{"id":862,"date":"2020-01-30T08:25:40","date_gmt":"2020-01-30T08:25:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/?p=862"},"modified":"2020-01-30T08:25:43","modified_gmt":"2020-01-30T08:25:43","slug":"dragons-drama-drawings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/2020\/01\/30\/dragons-drama-drawings\/","title":{"rendered":"DRAGONS, DRAMA & DRAWINGS"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

DRAGONS\nROAM THE STREETS; <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

THE\nRAT LOOKS ON<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

a\nquick<\/strong> <\/strong>catch up<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Year Of The Rat is the first sign in the Chinese zodiac<\/a>\ncycle. According to the Chinese zodiac story, in\nthe competition held by the Jade Emperor to decide the zodiac animals, the\nquick-witted rat asked the diligent ox to take him on a ride to cross the river\nand jumped down before the ox crossed the finishing line, so the rat won the\nrace and became the first of the zodiac animals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 12 other zodiac animals are, in order: Rat, Ox, Tiger,\nRabbit, Dragon, Snake, Horse, Goat, Monkey, Rooster, Dog, and Pig. A Rat year\noccurs every 12 years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was celebrated in the City of Manchester on Sunday\n26th January 2020 marking the arrival of the Chinese New Year: the year of the\nrat. And what celebrations they were!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
dragons roamed the streets<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

The sign for parking, next to the giant inflatable\nBuddha, read ‘Remember to pay.’ In truth, though, there was no room for parking\ntoday as dragons roamed the streets and gathered to announce their presence by dancing\nin the China-Town car park. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A multicultural audience were entertained by speeches\nfrom local and national dignitaries, acrobatics, dancing, music, and extracts\nfrom Chinese opera, juggling and even martial arts. Street food was available\nin abundance, as was good humour and a fraternal sharing of hopes of better times\nfor the New Year. With the virus that has erupted in China recently, and seems\nso threatening at least until an antidote can be concocted, these wishes are\nperhaps more fervent this year than ever before<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To help those wishes come true a ritual was played out\nat the entrances of cafes, restaurants and the massage and tanning parlours of\nThe Tibb Street area. Drummers drummed, cymbals clashed, bells rang out and even\nthe dragons danced.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On their return to the gathered children, parents,\ngrandparents and general revellers on the streets they were greeted by an\nexplosion of red dragon snaps These filled the air with sound, flashes of light\nand smoke to the cheers of attendees. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Evil spirits were surely driven from the streets and\nfrom the entrance to the said establishments to make way for the new year\npromises of the rat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The finale came as when above us, the dark Manchester\nsky became a giant canvas for thunder claps and flashes of light of many\ncolours. Subtly at times, and at others wild with sound and flare, The New Year\nhad arrived in Manchester’s China Town. Gong hei fat choy!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Steve Bewick<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jazz Broadcaster (& lover of fireworks); FCUMRadio<\/p>\n\n\n\n

https:\/\/tunein.com\/radio\/FCUM-Radio-s96326\/<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meanwhile,\nas we confirm hat it is indeed a small world that sees the one culture being\ncelebrated in the home of another, and a contagious disease becoming global\nalmost before our eyes. We also noticed an interesting lead article from Steve\nCooke in this week\u00b4s Rochdale Observer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
The Middleton Arena<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Steve\nwas talking about a West End play that is about to be beamed live from London\nvia a cinema screen to an audience in The Middleton Arena in Rochdale in the\nNorth West of England. James McEvoy plays the central character of Cyrano de\nBergerac. The star of my own favourite films, Atonement, takes on this\neponymous role in what is an inventive new adaptation of Cyrano De Bergerac in\nthis latest of what is proving to be a popular series of live screenings from\nThe national Theatre.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cyrano\nis man as dangerous with a pen as he is notorious in combat, would be a man\ncomplete if only he could win the heart of his true love. Anyone who has ever\nseen a poster for the film or play will know that Cyrano\u00b4s main impediment to\nlove is the size of his nose, which is nearly as his huge love for Roxanne.\nEven society, in his somewhat narcissistic times, seems set against him, but\nCyrano wonders if his way with the written way might somehow turn her heart. The\nproduction itself is of a master class by Edmond Rostand, adapted by martin\nCrimp and directed by Jamie Lloyd who also directed the excellent Betrayal. The\nplay is enlivened by words attributed to Cyrano, celebrating his powerful and\nresonant resistance against the odds as he dares society\u00b4s snobbish elements to\nprevent those words from warming Roxanne\u2019s heart.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Playhouse Theatre London<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

