Dear Sunflowers



Dear Sunflowers brought together artists, volunteers, refugees and members of the Ukrainian community to create a spectacular musical performance and procession in Dewsbury and Holmfirth in June 2024 inspired by the life and work of extraordinary Ukrainian artist Maria Prymachenko (1908-1997).


24-25
Credits
2024 to 2025



2024 brought the Dear Sunflowers/дорогі соняшники - Dorohi Sonyashnyky collaboration, an ambitious mix of large scale puppetry, masks, music and dance from different cultures in Slaithwaite, Huddersfield, Holmfirth and Dewsbury; another main collaborator on
this work was the British Ukrainian Friendship Association, who are based at the Lawrence
Batley Theatre in Huddersfield, and their dynamic leader, the professional dancer and singer Natalia Mirckun, a refugee from the war living in Slaithwaite.


A Ukrainian Inspiration



Maria Prymachencko’s artworks provided an opportunity for Ukrainian participants to share their culture and a starting point for other group members from twelve different countries, including Chad, Bosnia, Syria, Afghanistan, Kurdistan (Iraq) and Nigeria, to explore their own ideas and cultural backgrounds while involved in a deep exchange of experiences. The aim was to foster friendship and understanding between cultures, reducing isolation and loneliness and boosting social and emotional well being. 

Although it dealt with the tragic story of the Ukraine from the whole of the 20th century and the 21 st century so far, Dear Sunflowers was primarily a supremely colourful celebratory experience centred in Ukrainian folk culture, full of colour, music and dancing. The contact with the West Yorkshire Ukrainian refugee community was a new departure for BSDC too, and gave the company an opportunity to exchange and meld two very different dance styles, and to reach new and very diverse participants and audiences both indoors and on the streets. 



Workshops

Dear Sunflowers’ 22 community workshops, involving 137 participants, were led by artists from both local and Ukrainian backgrounds for refugees, artists from BSDC, local volunteers and the Ukrainian community in Kirklees. The dancers and musicians from BSDC were integrally involved, especially Balbir Singh, Kali Chandrasegaram, Devika Rao and Aniruddha Mukherjee; the company also provided artistic advice, essential technical support and designed the colourful publicity for the project. The indoor storytelling show with songs involved 53 people and was performed 3 times, twice in Dewsbury and once in Holmfirth. 6 million+ and BSDC broke new ground with this project and reached hundreds of new people from many different backgrounds.



Parade

A highlight was the parade for the opening of the Maria Prymachenko themed Holmfirth Arts Festival, which attracted over 250 participants and around 3,000 spectators, with wide press and TV coverage; this was the first time the parade for this popular festival had included the diverse experiences of the refugee and ethnic minority communities of Kirklees.

Ukrainian refugee Natalia Mirckun, brought a breathy intensity to her sung narration and also assertively rehearsed the Ukrainian choir of refugee women and children, who reaffirmed and rediscovered their own culture through involvement in the project. Tthey heared spirited Kurdish singing and found echoes of their own folk costume patterns in the traditional dress of refugees from other countries like Afghanistan. Most importantly, they all begun to share experiences, and to open out a dialogue about identity, emotion and our place in the world.







Dancers

Devika Rao
Kali Chandrasegaram

 Musicians

Aniruddha Mukherjee
Hussain Sulaiman
Natalia Mirckun

 Poet and Librettist

Adam Strickson

 Photographers

Balbir Singh