An enjoyable afternoon spent teaching a group of second year theatre students at Dartington College of Arts near Totnes. Totnes is unlike any other town I know of in Britain. It has a deep affinity for the alternative and so was a welcoming part of the world for someone like me, practising an art that most consider, if they consider it all, not very relevant and definitely not mainstream.
Misha Myers, who had kindly invited me down to teach, explained that the college is going through something of a transitory period. It is a wonderful place and I do hope it has a bright future. The students that I met seem to have the energy to help with that, although I’m not sure if that was drawn from the inspirational surroundings or their apparently bottomless supply of Red Bull.
We spent most of the time walking outside, looking for the usual suspects of sun, shadows, tree shape, moss and lichen growth, tree trunks, mud colour…
Our three hours together finished in my favourite way. I was able to tell a group who had no previous navigation experience that they were now amongst the top 1% of natural navigators in the UK.
Tags: dartington college, inspirational surroundings, navigation, totnes
