December 2011
This event saw the launch of the newly opened Sneinton Market, featuring stalls and events, alongside the apple tree adoptions in the adjacent gallery space. The SHRUG ladies enjoyed this wonderful event with a christmassy feel. They collected everyones christmas wishes on baubles which turned SHRUG lady 1 into a fantastic walking christmas tree.
November 2011
The SHRUG ladies took part in this innovative evening of art and extraordinary entertainment as part of the Goole Victorian Market regeneration project. MULLED WINE + SNOWFLAKES was the first event in the MAYHEM IN THE MARKET series presented by Question Your Teaspoon. The SHRUG Ladies dressed up their very own market stall with lots of SHRUG style goodies and collected words from participants to transform into stories about the market.
October 2011
Happy Apple Day!!
The SHRUG ladies took part in the Apple Day celebrations in Sneinton Market as part of its regeneration. This event was presented in collaboration with Nottingham Visual Arts and was part of the ORCHARD project created by artist Neville Gabie. The SHRUG ladies devised a wonderful game of ‘apple sayings’ based on their old favourite ‘charades’. The public seemed particular impressed with ‘the big apple’. Thanks to all those who took part, we look forward to the next event in December.
August 2011
The SHRUG ladies teamed up with ‘Phrased and Confused’ to create the ultimate in spoken word entertainment. The ladies took on the role of ‘deviant librarians’ collecting words and poems from willing participants. The ladies rewarded their audience with many ‘Phrased and Confused’ goodies including tattoos, pencils and USB bracelets. It was a great weekend of sun, fun and the odd pun.
It also saw a new SHRUG lady take to the SHRUG stage so a big welcome to Owin Davies our newest lady!
April 2011
The SHRUG ladies entertained guests as they arrived for the premier of ‘Goodie’ at Lincoln’s LPAC. The film showing was a ‘short’ produced by Red Dog Film about a family of super heroes. The SHRUG ladies took their mime skills to the limit challenging participants to an intense game of film charades.
SHRUG in collaboration with Nottingham Youth Theatre
St Peter’s Church Friday 18th February 2011 – 8.30pm
Following a series of workshops led by the ladies NYT developed their own performance pieces which were performed at Light Night both as street performances including spontaneous interaction with the public and then in front of a seated audience at St Peter’s Church. The ladies joined NYT for the evening and developed their own new piece specifically for the event which included some very stylish red torches.
The ladies really enjoyed interacting with the young people and were thoroughly impressed with their ideas, performances and professionalism. Well done to those Hanky Pankhursts, the Wink Ladies, Shaken-but-not-Stirred-men behaving sadly and the pipe boys!
The SHRUG ladies joined the Nottingham Youth Theatre at their College Street base for 2 workshop sessions teaching them all things SHRUG. This highly talented bunch of young people will be creating their own SHRUG inspired mimes and interactions ready for the next city centre Light Night event in February.
The SHRUG Ladies would like to wish you all a very merry and glamorous Christmas! Look out for exciting new SHRUG events in 2011! Happy New Year!
Love and kisses, SHRUG Ladies 1, 2 & 3.
P.S. We’d like to say a massive thank you to all the wonderful guest SHRUG Ladies who have worked with us this year!! xxx
September 2010
The SHRUG Ladies were invited to perform at their very first wedding event which proved very exciting! The wedding was between the lovely and wonderful Ben and Natasha who had fallen in love with the SHRUG ladies at last years Nottingham Contemporary opening. The Ladies planned a whole day of SHRUG style mimes to keep the wedding guests constantly enthused. Activities included welcome messages, Polaroid photos, human scrabble, ‘Did you know…’ mimes and guest book message cards. The ladies had such a good time and were honoured to be part of such a special day! Congratulations Newly Weds!!!
August 2010
Oh the perfect SHRUG lady event, an opportunity to dress up, party on and meet simply hundreds of wonderful people!! This year a new event hit our summer festival calendar ‘Vintage at Goodwood’ an event inspired by fashion and music of the 40′s, 50′s, 60′s, 70′s and 80′s featuring a whole host of performers, musicians, vintage stalls and crafts, shops and fashion shows, there really was something for everyone. The ladies camped out in style never giving in to the odd bit of rain! They roller skated at the roller disco, tea danced in a tent, posed for photos everywhere and of course mimed conversation, chalked messages, made friends, drank tea, played music, enjoyed a ride, shopped and dropped!!!
