After a free Sunday morning, we came together for lunch then our only work in progress of the day.

Jade Valour lay out the bones of a solo show and the heart of herself. She is trying to draw together threads of the myriad aspects of Salome and manifest and share the intangible but powerful resonance this character has in her own life.

She presented: “images and colours, fits and snatches, arabesques and un-veilings, words and melodies”. It was a rich whirl of sounds and sensations, the personal and the political, sweeping mythic tales and Jade’s own stories and reflections. Opera, specifically the opera Salome, played a large role.

Jade had invited four guest responders and we worked in the responding space to put in place something of what we’d talked about the day before: that the responders would be invited along with giving their reflective response, to offer something with more ‘nudge’, more suggestion, more invitation to explore and develop the work further. They spoke first.

This process continues to develop and flow. The responding sessions are being filmed as well as the performances, so the presenters can watch these and hear again the reflections of the Gathering 2009.