Pneûma Project

The Pneûma Project is a collaboration between dance artist Miranda Tufnell, visual artist David Ward and musician Sylvia Hallett with dance artists Eeva- Maria Mutka, Simon Whithead, Cai Tomos," and musician Jonah Brody. The Pneûma Project, is centred on breath, on wind and spirit. This piece continues to grow through the collective imagination of us all.

"Breath becomes sound becomes music becomes meaning. Light becomes shape becomes beauty becomes meaning. Steps become movement become dance become relationships. To watch Pneûma, to listen to it and to allow it to generate thoughts, is to let one’s self loose into what it means to be human and the way the human is defined by the way we find meanings.”

Pneuma - Spring 2015 from MirandaTufnell DanceArtist on Vimeo.

“In making this piece we have drawn on many sources as part of an ongoing exploration of breath. Moment by moment we draw on the invisible air, catch scents, sounds, messages, signals. Our lives are suffused with myths and folklore images of the life-giving potency of breath, of breath lost and regained. Genesis begins with the movement of wind over water; Lear places a feather on the Cordelia’s lips for signs of life. Breath signals our birth and our passage from this world. As we listen to the tidal interchange of breath in the body, memories and dreams rise to the surface of awareness making visible our uniquely personal sense of being alive. _{“Miranda Tufnell}

You are wind
We are dust blown up into shapes,
You are spirit
We are the opening and closing of our hands
_Rumi

After 7 years this is our third and final version of Pneuma- it has changed in these different incarnations and contexts, grown through the collective imagination of all the wonderful artists who joined with me. Sylvia Hallett, Jonah Brody, Eeva-Maria Mutka, Cai Tomos, Simon Whitehead, and film maker Christo Waller We have continued our exploration of the dreamscapes of breath - this time in response to a year of pandemic - and the loss of my beloved son, documentary film maker Tomo Brody. In remaking the work for outside our hope was to bring people together again safely after a year of isolations and lockdowns - and to affirm life in the wake of such loss.