Commonplace Book is a way of sharing extracts, fragments, notes and reflections throughout the development of Into the Mountain. It creates the possibility for containing multiple voices and experiences involved in the project.
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Looking back: Petra Söör
Some months have passed since the Into The Mountain performances and with this we have invited the amazing team of women who made it happen to share their reflections, thoughts and feelings after the event. From production to performing, guiding audiences and behind the scenes, all have taken something away from the collective experience of Into The Mountain into their daily lives and practices. Performer and co-devisor, Petra Söör, shares her reflections and some photos below: Something striking that remains for me is a sense of being gifted something really precious in so many ways… I think also starting with […]
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Looking back: SSW Team
Some months have passed since the Into The Mountain performances and with this we have invited the amazing team of women who made it happen to share their reflections, thoughts and feelings after the event. From production to performing, guiding audiences and behind the scenes, all have taken something away from the collective experience of Into The Mountain into their daily lives and practices. Staff from SSW, who were on hand at Glen Feshie to ensure the smooth running of the project, reflect on their experience: “When I was asked to bend over and examine the landscape upside down and […]
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Looking back: Julie Lawson
Some months have passed since the Into The Mountain performances and with this we have invited the amazing team of women who made it happen to share their reflections, thoughts and feelings after the event. From production to performing, guiding audiences and behind the scenes, all have taken something away from the collective experience of Into The Mountain into their daily lives and practices. Another choir member, Julie Lawson, shares her reflections: “Being a part of Into the Mountain has been a real privilege. I love Nan Shepherd’s writing, so the opportunity to help animate her words was an honour. […]
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Looking back: Caroline Reagh
Some months have passed since the Into The Mountain performances and with this we have invited the amazing team of women who made it happen to share their reflections, thoughts and feelings after the event. From production to performing, guiding audiences and behind the scenes, all have taken something away from the collective experience of Into The Mountain into their daily lives and practices. Caroline Reagh, one of the dancers, shares her thoughts: “3 months after the project now and this rich, wonderful experience lies quietly strong, contained in body and mind smiling, laughing, wild weather, the huge open sky so […]
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Looking back: Margaret Moore
Some months have passed since the Into The Mountain performances and with this we have invited the amazing team of women who made it happen to share their reflections, thoughts and feelings after the event. From production to performing, guiding audiences and behind the scenes, all have taken something away from the collective experience of Into The Mountain into their daily lives and practices. Here, a member of the choir, Margaret Moore, shares the process of singing with Lucy, Hanna, and the rest of the group: “I was in the choir singing the score being recorded for the film of […]
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Looking back: Norma D. Hunter
Some months have passed since the Into The Mountain performances and with this we have invited the amazing team of women who made it happen to share their reflections, thoughts and feelings after the event. From production to performing, guiding audiences and behind the scenes, all have taken something away from the collective experience of Into The Mountain into their daily lives and practices. Norma D. Hunter, of the choir, writes this: “I walked with Simone in the early days of her thinking about women and walking and Nan Shepherd, we covered many miles physically and in thought around how […]
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Looking back: Hannah May
Some months have passed since the Into The Mountain performances and with this we have invited the amazing team of women who made it happen to share their reflections, thoughts and feelings after the event. From production to performing, guiding audiences and behind the scenes, all have taken something away from the collective experience of Into The Mountain into their daily lives and practices. Another chorister, Hannah May, shares her reflections: “Participating in Into The Mountain as a singer helped me to heal from a recent trauma. The ritual of singing with a group of women and walking for a […]
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Looking back: Facilitators
Some months have passed since the Into The Mountain performances and with this we have invited the amazing team of women who made it happen to share their reflections, thoughts and feelings after the event. From production to performing, guiding audiences and behind the scenes, all have taken something away from the collective experience of Into The Mountain into their daily lives and practices. Here are the reflections from two of the Into The Mountain facilitators, Jean Langhorne and Mags Kerr. “My experience on the project took me into the intricate folds of the mountain: folds of land, of lichen, […]
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Looking back: Angela Patterson
Some months have passed since the Into The Mountain performances and with this we have invited the amazing team of women who made it happen to share their reflections, thoughts and feelings after the event. From production to performing, guiding audiences and behind the scenes, all have taken something away from the collective experience of Into The Mountain into their daily lives and practices. Angela Patterson was part of the choir, here is what she wrote: “When I saw the open call for the forming of a new choir back at the beginning of the year it intrigued me. I […]
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Into The Mountain Press
Articles and reviews about the Into The Mountain performance, featured in various news outlets both national and local. National Press The Guardian, 29 May 2019 The Scotsman, 1 June 2019 Art Monthly, July – August 2019 The Press & Journal: Filling the Cairngorms with the sound of music The Great Outdoors: Live artwork inspired by Nan Shepherd’s ‘The Living Mountain’ comes to the Cairngorm mountains FAD Magazine: Escape England this summer – head to Scotland for your art Local Press The Bulletin, Alford, Spring 2019 AB54 Community Newsletter Into The Mountain (SSW), p17
