Category: Workshops

The lovely Hitt Húsid staff.

        

Hitt Húsid is a youth centre in Reykjavík where I had the privilege to run workshops last week.

We spent a morning with Valgeír, Ian, Harpa, Haraldur, Gunnar, Geir, Hjalti, Patrik, Inga, Anita, Nôi, Rosana, Audur, Tobba, Alexander, Atli and Una, a group that included disabled young people, we made 16 dolls, 4 of them I finished myself. We meditated all together at the end of the session.

I liked a lot to listen everybody speaking Icelandic while we made the dolls, the energy of this magical country is in each doll they made. We had fun talking about Reykjavík summer, father Christmas got confused and arrived beginning of July!

In the afternoon we made dolls with Hreidar, Eva, Svavar, Vigdís and Tómas, they are the staff, we completed 21 dolls in total at Hitt Húsid. We talked about lots of things including ways to bring the dolls again to Iceland. 

There were lots of Icelandic flags around because this was the first year Iceland got a place at the World Cup football games, such a small group of people compared to other countries, a big achievement they had lots of fun with.

Much gratitude to Gauti who brought me here and gave us this amazing opportunity, also to Thordis and Fridrik, Hreidar and Hitt Húsid, all of them opened their doors and hearts to receive us, and thank you mysterious Ísland to bring me back sensations of my childhood, it made me cry of happiness several times, bless you.  

Takk!

 

   

   

 

Yesterday we went to the event ‘What are we doing to make the opera industry truly reflect the diversity of the country, on and off stage?’ at English National Opera studios in London.

I love D&D introduction, no matter I’ve heard it zillion times – the time/space matrix, all the principles, the law, the bumble bees and butterflies behaviour – also all the animals in our break out spaces, our big circle, I love it all!

I made 5 dolls inspired by the sound of everybody’s voices.

Thanks Phelim, Sarah, Ben, Anabel and everyone for another day we spent together surrounded by good conversations, thank you!

   

 

We spent yesterday at the D&D event ‘What can role-play gaming and theatre learn from each other?’ at Shoreditch Town Hall in London.  

In the morning we played the Dungeon & Dragons game, it was my first time ever. I joined Chris table, he was the Dungeon Master, a kind of facilitator of the game. We played a couple of hours creating a story together. I could see all the scenes, actions and characters, Chris made us visualise perfectly well everything, he was a brilliant DM. 

My character was an Elf Wizard. She lives over 700 years, she can make people sleep, she meditate deeply and live in the world but not entirely part of it. Isn’t it an amazing coincidence with the dolls’ project?

In the afternoon we did the other D&D, the Open Space one, and I called my session :

‘Help me to put dreams and a heart into my dolls. I might be travelling around other sessions, you can help me anyway.’ 

I was amazed by the game and wanted to join all the conversations. I did one doll in each session I went. Justin helped me make one doll which he half filled with dreams, put a heart and meditated, I completed it at home. We made 5 dolls in total. 

We spent an amazing day together, such an adventure, some people like me had never played D&D before, we loved it. Thank you Chris and Chloe and all the others who shared their long experience with the game, hopefully I’ll see you soon and play it more. Thanks Justin for helping me making dolls and Alex and Ben for holding the space for us, thank you!  

 

 

 

Last Sunday I went to the (B)old Festival at Queen Elizabeth Hall, Southbank Centre in London.

It was a beautiful sunny day, lots of people along the river enjoying the sun. When I saw it I didn’t expect anybody to come and stay indoors with me at the market making dolls under an artificial light. I thought I would have four hours to make dolls on my own really.

There were music and dance activities at the foyer where the market was, I guess these activities attracted people to enter and look around, they found me and actually I didn’t stay for a second on my own. Steph, Rosa, Sheila, Wonchul Jung, Wei, Jared, David, Hyangmi Won, Erin and Yaanjo came and we made 11 dolls together.

We talked about many things including how much the weather influences a culture in so many levels, one of us studied geography,  we are people determined by how much sun we get. Well, in my experience as a tropical woman, it feels like here is another planet, the more I adapt the more I feel the differences, at the same time, I see how much we are absolutely the same. I feel we are determined by how much sun light we have inside, how much conscious we are, the sun can shine inside us anywhere.

Helen, the coordinator of the festival, was lovely, I felt very much looked after, it was amazing!

Some comments

‘Spreading love and a sense of united humanity, also a fun experience.’

‘A lovely experience, such wonderful idea and a way of bringing people together, so positive, a way of helping others. Brilliant mindfulness exercise.’

