New Shoes - 3/5/16 - Say Cheese!

Today’s workshop with Kate Green was all about photography; the six participants from the Prince’s Trust learnt all about how cameras work, how light affects a photo and how to adjust the camera settings to get the perfect photo.

What does DLSR stand for? For those (like me) who didn’t know, it stands for Digital Single Lens Reflex.

How does the aperture affect the photograph? No-one? Well, the aperture is the space light travels through the camera, which can be adjusted depending on the light available.

Armed with cameras provided by the mac, and their new knowledge from Kate, the participants took to Canon Hill Park, taking pictures of various flowers, birds, and people.

They learnt not only about focusing on different subjects, but how the photographer themselves can move and manipulate the picture to be exactly how they wanted.

After looking through the photos and the countless smiles, it’s safe to say the workshop was a success, and inspired some participants so much they intended to go out and buy a camera!  

Written by Georgie Lee and Charlotte Bell

Next Generation – New Shoes

Today, Melanie brought her physical theatre skills to the mac in conjunction with mac’s Next Generation New Shoes project. A group of ten young people from the Prince’s Trust in Birmingham learnt lots of physical theatre skills, from how to create a story using simple movements, sentences and music to basic character creation.

The young people came out of their shells to develop their confidence, physical and vocal skills. By using simple games, Melanie created a space for the young people to develop their ideas and work comfortably as a team. Examples of physical theatre given included Charlie Chaplin, Marcel Marceau and Frantic Assembly, which gave the participants a real example what these basic skills can eventually lead to.

Melanie builds her workshops to make physical theatre more relevant and applicable to everyday situations. For instance, using a simple starting and stopping activity, the task builds into a fully-fledged performance, shown in front of the group. This not only demonstrated skills in confidence, but also public speaking, team work and physical skills.

By sitting in on this session we learnt a lot about applicable skills, confidence and team building. We found out that all of the young people enjoyed the workshop and found the skills learnt, the artist involved and the service provided by the staff was 100% Excellent/Good. Well done to the young people at The Princes Trust for participating in today’s Physical Theatre Workshop, we look forward to seeing you soon!

Written by Charlotte Bell & Georgina Lee

18/04/16

New Shoes Live Project Update

Olivia Campbell wanted to share her New Shoes Journey with you...

When I had first started the Princes Trust fairbridge program, I expressed a keen interest in music and other creative arts so I was encouraged to attend a session where Beatfreeks, a youth engagement agency which helps young people develop their skills, networks and confidence through creativity. 

I got involved with a program called New Shoes which would focus on mental health awareness and provoking discussion by participating in and constructing workshops and events. Such as the stall we had the Social Exchange and creating our own event called Strange Fruit. Strange Fruit was produced by us, it was a project that involved telling our own personal stories around our experiences with mental health.

News Shoes has helped me grow tremendously in confidence, knowledge, musical skills and feeling more comfortable in social environments. 

There is so much I have learned in such a short space of time and feel passionate about improving the mental health system and encouraging other young people to speak up and actively seek change through different creative outlets.

Keep an eye out for what New Shoes are doing next! Book onto a workshop they are leading at The Social Exchange by clicking this link

New Shoes, Get Started: Get Moving with Melanie Morrison

This dynamic workshop merging both creative choreography and dance routines really had the crowd going. This was the first time Melanie had worked with New Shoes and it looks like she won the young people over, they said “I liked how enthusiastic Melanie was, she was a great tutor” and “she made us feel really comfortable.”

One young person, Saba, said that the workshop was challenging but fun and “the dance workshop, with the help of Melanie, allowed me to challenge myself by dancing in front of other people.”

“It was good because I got to try something new and get involved even though I am rubbish at dancing and I could still participate at my own level”

“I would never usually do something like this and it has definitely brought out some skills that I didn’t know I had”

Many members of the group commented that the activities set out in the workshop got them working together as a team, building trust and supporting each other which are skills that they can apply to everyday life as well.

