Waterside Together ‘Tea in the Park’ event a huge success

St. Columb’s Park was the venue on Saturday last for the Waterside Together Aged 50+ Tea in the Park event with over 35 participants enjoying the many activities on offer including a gentle movement and mindfulness session with Echo Echo Dance Theatre Company.

The event was led by dancers from the organisation, accompanied by a live musician and participants engaged in creative movement and mindfulness. The emphasis was on everyone finding enjoyment in moving and remembering that we all are naturally creative in this.

IN PICTURES: ‘Tea in the Park’ at St. Columb’s a huge success

Saturday’s project was supported by PEACEPLUS, a programme managed by the Special EU Programmes Body (SEUPB) and funded under the theme of Community Regeneration and Transformation, and it is also funded through Derry City and Strabane District Council’s PEACEPLUS Local Co-Designed Action Plan.

Echo Echo dancers led the group through various breathing exercises, physical explorations, movement improvisations and sequences.

Participants were encouraged to see themselves as creative movers and explore their physical range and the artistic possibilities. There was also plenty of room for adaptation in the exercises and explorations and the improvisational nature of the movement content meant that it was accessible for everyone.

The second part of Saturday’s event focused on reminiscence and storytelling with the Armstrong Storytelling Trust.

Facilitator Janice Witherspoon is an experienced storyteller who has been working with many different community groups of all ages for the last 15 years.

Her special interests are environmental storytelling, helping people to connect with nature and the folklore, and stories of place. She has helped collect oral history stories for Clifton House in North Belfast where she grew up and conducted interviews around the theme of Tea and Me for an oral history project for an arts organisation among many other projects.

Participants enjoyed recounting old stories about traditions around tea and etiquette.