Those of us that struggle with our health know that the threat from co-vid is not over. Even with vaccinations you can still get the illness.
In 1990 My sister, my father and I all got a mystery virus that presented like Glandular Fever but was never confirmed on the blood tests. My sister achieved 90% good health but still has some issues, my dad and I just never recovered and I was always the worst effected. In the 31 years since I have developed many an auto immune issue and find it very hard to eat anything without huge discomfort and braking out in a rash or hives or getting a migraine. If I get a virus it never seems to go, I am always left with long term side effects.
Just last week we lost the wonderful Paul Davidson, a much loved fixture of the Gothla UK events and seen at many other UK dance festivals with his partner Chrissy. He had lung cancer, he might have survived if he hadn't contracted Co-vid.
I know the lockdowns have been hard on people's mental and physical health. I know some of you hate learning via computers, but at least we have them! 31 years ago when I was at my worst we didn't have the internet and I couldn't go anywhere, so I have been so thankful for the fact that I have been able to create and interact with people online even more now since this started.
All performing arts communities are so fragmented now. Holding in person classes is even harder than ever as people need to keep themselves safe and self isolated if they have co-vid symptoms or if they have other illnesses. But if your teacher is running an in person classes please remember, they have room hire, insurance, music licences and travel costs to cover, that all comes before they get a chance to pay themselves, which is now even harder than ever to do.
As we come out of the Pandemic the world is a changed place and things like the arts have suffered tremendously. They need our support if they are going to survive so I implore you, if you can, support your local dance teachers, support online dance teachers, support shows and festivals even if it means you have to embrace them in their new form. It does not take much to support these things, likes and shares on social media really do help, recommend them to friends, even small gestures can make a big difference in these uncertain times. Obviously the best thing you can do is buy a ticket and attend their events, but don't forget the little things help too. The alternative is that these things may not survive and our culture and community will be the poorer for it.
My Co-Vid project has been the Mojo Flow Show which I created with Pete & Kate Chaplin. The show is open to submissions from anyone in performing arts. It is a variety show but we tend to get mainly belly dance submissions... It's free to submit, and it's free to watch. But it costs us lots in time and energy so please at the very least like and share our social media posts! Or you could buy us a coffee... https://ko-fi.com/fulya
To try to make the show feel more like a live event we invite you to sign into a YouTube account so that you comment on the live feed. You can also buy a VIP ticket at £10 and login to our Zoom event (you will need to watch the show on YouTube on another device.)
In the VIP room you can dress up and been seen! You may even win a prize for being best dressed. We also have games such as a treasure hunt where you could also win a prize. Many of the artists from the show are there so you can chat to them about their performances and the Mojo Team always pop in at around 10:45pm after the live show has finished to share behind the scenes info...
And if you see someone you haven't seen for ages you can both hop into one of our breakout rooms for a chat.
You can drink what ever you like, (tea for me) no worries about driving or transport. You get a front row seat, and you get to share it with your pets. My idea of bliss.
And if you can't watch it live, it gets left up on YouTube to watch at your leisure.
Please do watch. Thank you.
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Link for the Show on 13th November Live feed starts at 7:30pm GMT