‘After I finished making the doll, I felt that the heart of the doll started to run while I was meditating. My doll is no longer a doll. It’s a very touching experience.’

‘Paying attention to your hands, heart, breathing and mind all together at the same time. I enjoyed it.’

‘It was a very peaceful experience. The making process takes long time but I enjoyed it. I hope that the sound of my heart is in the heart of the doll.’

‘I liked stuffing and sewing the doll and meditating.’

‘It was a great unexpected pleasure to make a doll. Every moment was very relaxing and enjoyable, thank you.’

Many thanks for everybody who organized the festival, for everybody who came to the workshop, for the hope I always feel when I am with people making dolls, for all the conversations and for this project which is the most inspiring school in my life, thank you!

 

 

     

Yesterday evening I went to the D&D event ‘What can we do to better support diverse drama school students whilst in training’ at RADA Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts in London.

Louis, Becky, Valerie and Sarah came to make dolls. They started but I finished most of them, 5 dolls in total.

I was asked about their colour, it usually happen, they are the colour of our bones, no matter our skin colour, we are the same bones.

I suddenly realised that if we were robots we wouldn’t make these dolls. It felt like an insight, a live truth, it made me happy.

I guess I probably understood the ‘they’ pronoun-gender. I thought it meant I was a man and a woman at the same time, no, it can mean I am not a woman neither a man.

I love the simplicity that we are not robots + we have no gender – we are humans, it’s so good to remember it.

Thank you Ben, Sarah and everybody for another brilliant event, thank you!

Last month, on 15th April, I run a workshop in São Paulo, Brazil. Leonor, Claudia, Solange, Renata, Raquel, Eri, Glaucia, Claudia and Nina came over, we made and meditated 17 dolls.

We talked a lot about Brazil’s politics. There was sadness in the air, I bursted in tears, it was hard to talk about the country’s obscene situation. Nevertheless we were lucky that Claudia reminded us that there are forgotten azaleas everywhere.

Solange and Marilene donated their pillows- dreams, Claudia’s niece made a delicious carrot chocolate cake.

With flowers, dreams and carrot cakes, there’s hope.

Some comments:

‘It was my second time at the event, it is always a life learning process, work together to open space for the heart.’

‘It was a pleasant and interesting meeting, to share our good energies and dreams, congratulations!’

‘It was a very good relaxing experience, I loved it!’

‘In the times we live now, to share dreams are micro revolutions to move forward. This is a necessary project and I hope Regina continue to develop these invigorating meetings.’

I am very grateful for everybody who came and spent the afternoon making dolls and meditating, for Claudia and Vera who organised the event, for Marilene who offered her space, for Marinalva who helped me to sew many dolls, for people who bought ‘Dreams and a Heart’ little book to help the project keep going and for the pillows and cake generously donated, thank you so much everyone!

        

This was the beautiful invitation Claudia Vasconcellos wrote for the workshop I run in Brazil last month.

To meditate is to share a dream

Dear friends, there are many ways to collaborate for a more harmonious, poetic and supportive world. One of them is meditation.

In this case, I invite you to a meditation undertaken collectively, with the aim of propagating human attunement to states of fraternity and compassion.

This is the fourth year that we have received in São Paulo the creator of the project Dreams and a Heart, in which meditation is carried out together with the manufacture of small dolls that will be donated, in groups of 700, for nursing homes, care centres, schools, hospitals… on the five continents.

Imagine that the doll that you will fill with your best dreams and endow it with a small and powerful heart while meditating will reach the hands of a Nigerian child or an elderly Indian, who can complete them in robes, colours, a face.

This poetic exchange links relations between the inhabitants of the planet. It is a gesture of solidarity, peace and hope called Dreams and a Heart.

Regina Mendes has been designing the project for 7 years and for the last 5 years has been doing workshops in England, Portugal and Brazil, bringing people together to dream a better world and connect with other people through the little dolls made of dreams and hearts.

Check out details at

Dreams and a Heart

We invite you to extend the power of this gesture. Donating some time of your Sunday, April 15, and your attention, in the company of people who also dream a more fraternal world.

Note: We will be working to complete the third community of dolls to reach the 2100 mark.

Note 2: If you can, bring a used pillow, which stuffing, full of your dreams, will be used on the dolls.

Meeting:

04/04, Sunday

14h – 18h (ideally you arrive at 14:00 but if you can’t, make your own schedule)

https://www.facebook.com/events/811114605749304/

Claudia