Old Poems, New Voices

Adam Mickiewicz's

Ballads and Romances

This is a project that came about when the Polish Cultural Institute in London asked me to create a performance to accompany the launch of the first full English tranlsation of Adam Mickiewicz's Ballads and Romances. The translation has been wonderfully done by Charles Kraszewski.

I asked the brilliant Ilona Gumowska and Damsel Elysium to collaborate with me to make a semi-improvised performance, in the spirit of Mickiewicz's own improvisations, Ilona dancing and Damsel Elysium creating the music/sound with their collaborator Ali Welsh.

We performed it in the beautiful ballroom of the Ognisko Polskie, The Polish Hearth Club, in South Kensington. The idea was to create an intimate salon type atmosphere and the whole evening, including a great talk from Charles, was a huge success. Below you'll find a video of our part of the evening.

Performers - Joseph W. Alford, Damsel Elysium, Ilona Gumowska, Ali Welsh