The\nplay runs at The Playhouse Theatre, London until February 29th<\/sup> and\nshows at the Middleton Arena, for one night only, on Thursday February 20th<\/sup>\nfrom 7.00 pm to 10.00 pm for an admission price of only \u00a310.00<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Visit link4life.org\/book-tickets\/events\/CyrannoMA\/022020\/\u00a0\u00a0 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another\nfrequent contributor to all across the arts UK is Dr. Joe Dawson, who shares\ncoverage of classical music events in the region with Graham Marshall, who also\ncontributes to our Lanzarote branch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dr.\nDawson this week has reported on the first meeting of 2020 of The Friends of\nRochdale Art Galleries, (Frag). The session was brightened and enlivened, the\nwriter tells us, by an illustrated talk by Todmorden based artist Barry Cook.\nHis talk was called Under The Sun and his art form and stylistic development\nclearly emanated from his fascination with the world of nature, particularly\nthat of birds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At\nhis early output of work was what he called of \u00b4representational illustration,\nand somewhat \u00b4cartoon-like, he attended an avant garde course at art college,\nand then seriously developed his skills, honed his craft, whilst working as a\nprimary school teacher.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

His\ncatholic love of art saw him draw from an eclectic range of renowned artists\nincluding Miro, Picasso and Chagall as well as Bottocelli. He developed from\nthat impressive list his own style of water colour, through use of pencil,\nguache and inks on paper, producing what he himself recognises as \u00b4works like a\nchild might have painted but, of course, couldn\u00b4t !\u00b4 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

For\nexamples of his vivid work visit www.barrycookartist.com<\/a>\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Touchstones Rochdale<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Dr.\nDawson reminds us that \u00b4the beauty of revelatory talks like this is as much in glimpsing\nthe motivation and creative processes at work in creative personalities as it\nis in seeing the end `product.\u00b4<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Frag\nmeets at the second Tuesday of each month at Touchstones Arts and heritage\nCentre from 12.45 to 1.45pm.  The members\nform a delightful group and I have enjoyed delivering a couple of poetry based\ntalks to them a couple of times myself. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\nshould say that the beauty of giving revelatory talks in such a setting lies in\nthe inspiring art work around the speaker and how that art work itself seems to\ntake part in the conversation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\nis always a pleasure to join kindred spirits in both supporting and\ncomplementing both regional and national artists and their arts, and annual\nmembership0 of Frag is only \u00a310-00.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For\nmore information visit link4life.org\/artsheritage\/frag<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nManchester Evening news outlet of all across the arts also lists in Steve\nCooke\u00b4s what\u00b4s on column details of Toad Lane weekly lunch time concerts at St.\nMary\u00b4s In The Baum, Rochdale, talks given at Castleton Literary and Scientific\nSociety, and The Jazz On A Sunday events among any of the scores of other arts\nevents that take place in the Borough of Rochdale. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Next\ntime you visit the birthplace of Gracie Fields, with the notion of visiting the\nimpressive stature of her on The Butts, check out all across the arts page in\nThe Rochdale Observer to see what else might be going on.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

DRAGONS ROAM THE STREETS; THE RAT LOOKS ON a quick catch up The Year Of The Rat is the first sign in the Chinese zodiac cycle. According to the Chinese zodiac story, in the competition held by the Jade Emperor to decide the zodiac animals, the quick-witted rat asked the diligent ox to take him […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":867,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,6,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-862","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-aata","category-performing-arts","category-visual-arts"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/862","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=862"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/862\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/867"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=862"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=862"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=862"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}