish musician Marouf Majidi.

With Poet in the City and support from TelepART and Institut Francais

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Our brand new podcast episode Django Reinhardt: Music, Myth and Reality is a journey into the life of the genius jazz guitarist, Django Reinhardt.

With a host of international musicians performing entirely new music for the podcast, we look at the life of the Roma musician who survived personal tragedy and World War II to become a leading figure in 20th century jazz.

Hosted by our Artistic Director Josephine Burton, this episode features authors Michael Dregni and Garth Cartwright, Roma activist Mania Malik, theatre director Alessandra Davison and musicians Dave Kelbie, Joe Townsend, Aurore Voilique, Tcha Limberger, Don Vappie and Dario Napoli.

Make sure you like, subscribe, rate, reviewand share after listening to help boost us in the charts and get the podcast out to more people.

FULL SONG CREDITS HERE

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In this week's LIVE episode we delve into Brussels; the complex, cosmopolitan, interconnected city that's home to the EU.

We look at the city's troubling history with colonialism, explore the impact of the European Union HQ on its inhabitants and architecture, and hear from artists living and creating change in the city.

Hosted by our Artistic Director Josephine Burton, this episode features prominent academic and activist Eric Corijn, poet Elisabeth Severino Fernandes(aka Miss Elli) and writer and journalist Owen Hatherley.

Make sure you like, subscribe, rate, review and share after listening to help boost us in the charts and get the podcast out to more people!

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Eurovision might have been cancelled, but not at Dash Arts! In this LIVE episode we head back to our Eurovision Dash Café last year for an entertaining rundown of its history.

Hear from Dr Eurovision(aka Paul Jordan, who did his PhD on the subject) performance artist Richard DeDomenici, our Artistic Director Josephine Burton and our audience, plus BRAND NEW interviews with Tom Taylorof the celebrity-clad Isolation Song Contestand an update from Richard DeDomenici on his new virtual event, the Coronavision Song Contest.

Make sure you like, subscribe, rate, review and share after listening to help boost us in the charts and get the podcast out to more people!

LINKS:

Head to our website to see images and videos of the Eurovision moments mentioned in this episode at: http://www.dasharts.org.uk/podcast

Hear Richard DeDomenici's Eurovision Talk: https://youtu.be/uhfSib_NU8U

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Our first tailor-made podcast episodeArt in adversity: Tadeusz Kantor's fighting spirit delves into the work of Polish artist and theatre maker Tadeusz Kantor, whose work inspired the likes of Joseph Beuys (whom Kantor worked closely with), choreographer Pina Bausch and theatre company Complicité, to name a few.

Kantor made work under extraordinarily challenging times. Under the Nazi occupation of Poland, he founded the Independent Underground Theatre, and later carried on creating work throughout Poland’s communist regime. Dash Arts Artistic Director Josephine Burton investigates how he navigated the politics and continued to create, and what we can take from Kantor during our own challenging times.

We speak to Natalia Zarzecka, Director of Cricoteka(Centre for Documentation of the Art of Tadeusz Kantor) in Krakow, Puppeteer Nenagh Watson, filmmaker Duncan Ward and producer and director David Gothard, all of whom worked with Kantor, as well as Dr Mischa Twitchin, who teaches Polish Theatre at Goldsmiths University.

Make sure you like, subscribe, rate, review and share after listening to help boost us in the charts and get the podcast out to more people.

To see Duncan's films of Kantor and clips to videos of Kantor's work, please head to our website at http://www.dasharts.org.uk/podcast where you can also find more information and podcast episodes.

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In a time where talk of change and revolution is on everyone's lips, we revisit our November 2019 Dash Café, which explored the impact of the 1989 revolution that caused the collapse of the Soviet Union, 30 years on. Through the prism of artists, filmmakers and writers from across the Czech Republic and Slovakia, we asked whether that extraordinary spirit of activism still exists today.

Speakers included Tereza Nvotová, Zuzana Kepplová, Ondřej Štindl and diplomat Monika MacDonagh-Pajerova, who discussed the impact of this legacy on their work and whether it continues to have an impact today.

This event was created in partnership with the Czech Centre and The Embassy of Slovak Republic, part of events celebrating the 30th anniversary of 1989.

The night featured insightful conversation about the countries who revolted and joined the EU, just as we face leaving it.

Edited by Martina Šimkovičová, Radio Slovakia International.

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When art sets out to make a social or environmental impact – are we ticking boxes or are we changing the world?

In February 2020 we were joined by theatre director and Dash Associate Artist Sophie Austin, Dr Michele Aaron (Screening Rights Film Festival)and Co-founders of Birmingham-based collective MAIA Group Amahra Spence and Amber Caldwell to delve into the challenges of activism through art, and look at the tension between art for art’s sake and art as a means to an end.

This event was also accompanied by music from Ukrainian singer-songwriter Iryna Muha, which you can listen to here: https://irynamuha.co.uk

Recorded at Warwick Arts Centre. Live event commissioned by Warwick Arts Centre.

Find out more about Dash Arts by heading to our website.

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In February 2019, Dash Arts' Café Destination Europe focused on questions of contemporary European identity, with Brexit as a backdrop. We brought together actors, writers and film directors from across Europe for a conversation. A year on, post the UK’s departure from the EU, these questions are just as pertinent.

What does it mean to be European? And what does Europe mean for those who were born outside of it? We premiered short films by the phenomenal Swedish actress and filmmaker Bahar Pars and our Artistic Director, Josephine Burton, hosted a panel discussion with Bahar, alongside Nanna Blondell, who stars in one of Bahar's shorts; actor, writer and translator Houda Echouafni; and Tom Green of Counterpoints Arts.Recorded at Rich Mix.

Live event supported by the Embassy of Sweden in London, and Rich Mix.

Head to our website to watch Bahar Pars' films and find out more: http://www.dasharts.org.uk/podcast

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A trailer from international arts organisation Dash Arts' Artistic Director Josephine Burton on our LIVE episodes and the brand new content on the way.

Find out more on our website: http://www.dasharts.org.uk/podcast

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