NOTE the applications for this workshop are now closed. Our next How We Walk Through the Fire gathering will be Plant Dialogues with Mark Watson on Saturdays 30th April and 7th May, 4-6pm BST.
Continuing our series of creative workshops centred around the eight fires of the ancestral solar year.
Our third workshop will focus on connecting with the elements, especially the wild wind, in times of storm and climate breakdown. We will be joined by writer, walker and Dark Mountain co-director Nick Hunt who spent a year following the invisible pathways of Europe’s winds – from the Helm to the Mistral– to explore how they influence the ecology, psychology and myths of places and people. To the ancient Greeks, the winds were gods that indicated fixed compass directions: Boreas was the north wind, was the direction north. But what happens when wind-patterns change, when the gods lose their directions?
For this fire gathering, set around Spring Equinox on 20th March, we will track the ancient links between spirits and winds, between wind and anima: the breath of life itself. By tuning into the elements and weather systems of our local territories, we will deepen our insight and share our stories of what it means to become kin with the world.
Do join us in an exploration of the art and practice of liminal walking, as we step out and cross the bridge from the dark watery realms of winter into the light and air of spring.
About this Eight Fires series
How We Walk Through the Fire aims to forge a collective practice amongst writers, artists, and creative practitioners; and to host a culture that can both weather the storm and lay the tracks for a more ‘biospheric’ relationship with ourselves and the more-than-human world.
Each of the fires will explore different themes and approaches to this practice, from storytelling to plant medicine to performance – but all aim to foster resilience and radical kinship, and to strengthen our creative voices within an ensemble. Together we’ll ‘walk through the fire’, letting go of what no longer serves, and discovering what might bring repair and regeneration to a world, and a culture, in crisis.
How We Walk Through the Fire workshops are hosted by Charlotte Du Cann and Dougie Strang who have created many immersive, dramaturgical events and teachings for Dark Mountain, based on reconnection with deep time and the mythology of place.
Practical information
The course comprises two x 2 hour group Zoom sessions, with time for a solo walk/encounter and a creative task during the week in between. It will include exercises and discussion and provide opportunities for:
- Working within a Dark Mountain frame
- In-depth conversation with fellow writers and artists
- Deepening your practice
- Exploring relationship with the living world
When: Thursday 17th and Thursday 24th March 6-8pm GMT
OR
Saturday 19th and Saturday 26th March, 4-6pm GMT.
Note all time zones are welcome to participate.
Group size: 16 people maximum
Price: £55
How to apply: As the course has limited space and we are looking for a diverse group of participants, please could you let us know a bit about yourself: where you are writing from, your current practice and why you would like to take part in the course. A few sentences are fine! Send your email to info@dark-mountain.net and we will be in touch.
Deadline for applications: Monday 7th March 2022
Tutors
Nick Hunt is the author of three books about walking in Europe (Walking the Woods and the Water, Where the Wild Winds Are and Outlandish), and a work of gonzo ornithology (The Parakeeting of London). He is also an editor and co-director of the Dark Mountain Project. As a storyteller he has performed at festivals around the UK, and he has led writing and storytelling workshops live and online, including Finding the Words When the Story Is Over for Dark Mountain.
Charlotte Du Cann is a writer, editor and co-director of the Dark Mountain Project. She has taught creative non-fiction and reconnection with the wild in many places, including Schumacher College, Arvon, School of the Wild, Sweden’s Riksteatern, and Natural Beekeeping Trust. She has been the co- producer of recent Dark Mountain art and writing workshops, Finding the Words When the Story is Over and When the Mountain Speaks with Us.
Dougie Strang is a writer, performer, and member of Dark Mountain’s organising collective. His work is often inspired by Scotland’s wild places, and he collaborates with various organisations to facilitate wholehearted encounters with those places, most recently as dramaturg and performer on Ùrlar, a site-specific theatre and dance production, commissioned by the National Trust and staged on the slopes of Ben Lomond.
Charlotte and Dougie have worked together on numerous Dark Mountain events, creating workshops and performances including A Dance Down the Dark Mountain, at Unfix in Glasgow and at Winterwerft Festival in Frankfurt, Conversations in the Dark at the big room in Macclesfield, The Night Breathes Us In in Reading, Base Camp in Devon, and Carrying the Fire on Rannoch Moor.