July 2010, Derby Dance Centre
Quake is an exciting performance event programmed by Dance4 sharing innovative and inspiring work from a diversity of artists. The SHRUG Ladies undertook walk about performances in the Cafe Bar as well as showing their new work in progress theatre piece. The piece entitled ‘A SHRUG Day Out’ incorporated the Ladies love of the silent black and white movie and combined their own recorded footage with live performance. The piece proved a real challenge as the ladies attempted to run in heels while mastering various disguises. As a first showing the piece had a welcome and positive response from our audience and the SHRUG Ladies are hoping to develop this short work into a longer and more established theatre show. Look out for developments in the new year!
Here’s some shots from the video…
Gail Griggs Photography kindly attended the event in collaboration with the SHRUG Ladies, and took some cracking shots. Go to the link below to view the album. You can even buy copies of the pics for yourself!
MOG 2010 Sunday 20th June, Derbyshire
The SHRUG Ladies took to the road in style this weekend, performing at MOG 2010 in Buxton. The weather was glorious and the ladies had a super time entertaining the members as they picnicked on the lawn. It was a real treat meeting so many interesting people and of course getting to sit in a few of those truly amazing Morgan Cars!! Well done to all those winners!!
Below are just a few of the instant photos we took on the day but watch this space for the official photos coming very soon, we cant wait to see all those glamourous shots!! xxx
Boots Photography Conference 25th & 26th May 2010
The SHRUG Ladies had the pleasure of welcoming delegates at the Boots photography conference down to their glamourous dinner event at the Eastwood Hall Hotel and Conference Centre. Armed with their new rather snazzy Polaroid camera the SHRUG Ladies enacted holiday inspired tableaus, engaged participants in a game of human scrabble and got in on the main action with a professional photo shoot! Fun was had by all and a truly wonderful event for the Ladies. Thank you to Boots and the event organisers Immedia Television Communications Ltd.
11th March 2010, Lincoln
This week, SHRUG ladies dusted their way into lincoln town to find out what the lovely folk who lived there thought of ART. It was an exciting day as a new SHRUG Lady ‘Sarah’ was with us and it was her first outing, she did splendidly and much fun was had. With flowers starting to peep from their buds and the sunshine making a more regular appearance, it only meant one thing to SHRUG and that was time for a glamourous clean.
The ladies sprinkled glamour through the town, stopping the unsuspecting public to write spring thoughts on paper flowers, between manic cleans to music. When it all got too tiring the ladies stopped for a tea and cake break and much needed rest. The sun shone all day for us and the Lincoln lovlies welcomed us with open arms. May I add, we left the town SPOTLESS and GLEAMING.
7th March 2010
SHRUG Lady 1 embarked on her first outing since moving to New Zealand. She had a great time at the Newtown Street Festival in Wellington, dancing to some music, hanging out with friends and of course, sharing lots of tea and cakes with passers by! It was a lovely hot summers day and her sun parasol came in very handy for giving people a place to hide for a moment before moving on their way. She was even given a sticker by the police which said ‘Never talk to strangers’ hmm not sure what he was trying to say there!! x
Saturday 19th December 2009, Nottingham
The SHRUG Ladies will be out in Nottingham city center as part of the Sneinton Showcase day. Enjoy an alternative Christmas Market and be entertained by the many performers and events. The SHRUG ladies will be creating their own 12 days of Christmas, so join them for a little Christmas cheer!
Merry Christmas 2009 xx
November 2009 – Nottingham Evening Post
The SHRUG Ladies were recently interviewed for the Nottingham Evening Post in the run up to the launch of the Nottingham Contemporary. The lovely article is right here…
November 2009 – Nottingham
This week saw the opening of the brand new modern art gallery, Nottingham Contemporary. The SHRUG Ladies had the pleasure of entertaining the crowds as they queued in anticipation. Gallery punters were invited to play SHRUG Human Scrabble by making words on the Ladies’ dresses using sticky letters! Younger audience members were given the opportunities to draw portraits on the Ladies’ chalk boards and fun was had by all.
This piece was inspired by the exhibition featured in the gallery by Frances Stark.
The event was also the first outing for new SHRUG Lady, Katie. Well done!
