Jo Blake
BIO
Jo Blake (Cave) is a performer working across the disciplines of storytelling, theatre and dance. Her dynamic, poetic performance style draws upon traditional and contemporary practices, exploring current cultural and personal questions through the lens of the mythic.
She has trained with leading practitioners in the field of storytelling (Ben Haggarty, Hugh Lupton, Abbi Patrix, Ashley Ramsden and Sue Hollingsworth), theatre (Song of the Goat, Complicite) and dance (Helen Poyner, the Tamalpa Life/Art process by Anna and Daria Halprin). She has recently completed a PhD in Storytelling Practices at the University of Chichester, and holds an MA with Distinction in Dance Theatre from Trinity Laban and a First Class BA (Hons) in Performing Arts from the University of Winchester. She was nominated for an Arts Foundation Fellowship Award for Storytelling in 2009 and was Resident Storyteller at Royal & Derngate theatre in Northampton from 2010–2013.
She continues to perform, teach and collaborate with prominent national and international institutions, including the National Trust, National Theatre and British Council, as well as established and emerging artists from diverse disciplines.
PUBLIC EVENTS
Current (online)
May 27th 2021 - The Goddess Lounge
Join the rebels! Climate Saving Goddess.
Online International Storytelling. Watch the trailer here!
July 13th - 17th 2020 - The Price of a Bed for the Night
Oundle International Festival
Story film in five parts, with music by Rimski & Handkerchief.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4A773Gax4O4
July 30th 2020 - What Do You See With Your Eye to the Keyhole?
Hosted by North London Traditional Storytelling Club
Tickets and zoom link here:
September 12th 2020 - Meeting the Madwoman
All in the Mind online festival
Ticket link coming soon!
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Previous Performances
July 31st - August 26th 2019 - Blodeuwedd Untold
Edinburgh Fringe Festival, The Pleasance
For tickets and details: www.pleasance.co.uk
May 9th 2019 - Blodeuwedd Untold
Stealing Thunder StoryNights, Brigsteer, Nr Kendal
For tickets and details: www.stealingthunder.co.uk
March 15th 2019 - Blodeuwedd Untold
Teater Slava, Huddinge, Nr Stockholm, Sweden
For tickets and details: www.teater-slava.squarespace.com
September 28th 2018 - 60 Miles by Road or Rail
Royal & Derngate, Northampton
For tickets and details: www.royalandderngate.co.uk
August 25th 2018 - Blodeuwedd Untold
Oxford Storytelling Festival
For tickets and details: www.oxfordstorytellingfestival.co.uk
Works
Blodeuwedd Untold
Unearth the unwritten Blodeuwedd, the Frankenstein of flowers.
Captured in the pages of a medieval book, the ancient myth of Blodeuwedd describes a woman made out of flowers who was turned into an owl as punishment for adultery. But who was this woman before being confined to the page?
Jo Blake, international contemporary storyteller, irradiates this figure of Celtic myth through word, movement and ritual. The myth is unravelled in this radical reclamation of the untold; intertwined with personal experience and striking observations of the role of myth in our unmythic modern lives.
(Blodeuwedd: blod-ae-wuth).
Watch video here
WISHBONE
ECOLOGY FOR GIRLS
RIVERLANDS
THE GIRL WHO BECAME A BOY
THE SMILING FOX
WE ARE PATHMAKERS
Courses
Body, Breath and Story: building a contemporary storytelling practice
a training program for creative artists and performers
Dates for 2022 tbc
A body-based exploratory journey through the powerful and complex art
of the contemporary storyteller.
18 days over 6 months.
Please click on the file below to open the
course brochure and read more about this exciting
new training programme...
CONTACT
For any enquiries, please contact jo@joblakecave.co.uk