Kinetika directed, designed and delivered Rivers of Vitality, a large participatory carnival procession on May 30 1999 as part of the Salisbury Festival. Through working with local groups around Salisbury, conducting poetry, design and performance workshops, we created a carnival with the involvement of 200 local people, in flowing silk costumes.
Rivers of vitality drew its inspiration from the five
rivers that flow into Salisbury.
Five rivers Flow
From Mountain tops to oceans deep
And where they meet
Magic begins
Dreams are weaved
By the eternal story teller
In waves of colour
Crashing against each other
Creating Rivers Of Vitality
It is so we begin
Born again in a water
Running with life
Dancing and playing
All day long
One big, many small
This is the River of Life
From turbulent swells to the rolling brook
The river transforms
Too-ing and Fro-ing
I dreamt a dream this night
Of beauty and horror
Of glory and destruction
This night I dreamt
The Goddess of Dreams
The Epitaph
Five rivers meet in swirls and eddies
Losing themselves in the sea
We journeyed along the course
Shaking hands with Souls
Meandering in Life's Dreams
And now one story ends
Rivers of Vitality begins
We capture the heart, the parade
Pick up rhythm
Malika Booker and Nicholai La Barrie May 1999
Rivers of Vitality was directed and designed by Ali Pretty working with
Cath Kilcoyne, writer and researcher; Ray Mahabir, designer/production
manager; Nicholai La Barrie and
Malika . B, performance text and direction, Chow Lin On, and Julian
Beere, construction; Sonya Shah, textiles.