October 2009 – Nottingham
Nottingham played host to a wealth of artistic talent at their Hatch Abroad event on Nottingham’s Broad Street. SHRUG performed some new devised & durational pieces to the onlooking crowds.
September 2009 – Nottingham
The SHRUG Ladies set up shop to launch a unique range of SHRUG merchandise, including aprons, knapkins and doillies, bracelets, broaches and scarves, and a selection of our photographic prints from our many ‘City Happenings’.
The Ladies had the fantastic opportunity to show this range of hand made goodies as part of Wayne Hemingway’s KiosKiosK project.
The man behind Red or Dead first launched his KiosKiosK pop-up shop concept next to City Hall in London earlier this year, in a bid to provide fledgling creative businesses with a rent-free showcase.
Now he has brought this idea to Nottingham. The Kiosk will be based on the corner of Pelham Street and Thurland Street, from October to December, with the SHRUG Ladies kicking things off in true style.
Wirksworth Festival, Art & Architecture Trail 12 -13 September 2009
5 SHRUG Ladies set out on a fantastic weekend trip to Wirksworth festival. They were ready and prepared to present their newly devised performance piece as part of the ‘What is SHRUG’ research project. The piece included 3 sections entitled ‘SHRUG Tea Dance’, ‘Day at The Beach’ and ‘Sailor SHRUG Hand Jive’. The setting was superb; Wirksworth truly is a village of extreme beauty and quant character, which suited the SHRUG Ladies to a tee!! The SHRUG Ladies performed their piece at various locations on the festival trail including the station, the church yard, a bench on the square and the farm as well as doing their usual walk about meet and greet. There were so many amazing photo opportunities, not to mention the awesome new costumes well done our new SHRUG Lady Helen!!!!!
The SHRUG Ladies made their debut at London’s Tate Modern at the weekend. The girls did an impromptu performance while the public watched on in amusement.
The performance was halted soon after by some burly security guards who almost frog-marched the ladies off site! How dare they?! Live performance art? At the Tate Modern!?
Never mind. It was fun while it lasted.
August 2009, London
The SHRUG Ladies enjoyed a wonderful day out in London this weekend seeing the sites and meeting the people on a lovely Bank Holiday Monday afternoon in the sun!
August 2009, London
The SHRUG Ladies joined again with the fantastic Fete Encounter this weekend to enjoy 3 days of performance and picnics on Abbey Green in London as part of the Lift Molten Festival.
August 2009
This week sees the launch of our shiny new website! We have lots of fabulous new features like our gallery/blog page. So, stay for a while, make a cup of tea and discover what the SHRUG ladies have been up to.
Here’s a quick homage to our old site that served us so well over the last few years. We couldn’t let it fade into nothingness so we’ve saved the best bits for posterity! x
August 2009 – ‘What is SHRUG’ research project, Nottingham.
The SHRUG Ladies took their first work in progress as part of the ‘What is SHRUG’ research project down to the Life’s a Beach event in Nottingham’s Market Square. In a truly British style the sun was shining but then the rain poured! This did not dampen the Ladies spirit however, they waited out the shower dancing under a large umbrella before returning to the beach to dance with newly found friends, slide down the helter skelter, have a nap on some deck chairs and finally relax with a nice cup of tea!
A lovely day out Ladies!
The SHRUG ladies are currently embarking on a research and development project supported by Arts Council England. We have recruited some new performers and will be undertaking street and studio based performance research, attending local festivals and events, contructing this fab new website, making and selling unique SHRUG merchandise and of course eating our usual fill of tea and cakes!
Happy Summer Ladies! Looking forward to seeing your new stuff! xxxx
This summer the SHRUG ladies are embarking on a new adventure! 2 ladies have become 4, expanding their company, their performance, their look and their selection of goodies on offer. Look out for this glamorous troop as they hit the streets of Wirksworth, engaging with all whom they meet. Will you stand and watch or will you come closer to join in this world of surreal glamour with an unnerving edge, the choice is yours!!!
August 2009, Dance 4 studio, Nottingham.
The Ladies spent their first day of studio based research as part of the ‘What is SHRUG’ project devising a piece of choreographed movement. The workshop was led by Zoo Indigo’s Rosie Garton and provided some fantastic new ideas to develop the performance work of the SHRUG Ladies.
Thanks Rosie!! xxxx
