Summary
Josie Long presents short documentaries and adventures in sound about guiding lights and those who have gone before - from finding connection with someone whose last dance was over a century ago to one of the last people in the UK to have performed an old ritual.
Breath is Life (extract) Featuring Eileen Kramer Produced by Eleanor McDowall
You belong to the land, and the land belongs to you Featuring Alice Starmore Interview and music by Col Gordon Produced by Katie Revell This interview originally appeared in the Farmerama series 'Landed'
My Flamenco Ancestor Produced by Yinka Esi Graves and Carys Wall Inspired by the documentary Gurumbe: Afro-Andalusian Memories by Miguel Ángel Rosales
Curatorial team: Alia Cassam and Andrea Rangecroft Series Producer: Eleanor McDowall Executive Producer: Axel Kacoutié A Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 4
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, Podcasts. |
| 0:06.0 | Hello, I'm Josie Long and welcome to the podcast of Shortcuts. |
| 0:10.0 | Today's episode is about dancing and it's about elders and it's about elders dancing, |
| 0:16.6 | which, you know, who could ask for anything more? |
| 0:19.7 | Who could ask for anything more? Who could ask for anything more? |
| 0:25.4 | You're on stage, usually in the dark. |
| 0:32.7 | You've left yourself, other self, outside in the wings, |
| 0:37.3 | standing in the dark waiting for the light to shine on you. |
| 0:49.9 | And with the music, of course, you take your first breath of the dance. |
| 0:57.0 | You don't start a dance with letting breath out. |
| 1:16.6 | You do it by coming to life. |
| 1:34.3 | I think it's coming into life. This is Shortcuts, Brief Encounters, True Stories, Radio Adventures, and Found Sound. |
| 2:03.6 | Today, elders. |
| 2:11.6 | We're going to start today's program, dancing. |
| 2:17.5 | Although, full disclosure, I am not literally dancing right now. |
| 2:21.5 | But my spirit is light and I am tripping internally the light fantastic. |
| 2:27.9 | And there's no one better to lead us on our way |
| 2:30.3 | than someone who's been dancing for the best part of a century. |
| 2:35.5 | A lot of people seem to know my name. I don't know how they know it, but I am Eileen Kramer. |
| 2:46.1 | I'm a dancer. I've been alive for a long time. They tell me I've been alive for 103 years. It doesn't |
| 2:58.0 | feel like that one bit. I don't like to use the word age. I think it's a word people |
| 3:06.8 | better forget. But it is a word people better forget. |
... |
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