Generations

Generations explored the oral history of Corby residents especially older members of the community, many of whose families moved to the town to take up employment in its once thriving steel industry.

 

The project provided Corby's older residents to share their memories and experiences with local young people giving then an opportunity to learn about the dramatic changes Corby has undergone over the past 50-60 years from the people who lived through them.

 

The outputs of the project included interviews with local residents as well as songs and chants written in response to this oral history.

Click the links to go the audio recordings of the interviews or the song transcriptions. Click HERE to view a videos of the final project culmination which took place on 15th March at The Ennerdale Cetre in Corby. 

 

Using money raised by National Lottery players, The National Lottery Heritage Fund supports projects that connect people and communities with the UK’s heritage. "Generations" was made possible with The National Lottery Heritage Fund. Thanks to National Lottery players, we were able to engage local people of all ages with the heritage and history of Corby and give them an opportunity to respond creatively through music and the arts!

 

Thanks to National Lottery Players

Common Ground

Originally part of the Eartheart project, Common Ground is a partnership with Kettering Arts Centre, Deafconnect Northampton and Audiovisibility.

 

Supported by The National Lottery Community Fund, the project is enabling young deaf people in Northampton to work with leading deaf musician Ruth Montgomery and SignSong artist Fletch@ and Kettering Arts Centre are being supported to develop creative links with its local diaspora communities.

 

Eartheart

Inspired by the question ‘What does the word Earth mean to you?’ Eartheart also marked the choirs 10th Anniversary.

 

The project kicked off with a special 10yr Anniversary concert featuring songs from across the choirs 10 year history a full live band and the choirs founder Barb Jungr.

 

The project initiated new partnerships with Orchestra’s Live, Kettering Arts Centre, Kettering Ukrainian Refugee community, Audiovisibility and Deafconnect, Northampton.

 

It culminated in a special event with new work from the choir and The Ring of Fire songwriting collective, a collaboration between Deep Roots Tall Trees Dancetheatre and live musicians and a new project featuring young people from Northamptonshire Music and Performing Arts Trust’s Corby Music Centre, and musicians from renowned classical ensemble Sinfonia Viva.

 

Beyond Corby

Interrupted by the Covid -19 Pandemic, Beyond Corby saw DRTT fully embrace the possibilities offered by having to work online.

 

Meeting weekly over Zoom, the choir produced their ‘Lockdown EP’, featuring songs composed and recorded at home by choir members on their phones. The release also featured the song and video, ‘Doorstep Delight’, which was the result of our first collaboration with Sinfonia Viva and composer Pete Letanka and SignSong artist Fletch@.

 

DRTT Dancetheatre continued to dance in their living rooms, bedrooms and kitchens. They choreographed and filmed themselves to produce their own lockdown dance film and worked with Northamptonshire interdisciplinary artist Jo Blake.

 

As part of Future Voices, young people in Corby took part in ‘Into the Wild’ and ‘Ocean Odyssey’, online music and creative arts projects led by Kate Stilitz and Gareth Fuller.

 

The Deep Roots Tall Trees, Scottish, Latvian, Polish and English communities came together for an evening of song, dance and food at a socially-distanced cultural celebration event at The Core @ Corby Cube.

 

Changing Corby

Changing Corby explored the diverse and varied cultural heritage of Corby through collaboration with Corby’s Scottish, Polish, Latvian and Serbian communities. Over two years DRTT worked alongside these communities sharing songs, dances, stories and food.

 

Peoples experiences and recollections of coming to Corby were captured in a series of interviews which were preserved in four books deposited in the Northamptonshire Records Office and Corby Heritage Centre.

 

The project finale ‘Coming Together’ took place at The Rooftop Arts Centre in Corby amidst the Changing Corby Exhibition. The event included performances from the DRTT Choir and DRTT Dancetheatre and showcased a representative selection of songs and dances, reflections and recollections.

 

 

Our Woods

Conceived by DRTT founder Rosalind Stoddart, 'Our Woods' was an invitation to Corby to come together and share the magic of its woodlands. Over 9 months a series of innovative events invited people to creatively explore and discover Corby’s historic urban woodland spaces.


The project culminated with ‘Dreaming Our Woods’, a spectacular multimedia finalé performance at The Core at Corby Cube. The performance featured a brand new song cycle for choir created by Barb Jungr and The Ring of Fire and arranged by Gareth Fuller,  a new dancethearte company led by Neil Paris, a light installation by international light artist Kurt Laurenz Theinert and a Pied Piper walk to The Boating Lake led by Cat Gerrard.


It established DRTT’s enduring philosophy and approach; bringing people together to co-create brilliant art.