Express Yourself Sensory Opera
Installation with video
by Geoffa Fells
‘Express Yourself Sensory Opera’ is a multi-sensory music and visual art piece that is inclusive of the voices of children with profound and multiple learning disabilities (PMLD). It is about seeing the city from different perspectives and is written following playful observations of how the city looks when seen through and reflected via an array of sensory objects.
Geoffa Fells invites you to come and explore, touch, smell, feel, and most importantly play, with some of the sensory objects she has used as the basis for writing the opera, so that you can learn to be present, in the moment, and understand a different approach to seeing that those with neurodiversity and other differences might take.
These will be presented alongside footage of the ‘Sensory Opera’ in development, including how she devises ways for moments of intensive interaction to include the voices of the children. Intensive interaction enables people with PMLD to access the fundamentals of communication and is the process of replicating their breathing, gestures and sounds alongside lots of eye contact which leads to an interaction that is often very musical.
Lower your threshold for wonder. What do you notice when you take the time to look?
Composer and visual artist - Geoffa Fells; Flute - Ine Vanoeveren; Voices - Steph Payne, Geoffa Fells, Kate Smith; Trumpet - Sean Pepper; Double Bass/Guitar - Paul Reynolds; Tuba - Bob Payne; Piano - Kate Halsall; Percussion - Roșie Bergonzi; Cello - Midori Jaeger; Narrator - Alan Scott; Videographer - Jen Pearcy-Edwards; Children and staff from Cherry Garden School, London