Jenny Stafford and Daniel Bryan join other members of Bristol's community for dance performance Handbag at the Arnolfini

Jenny and Dan from Firebird auditioned with other members from Bristol's community and subsequently took part in a dance performance Handbag at the Arnolfini during the Harbourside Festival. They took part in 5 performances during the evening of the 30th July and other members of Firebird were in the audience to cheer them on. They both delivered fantastic performances under the direction of artist, Geraldine Pilgrim. For more information about Handbag, please see below extract below, from the Arnolfini website. 

Photographs, below, taken of Jenny and Dan during one of the Saturday performances


Jenny, in the red dress on the balcony



Daniel, second from the right





From Arnolfini's website:

Handbag Geraldine Pilgrim

A celebratory gem of a performance with great music, dancing and handbags made for ballrooms, civic halls and unusual spaces. In an empty ballroom, a caretaker sweeps away the remnants of a previous event. A woman enters the space and puts down her handbag. A beat begins, a mirror ball turns and the sound of a classic dance track fills the air…

“A witty and wistful performance that, in a few delirious moments, succinctly makes the point that no woman needs a man when she has got her handbag in tow.”

Lyn Gardner, The Guardian

“positive and uplifting. Made me want to dance the night away.” 


Audience member, BAC

Commissioned, scratched and originally performed for the Grand Hall at BAC and subsequently conceived and performed as part of the opening season for the Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford-Upon-Avon, the Transform Festival at West Yorkshire Playhouse and at Arnolfini as part of the Bristol Harbour Festival.