by Mary Anne Woolf
In 2021 Mel facilitated a life-enhancing dance workshop at an evening session during Waveney and Blyth Arts’ first Sculpture in the Valley residency at Potton Hall near Westleton. We could not know then that it was to be one of her last public acts as an inspired creator and communicator of dance. Barely six months later she died after a short illness.
Mel was a woman of many talents. She recognised the importance of art, in all its forms, as a vital way to express and shape ourselves and our experiences throughout our lives. This understanding was the foundation of much of her formal and informal work.
Early in her life she was a professional ballet dancer but later through her work as a teacher in Suffolk schools and in adult education and her own study at the Laban Centre and Middlesex University, she developed a dance practice working with groups of various ages in a variety of settings. She collaborated with family, friends and communities in Suffolk and Norfolk producing her own work but also encouraging and supporting the development of others’ skills and expression in different art forms.
In addition, she learned the skills to produce, direct and edit films showing people dancing in response to the landscapes and buildings of East Suffolk. She also made a film celebrating the life and work of Scilla Dyke, Made in Suffolk, which was shown at Dance East.
As a person, she was perceptive, humorous and quietly persistent. She approached things imaginatively and was always ready to come up with new perspectives. She was never content with the superficial but wanted to explore ideas in depth. These qualities enabled her to work creatively with people of different ages and in different contexts. They also made her a good friend and I was fortunate to be one of them. Mel and I ran workshops on several occasions looking at the connections between dance and visual art. So she asked me to take photographs of that final workshop as part of last year’s Sculpture in the Valley.
Mel will be much missed not only by her family and friends but by her community, to which she contributed so much. To honour her memory I have had photographic images of that final workshop printed on translucent silk. They are hung looking towards the garden where last year she danced with the group. In that sense I hope that you too will experience the layers of time and memory – time then with time now, the imagined and the real, between two worlds – and thereby pause to reflect on all that she gave us.
Our group of 20 walked through the water meadows on a footpath along the side of the river Waveney between Bungay and Earsham. We stopped frequently on the way to examine points of interest in nature that Jasmine had enjoyed in her lifetime: willow trees grown for making cricket bats; common alder trees that like their roots in water; common fleabane in flower; playing grandmother jump-out-of-bed by pinching the base of flowering convolvulus with its brilliant white, trumpet shaped flower.
accompanying us. We learned from their owner, farmer and photographer Frances Crickmore, that this herd had been imported from France when they decided to diversify their farming products to include cheese. This particular breed is known for their rich milk, and from it the Crickmore’s developed the now famous Bigot Brie cheese. The cows followed us along the footpath until we crossed over the river via a wooden bridge. Here we were joined by Frances Crickmore who introduced herself, told us about the farm and the land around us. She told us we could purchase the cheese in its signature circular wood box from a vending machine by the farm.
To say that Cupiss Letterpress is a hidden treasure of Diss is a bit of a cliche but true nonetheless, and all the more so because it’s closing down after nine years shy of two centuries in business.
Inside the workshop, sited at the top of a track in the middle of Diss, John welcomed us and explained that the original business, established in 1830, wasn’t printing but for mixing and distributing a home-made medicinal horse “digestive”. The original recipe, in popular demand throughout the 20th century, was invented by the first Mr Cupiss. He needed to print labels for the dispensing bottles, and rather than find a supplier, he purchased his own printing press. As the demand for his horse digestive declined, so the print works grew and became a locally significant printing business.
For me the overwhelming sense of a living history and indeed my learning on the day, was in the huge array of fonts and lettering. Tray upon tray, both beautiful and functional, the variety of fonts made from wood and lead were immaculately if chaotically stored. The wood ones hand carved, some acting as 3D ‘shadow’ had a fascinating appearance. The ‘upper case’ trays being capitals and the ‘lower case’ trays being, well, lower case. Another commonly used term originating in the printing business is ‘form’ which is the frame that holds individual letters in place ready for print.
Mill Street Studios held two print workshops in the Summer and Autumn of 2021, which were run by Fine Artist and Printmaker, Catherine Greenwood who has a wealth of knowledge and expertise in printmaking and was an inspiration to all in her printmaking. We were able to learn and gain printmaking skills throughout the two-day workshop in hard and soft ground etching and collagraphy.
wonder of a world that still contains so much mystery and magic. We must use all the creative arts we can to galvanise action, to make sure we are not the last generation to hear the cuckoo. Well done to the BTO for taking this initiative.