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The Performance
Performed over 4 days, Into The Mountain culminated with a series of guided walks and performances deep within Glen Feshie for small audiences. On arrival at the performance site, the audience were invited to sit within the heather in their small walking groups. Five dancers tumbled down the mountain side, from their stationary positions under space blankets. The ‘boulders’ emerged and became deer, over the heather towards the audience, falling into formation with choreography devised by Simone Kenyon in collaboration with the dancers and the mountain itself. The movements were informed by Nan Shepherd’s, The Living Mountain, and took instruction […]
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The Walk
Into The Mountain culminated in a series of guided walks and performances over four days, deep within Glen Feshie in the Cairngorms National Park. Leading the audiences towards the performance site were three teams of a facilitator and mountain leader, guiding small groups of 10 into the mountain through exercises and readings of Nan Shepherd’s The Living Mountain. The exercises drew inspiration from Nan’s unique approach to being in the mountains, with an embodied approach to connecting and understanding the ecologies on a micro and macro scale. Walk facilitators were Saffy Setohy, Mags Kerr and Jean Langhorn. Mountain leaders were […]
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Looking back: Lucy Duncombe
Some months have passed since the Into The Mountain performances and with this we have invited the amazing team of women who made it happen to share their reflections, thoughts and feelings after the event. From production to performing, guiding audiences and behind the scenes, all have taken something away from the collective experience of Into The Mountain into their daily lives and practices. Lucy Duncombe, who directed the choir, shares her thoughts: “As choir leader for Into The Mountain, it was such a joy to be a small part of a large project that elicited so many moments of […]
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The Choir
As part of the Into The Mountain performances, a new choir of women learned, practiced and sang a new vocal score written by artist Hanna Tuulikki. Led by vocalist Lucy Duncombe, the choir accompanied the dancers, sounding a bird-like call to announce the point at which the dancers would tumble down the mountains towards the audience. The score was non-verbal, and drew inspiration from aural instruction in Nan Shepherd’s The Living Mountain and traditional song in the area. Lucy and Hanna asked the choir to improvise, inspired by the setting of the mountains. The choir were: Alison Bell, Frances Davis, Beatrice Fettes, […]
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Into The Mountain Trainees Announced
We are delighted to announce that Leona Dölger and Polly Urquhart are our two successful Into The Mountain Trainees. They will be participating in our Into The Mountain Traineeship delivered in partnership with Mountaineering Scotland. Leona and Polly will receive a package of training and support to mark out a practical route to overcome some of the barriers they have experienced in accessing Scotland’s mountain landscapes. Included in the programme is membership of Mountaineering Scotland, a series of free places on Mountaineering Scotland navigation and mountain skills courses, financial support and quality mountain days with Simone Kenyon, lead artist on […]
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Into The Mountain Traineeships
Deadline for applications: Tuesday 18 June 2019, 12 noon We are inviting applications for two Into The Mountain Traineeships, delivered in partnership with Mountaineering Scotland and Into The Mountain. The traineeship offers a package of training and support to mark out a practical route for women to overcome some of the social and practical barriers facing them in accessing Scotland’s mountainous landscapes. This exciting new collaboration is born out of a commitment to support more women to access the hills and work within the outdoor industries. From the outset, Into The Mountain has investigated the historic and current roles women […]
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Winter Walk
Tumbling mist crossing the hillside opening frames of landscape. Quietness descends with gentle windblown mist. So light only breath is moving it along. A pasture of pale green fir trees clears. Its colour created by heavy dew and early morning frost dissolving over the day. Trees are touched by water and the needles hold this nourishment with delicate care. Stillness everywhere, mist softens sound pressing it down through the ground and so disappearing into the earth. Walking in quiet, listening to quiet, I can only stop and hold my breath. Beneath my feet a frog rests in the mud. The text […]
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How The Earth Must See Itself
How The Earth Must See Itself is a new short film project conceived and developed by Simone Kenyon and filmmaker Lucy Cash. It is created in response to Into The Mountain and takes inspiration from celebrated Scottish poet and writer Nan Shepherd and her book The Living Mountain. The short film, distributed through National Theatre of Scotland digital channels and produced with support from Scottish Sculpture Workshop, will mix the evocative and powerful geography of the Cairngorms with the live performance and extracts of Shepherd’s prose. How The Earth Must See Itself will be a visceral, sensuous evocation of light […]
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Into The Mountain – A Meet
Into The Mountain – A Meet brought together practitioners and enthusiasts interested in the intersections and conversations between the arts, dance, mountain and hill walking cultures. Together we critically explored through talks, discussions and sessions, how women (for clarity this includes cis women, trans women and intersex women) encounter and engage with mountainous environments, considering both historical and current perspectives of gender in relationship to landscapes. We also delved into the entanglements between dance, mountaineering, contemporary feminist writing, science and multiple arts practice. Listen here
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Placefulness
Earlier in the research process for Into the Mountain, we were joined by Jean Langhorne, who led us on one of her favourite walks from Glen Feshie onto the Cairngorm plateau. We explored some of the main elements of her Placefulness work, in particular, how walking can be used as an embodied and attentional practice; as a means to enhanced sensory perception and an experience of reciprocal interaction with place . In addition, Jean’s knowledge of the land management of the glen and the ecology of the alpine zone, highlighted our observations and understanding of the variety of upland vegetation […]