A member of staff from the Princes Trust said that the workshop was “unique and people centred” – now, you can’t get much better than that, can you?

Well done Melanie and well done everyone who took part!

If you would like to take part in a New Shoes, Get Started Workshop then visit our website by clicking the link

New Shoes Get Started: Dance Workshop with Johnny Autin

I’m Tara and I am the Next Generation Project Assistant. It is usually me who writes these blogs and it is usually me who looks after the New Shoes workshops here at mac birmingham.

The reason I am telling you this is because I have seen a lot of workshops, with a lot of young people, by a lot of artists and when I saw Johnny Autin leading an intensive dance warm-up with a group of young people who didn’t look remotely interested, I thought “this is going to be interesting.”

And it was, these young people were hiding in the corners, heads down on phones at the start of the session and by the end of the session they were running up and down our dance studio with their best dance moves and lifts! The transformation in just 2 short hours was incredible.

This image was taken as part of  a project called "Pathos" by Autin Dance Theatre

It was clear when I was speaking to the group after the session that they were excited and overwhelmed by what they managed to achieve in the session, everyone was smiling. “The artist was really nice and encouraging” said one member of the group.

One young person summed up their experience by saying “I learnt new moves, I also learnt to cooperate and the teaching was good!”

Mostly the group were blown away by the fact that they learnt to lift someone as part of a dance sequence during the session but young people also explained that they learn some other things that they hadn’t bargained for too such as teamwork and communication skills.

“When I didn’t remember moves, others did, so they could help me”

To find out what other creative sessions New Shoes has to offer click here 

To find out more about Autin Dance Theatre click here 

To find out more about Manmade click here  

New Shoes Get Started: Creative Writing and Poetry

“I wouldn’t call this session creative writing and poetry I would call it freethinking”

Thursday 18^th February saw Suriya Roberts-Grey lead a Creative Writing and Poetry workshop as part of New Shoes Get Started at mac birmingham.

The group were introduced to Spoken Word Poetry, some for the first time, and then asked to write and perform their own pieces using their own experiences and opinions. Many of the group admitted that they weren’t given enough opportunities to think freely and said that they enjoyed it very much.

“The best bit was being given time to think & express how I feel about what goes on in life”

“I enjoyed it, today got me stress free and not thinking about bad stuff”

“It has been inspiring and has made me want to write about my feelings more”

Everyone who took part felt as though they gained something from the session.

“I left with my own piece of spoken word poetry that I created!”

“It got me to think about how I can say what I’m thinking in a positive way”

“It was well put together and very positive, thank you”

From the reaction of the participants, it’s clear that the arts can be used to effect change within people… and possibly even the world. Well done everyone.

If you’d like to get involved in New Shoes Get Started please visit our website. 

New Shoes Ger Started: Film Making

On Thursday 4^th February 2016 New Shoes Get Started welcomed members of Princes Trust Fairbridge Project into mac birmingham for a Film-making workshop with the very experienced Scott Johnson.

Young people came up with their own concept for a short film with the guidance of Scott, and then set themselves the task of writing a script, performing it and shooting it – all in under two hours!

“The best part was getting ideas down and then actually managing to work with them and use them in our film”

This process enabled individuals to learn new skills, they commented “I learnt how to hold the lights, camera and microphone which I had never done before” and “it was good to have a go at developing our own ideas.”

Most of the young people felt that the workshop had helped them to discover or rediscover their creative abilities, in fact three members of this group came along to our New Shoes Live Project session later on that day. I guess they just couldn’t get enough. Even those people who didn’t feel as though they were going to pursue a career in the arts said they enjoyed it because “we experienced new things that were fun”

Although some members of the group had joined us on the Photography workshop, most people had not engaged with mac birmingham’s Next Generation programme before but everyone rated the services as excellent. Young Izaac said “great team, always seeking to build or work on young people’s skills.”

If you are interested in taking part in FREE creative workshops, check out our current New Shoes Get Started Program.