Previews

The two-day Travelling Light festival is at The Cut, Halesworth on Thursday 14 & Friday 15 February 2008. The organisers are aiming to celebrate the diversity of work - which means they want everyone to come along, not just people with learning disabilities and their carers.

The first day features film-screenings as well as dance performances by D4Dance, Spin-off and Cut Dance. Cut Dance have also been given a Suffolk Foundation grant and the fruits of this will be a premier of a dance based on the Greek myth of Orpheus.

They're outreach programme has linked together Cut Dance with three smaller local groups from Castle Hill Primary School in Ipswich, the Y Club (based at the Norwich Road YMCA, Ipswich) and the Suffolk Befriending organisation.

The second day includes dance and film-making workshops for people of all levels and abilities, an art exhibition by RoaR and an end-of-festival party in the evening with more film screenings and, you guessed it, more dancing.

Oska for best film-making workshops?

It's been inspired by the Oska Bright Film Festival which showcases films made by people with learning disabilities. It's based in Brighton and tours nationally and internationally.

In fact, The Cut has been so inspired by them that they've invited Oska Bright along and they'll be providing the screenings on the Thursday and a film-making masterclass on the Friday.

Sophie Wood is one of the dancers with Cut Dance. She said: "We've done smaller things, but this is the first really big scale thing. We want everyone to come along!

"It's for anyone who's interested in dance and film. A lot of it is the best stuff that's happening at the moment."

The event's being backed by the Suffolk Artlink. The organisation's Haley Field says it should be able to grow: "We're hoping to develop a film-making project for people with learning disabilities. We can then submit the results to the next Oska Bright Film Festival."

June Hall is a member of Oska Bright's steering committee who has learning disabilities. She said: "We really enjoy running the [Oska Bright] festival and have learnt lots of new things. It's great to get the chance to be our own boss, to feel good about ourselves and to learn from each other.

"We know we can do this job as well as anybody else and the success of Oska Bright proves this."

Tickets

Thursday's dance and film events are £10 for the day's three sessions - or £4 per session. Friday's worksops are free, while the evening event is £5.

Phone The Cut, Halesworth on 0845 6732123 for more details or visit their website.