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Dancing the night away
Heart n Soul celebrated in style this month with a 25th anniversary Beautiful Octopus Club at The Royal Festival Hall. Lizzie Emeh, Jazztronics and The Fish Police rocked the main stage while the new café stage drew in the crowds with performances from Dave Sawyer and Friends, Kali and Arthur and Tilley and Del the pig. 2,000 clubbers danced the night away to Heart n Soul DJs and took part in the Taking Part zones including the Unique Boutique. See pictures from the night here and the film here. |
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Here's what some people had to say about
The Beautiful Octopus Club
"One of the best nights out of my life!"
"We had a lovely time, we met some old friends and made some new ones too."
"Inspirational! More events like this should happen! Congrats on a fantastic evening." |
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Star champion
Lizzie Emeh has been celebrating her success this month after winning the Champion Award at The Ability Media International Awards. The awards celebrate inclusion and diversity in the creative industries including music, dance and film. Lizzie won for her contribution to music and for promoting inclusion. |
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Lizzie also performed Loud and Proud to a star-studded crowd including Dame Maggie Smith and filmmaker Mike Leigh. On collecting her award, Lizzie said,
"I feel very excited to have won. It's an honour and a privilege. I really feel I've achieved something for people with learning disabilities." |
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On the road
The Fish Police were out on the road last month, heading down to Brighton to perform at the launch of Heavy Load's new album WHAM. The band played alongside Sparrow and Heavy Load at The Green Door Stoor. They also found time to record an interview for Shut Up and Listen Radio. Catch the interview and the rest of the show here. |
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Making friends
The world of the Dean Rodney Singers has been getting even larger this month as new artists joined the project. Dean and Mark met with experimental artist Dr Mick Grierson from Goldsmiths college who will be designing the installation of the project at the Southbank Centre. They also met with production company KnifeEdge who will be working on Dean TV, a new online channel produced by Dean that will take the audience inside the world of the Dean Rodney Singers. |
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The team are now busy finding country coordinators to help make the project go global! To find out more about the Dean Rodney Singers and to keep up to date with all the latest news, visit here. |
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Sci-fi on film
After showing a sneak peek of the film Desmond at The Beautiful Octopus Club, production company KnifeEdge are now putting the finishing touches to it. Created by artist Dele Fakoya, it is due to be released next year and will be shown at festivals and online. You can see the trailer, complete with Zebras and superheroes here. This film is aimed at adults and might not be suitable for under 16s. |
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Moving on up
Following two incredible performances at The Beautiful Octopus Club, rising Heart n Soul star Tilley Hughes has been working hard at developing her talent this month. Tilley has been working with performers and puppeteers Guy Dartnell and Steve Tiplady as well as musician Arthur Lea. See how Tilley got ready for her performance at the club with Arthur here. Watch out for more performances next year! |
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Looking back
This month we reached the end of our look through the Heart n Soul photo archives and have come bang up to date. It's been great looking back at the history of Heart n Soul, we hope you've enjoyed it too! See the last photos here. |
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Taking it to the streets
The Do Your Own Thing brought the Heart n Soul party to the streets last month at the Lord Mayor's Show. They joined the parade along with 6,000 other participants on the three mile long route. The team travelled in style, parading next to our big red double decker bus and the Heart n Soul mini-bus, complete with a large inflatable octopus! |
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There was a live band on the top deck of the bus and the DJs really got everyone dancing! The VJs showed live footage of the crowd and their own visuals created especially for the event.
The Heart n Soul parade was led by the Do Your Own Thing dance and drama groups using characters created especially for the parade, inspired by the sea. Check out the truly fabulous costumes here. |
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Live and online
The Media Team spent the month hard at work with media professionals Hannah Mason and Tim Mitchell getting everything ready for The Beautiful Octopus Club. They helped make the Heart n Soul 25 film, which was shown at the club. See the film here. They also looked back through the Heart n Soul archives to put together photo slideshows that were shown on screen at the club. |
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The Media Team also blogged on the internet live from The Beautiful Octopus Club. They took photos and did interviews. See their posts from the night here. They've also been making plans for their next project which will be a short film working with other young artists. |
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On the job
I Did That! graduates Simon, Ellie and Michael all put their professional skills to work at The Beautiful Octopus Club this month. Lighting graduate Simon and sound graduate Michael helped the production team while digital graduate Ellie took photos at the Unique Boutique and helped the VJs on the main stage. |
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Simon also took a trip to the National Theatre with Heart n Soul's Training and Taking Part co-ordinator Holly this month to find out more about their apprenticeship scheme in technical theatre. They had a tour of the theatre and met some of the production staff. Simon hopes to join the scheme as part of his continued professional development. |
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Meet Adele
This month we talked to Adele, the person who makes many of Heart n Soul's artists and events look fabulous! Read our interview here. |
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Donate Now!
We're getting ever closer to reaching our target of
£25,000 to continue our work touching and changing people's lives. However, we still need your help! Why not make a Christmas donation to our appeal. Visit here to see the difference your donation can make. |
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The best of the best
As we reach the end of the year we asked some of the Heart n Soul staff and trustees to tell us their best Heart n Soul moment of 2011. Find out what they said here. We'd love to hear your favourite moments too, drop us a line here and tell us! |
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Get involved!
We're going to be busier than ever next year, so why not sign up to our Facebook and Twitter pages. It's so simple, just login to Facebook and like our page, or do the same on Twitter and follow us. |
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Tweet of the month
James_Barry_
@HeartnSoulArt Blown away by the Beautiful Octopus club at the RFH. Amazing event by a brilliant charity.
Visit our Twitter page here. |
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Coming up in 2012
Heart n Soul is looking forward to a very busy and exciting year ahead in 2012 and we can't wait to see you at some of our upcoming events. Here are a few dates to add to your diary now!
Saturday 14 January. Do Your Own Thing
Friday 16 March. The Squidz Club
1 - 9 September. The Dean Rodney Singers at Southbank Centre. |
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Well, that's nearly the end of the newsletter and very nearly the end of the year too. We hope you all have a very merry Christmas and a wonderful New Year and look forward to seeing you at some of our events next year.
