What the Lark Saw – our collaboration with Three Choirs Festival this summer

This summer Creative Age (CA) participated in a community project as part of the 2023 Three Choirs Festival. The focus of this year’s festival was the musical composition of “The Lark Ascending” by Vaughan Williams. In our bi-monthly sessions we started to explore the piece of music - imagining ourselves as Skylarks soaring high up in the sky….what would we see below….how would it feel to be flying? Words, thoughts, and visual images flowed freely from the group of carers, supporters, and people at varying stages of dementia. These were collectively pooled to form a wonderful evocative poem.

In other sessions we explored the piece of music through the medium of movement and dance using feathers, flowing pieces of silk, twigs, and sheaves of corn. I loved these liberating and relaxing sessions led by the talented dancer Marie-Louise Flexen. In other sessions hats and fascinators were created with Ally Goff using recycled materials, adorned with handmade birds’ nests full of hand-painted pottery eggs; flags were painted with our imagined views of the land as seen by skylarks in flight; squares of silk were printed with flowers and ears of corn.

Our final session was recorded and edited, culminating in a short film representing Creative Age’s response to The Lark Ascending with the music playing in the background.

On a beautiful sunny day in July, many of the Creative Age participants, supporters and artists joined together at Gloucester Cathedral to take part in the community showcase. We proudly sat in the congregation (many of us adorned with our bird’s nest creations on our heads) and watched as our short film was projected onto screens, during an exquisite live performance of The Lark Ascending. One of our volunteers Bernard read out the poem we had created collectively. Marie-Louise and young dancer Ruby also danced a beautiful interpretation of the flight of skylarks in the central aisle of the cathedral.

That evening Creative Age featured on BBC Points West where part of our film was used. One of the many wonderful things about being a part of CA, is that each week is full of surprises and creative journeys, and you just never know where you are going next!

Written by Kate Button,

Carer and participant of Creative Age

Read our collective poem, Flying High here