It’s been an amazing year for Everybody NOW! delivering our purpose To Move Communities.
In 2022 we have connected with over 7,000 people aged between 4 – 94 years young, in 72 Communities both online and face-to-face, telling stories through music, dance, poetry, over a cuppa, even on wheels. We’d like to deeply thank the amazing artists, communities, partners, presenters and supporters for your ongoing support, creativity, flexibly and shared interest in our company and purpose.
We are proud to share with you some of our 2022 highlights below.
It was a little bumpy start if we look back to January with the Omicron wave hitting the Gold Coast, causing another wave of cancellations, however this one was a swift recovery and rest of the year was off, off and away.
Fabulous February saw us move into our very own HQ at HOTA, Home of the Arts on the Gold Coast as a HOME Company & welcome Pru Wilson our Producer who we now call our very own ‘Pru-ducer’. Boom tish
March we hit the road to Toowoomba and Western Downs for our first community residency preparing for The Inaugural Annual Dance Affair. We had an amazing time dancing with, meeting, learning from local community groups who love to dance and love their region!
April we welcomed JOF (Joseph O’Farrell) to the Gold Coast and to our Everybody NOW! HQ to plan, talk, meet local community groups & undertake 6 community centre inductions for all things Those Who Rock!
Marvelous May we were on the road again to see those superstars in the Toowoomba and Western Downs Regions. Misty nights in Toowoomba didn’t stop the dancing spirit & the Western Downs season in the Warra Memorial Hall the following week was one huge party with bus loads of audience members traveling in from across the region to attend the show! The last weekend in May we also began the Those Who Rock Riffs with the Rockstars, from across the Gold Coast – the first of six weeks of music and friendship making.
Joyful June was all ROCK with over 26 Those Who Rock workshops getting the local Rockstars ready for the big show, on July 3rd. It was a night that the participants, families, friends and audience members (and us!) will never forget! 300 hundred guitarists and community performers on stage at ONE time …..FIRE!!!
July making our way through all the warm and fuzzy Those Who Rock messages, we were back into planning our next big project Roller Coaster, as Company In Residence at Bleach* Festival plus the launch of Gran Slam 2022 this year going national after a huge response from our call out for wordsmiths over 65 years young. We welcomed Ainslee Bree, the successful mentee a part of the City of Gold Coast’s Professional Attachment Program who worked as a Creative Producer across Roller Coaster & Gran Slam.
Awesome August was an amazing month with so many profound moments of connection. We started by kicking off our online Gran Slam workshop with 80 seniors from around Australia zooming in each week! Our residency as part of Bleach* Festival at Miami Marketta & HOTA, Home of the Arts was one Roller Coaster of a ride. Described as a ‘sonic sportscape’ we collaborated with roller skaters from an array of disciples and a banging bunch of musicians and song writers to create new and orginal music about roller culture and life. There was songwriting sessions, choreographic explorations, a panel on sport, art and women’s health and well-being, capped off with a community performance event showcasing all the content we managed to create with in just ONE week!
And to finish the month off we spent some time out in the Somerset Region meeting the next dancing stars of The Inaugural Annual Dance Affair celebrating the 10 year anniversary of the Somerset Civic Centre.
Splendid September we continued our online Gran Slam workshops along with two face-to-face workshops at HOTA, Home of the Arts & Redland Performing Arts Centre, and still embracing life on wheels we curated Roller Daze, a one day event a part of the street serenades in Brisbane Festival with over 200 roller skaters coming out for a skate in the sunshine to live music!
October started in the best way possible with not one but TWO Gran Slam LIVE events, once again at HOTA, Home of the Arts and our first time at Redland Performing Arts Centre. What a brilliant way to start seniors month here in Queensland and they were indeed very fruitful evenings. (if you know, you know!)
November we did a deep dive or should we say ride into a closed Roller Coaster creative development, after creating so much magic in August we had lots to play with and had the opportunity to really shape the content into a show. There was lots of experimenting, writing on the blackboard, creative play, company warm ups, provocations and it wouldn’t be an Everybody NOW! project without lots & lots of post it notes!
And we can’t forget the very sunny Sunday afternoon for our lovely Community Christmas party in the Park.
And here we are in December (already), wrapping up 2022, sending Gran Slam chapbooks publication, writing Christmas cards & planning for 2023!
We can’t wait to connect with you in 2023.
