Scintilla

'My vision is to bring ordinary people at risk of isolation together through artistic creativity alongside top professional artists, and together find ways to express the struggle’

- Liz Dilnot Johnson

Scintilla is a multi-arts project exploring notions of isolation and connection through wild exterior landscapes and the interior of the mind. 

Scintilla is a unique, rich tapestry of poetry, music and dance weaving in layers, combining to transform and shape-shift, inspired by the poetry of David Hart’s Crag Inspector. 

The project idea was conceived at a time when Liz Dilnot Johnson was suffering isolation due to a serious health breakdown. Scintilla examines the struggle to find one's own true voice in the world and the search for a calm centre, away from fantasies and nightmares.

Liz Johnson's original music for Scintilla has morphed out of her clarinet quintet Sea-change. 

R and D for Scintilla

The Scintilla Project has been awarded several national grants to support the research and development process, including a generous Arts Council England 'Developing Your Creative Practice' grant. This investment has allowed Liz to work with choreographer dancer Dane Hurst, musician Jack McNeill, digital artist formuls, mentor Tess Howell, producer Jackie Newbould, creative producer Mira Moschallski and film maker Oli Clark to develop creative ideas for the project.

An initial work-in-progress event in May 2019 evoked strong responses from audience members:

“And what we were watching… was a passing of time with that deep awareness that time passing in that perhaps confined way hurts.”
— David Hart (poet)
“organic and beautifully layered… it seemed to inhabit this really interesting space between abstraction and a concrete narrative.”
— audience member
“Wonderful. I was really blown away by it. ”
— audience member
“moving and beautifully conceived.”
— audience member

Liz’s vision for the project is to expand it into a full-length dance/theatre piece and to develop digital versions of Scintilla for VR/app. These are being designed specifically to in order to engage with and support those suffering, or at risk of, isolation.

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Scintilla, performed at The Lab, Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, 5th May 2019 Liz Dilnot Johnson's Scintilla is an ever-evolving work, a layering of music, d...

Scintilla Act 1 (performance)

Liz Dilnot Johnson's Scintilla is an ever-evolving work, a layering of music, dance, and poetry that reflects richly on human isolation - and ways to overcom...

The Search for Scintilla (documentary)

Liz Dilnot Johnson's Scintilla is an ever-evolving work, a layering of music, dance, and poetry that reflects richly on human isolation - and ways to overcom...

Composer Liz Dilnot Johnson and Poet David Hart watch Scintilla (documentary)

Liz Johnson is a composer based in the Malvern Hills. The Fusion grant will allow her to work with filmmaker Oli Clark to create short documentaries revealing the creative process for her new mulit-disciplinary work 'Scintilla', in which she is collaborating with coreographer Dane Hurst and poet David Hart.

Liz describes Scintilla in a film created for Help Musicians UK.

Scintilla is supported by: