We’re delighted to be able to offer two, FREE taster sessions in Newhaven for you to come & try out dancing with your bicycle, with huge thanks for the Newhaven Arts Growth, BN9 fund.
Dates to be announced soon. Please check back in a couple of weeks & follow up on Facebook or Instagram
All ages are welcome, we just ask that you have a level of cycling proficiency, recommended Bikeability Level 2.
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Newhaven on 7 & 8 Sept & Brighton 21 & 22 Sept
Come & dance with your bicycle & take part in a Sussex Blazing Saddles performance. The show is based on the moment women in the 1890s, transformed their clothing & society to be able to ride bicycles.
We will create the shows with local women & girls (you & your bike) over a weekend, starting with workshop/rehearsals & a ride around the performance sites on the first day; further rehearsal & performance on the second day.
You will learn the show’s choreographic structures & moves, as well as create your own moves & short sequences & work together safely as part of the cast. You will develop your cycling skills & confidence, improve control of your bicycle on the roads & as part of a group, & have the best fun doing so. Some of our workshop materials have been incorporated in the Bikeability programmes.
Come & join in, email to sign up – infoatsussexblazingsaddles.co.uk (please add in @, we get spammed if we’re not careful)
Previous Participants said…
& you can watch a short film of previous participants HERE
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You can take part in either the Newhaven or Brighton shows, or both if you have the time/energy. Rehearsals & performance will take a whole weekend.
Here’s a very rough, draft schedule for both weekends:
Saturdays 7 Sept in Newhaven or 21 Sept in Brighton
9.30am-10am – Arrival
10am-1pm – Introductions, workshop to learn core skills & basic choreographic moves & introduction to the show choreography
1-2pm – Lunch break
2-5pm – Ride to performance sites & around routes, rehearsing scenes
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Sundays 8 Sept in Newhaven or 21 Sept in Brighton
9.30am-10am – Arrival
10am-12.30pm – Rehearsal running through choreography
12-1.30pm – Lunch break
1.30-2.30pm – Costume call & prep
2.30-4.30pm – Ride to performance sites & around routes, rehearsing scenes
Sign up to get more information soon or check back here shortly… infoatsussexblazingsaddles.co.uk
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In the meantime… watch this short film of the show
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Loads of FREE activities & events throughout the year. The calendar below lists confirmed events only & we’re working on dates for a programme of FREE workshops to upcycle cycling outfits, dance with your bike & SBS heritage inspired rides. Follow us on Facebook & Instagram for updates
April
13 April, 11am-4pm, A FREE, all day or drop in sewing & remaking workshop at CREW 8-9 South Street, BN11 3AL. Remake your own cycling outfit from preloved clothes or help make bloomers for a dressing up box for the SBS exhibition. More HERE
June
1-16 June, SBS Exhibition Bexhill Museum
16 June, Pleasant Sunday Afternoon, Bexhill – heritage rides, activites tbc
18-30 June, SBS Exhibition Worthing Museum
September
1-15 September, SBS Exhibition, Newhaven Library
7 September, Blazing Saddles Newhaven performance workshop & rehearsals 10am-4.30pm
8 September, Blazing Saddles Newhaven, rehearsal 10am-1pm, & performance 2-4.30pm
16-30 September, SBS Exhibition, Jubilee Library Brighton
21 September, Blazing Saddles Newhaven performance workshop & rehearsals 10am-4.30pm
22 September, Blazing Saddles Newhaven, rehearsal 10am-1pm, & performance 2-4.30pm
More soon…..
Sussex Blazing Saddles is exploring the pioneering heritage of women & cycling since 19th, its role in the transformation of women’s clothing & society, & the suffrage movement.
Today, cycling clothing, lycra, helmet hair etc are one of the biggest perceived barriers discouraging more women & girls from cycling; most stop riding when they reach puberty & never ride again. But you don’t need special clothes to ride… unless you make or remake them!
SBS is running free talks & sewing workshops to re-imagine, re-frame & re-make women’s cycling clothing in the next few months.
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Come & transform preloved clothes – repairs or making them fit, or transforming them completely adding splashes of colour or different fabrics, or merging two or more completely different items in chaotic experiment.
We’re also creating a dressing up box of bloomers upcycled from men’s shirts, to tour alongside the Sussex Blazing Saddles exhibition. Come along to the Worthing session to find out how:
Worthing, Saturday 13 April 2024, 11am – 4pm – A FREE, all day or drop in workshop at
CREW (Climate Resilience Centre Worthing) 8-9 South Street, BN11 3AL
More to follow in Bexhill & Newhaven
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We started this element of the Sussex Blazing Saddles project with two conversation sessions in February 2024 where we invited local people to hear about the project, help us develop ideas & frame how we will work together. The initial sessions took place in:
Worthing – Saturday 24 February 1.30-3pm at CREW, Climate Resilience Centre, Worthing, 8-9 South Stree, Worthing, BN11 3AL, &
Bexhill – Monday 26 February 1.30-3pm at Bexhill Museum, 47 Egerton Road, Bexhill, TN39 3HL
Please contact infoatsussexblazingsaddles.co.uk for more information
There are two versions of TLC Undersea Experience for different types of events:
The HTC Vive version is a high-quality, vr installation, enabling users to move around an area approximately 3.5-4m2 to explore a virtual, chalk reef gully, similar to those in the MCZ. Users can follow their curiosity to explore, pick up rocks to see creatures underneath & see marine life all around. Scroll down for Technical Specs
The 360-film version, is suitable for schools & busy community events or festivals where there are large numbers of people. We currently have 8 headsets, each with the capacity for 8-10 users per hour, so 70-80 users per hour, depending on size of space available.
Scroll down for Technical Specs
more information coming soon….
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A surprise for one of our new volunteers when she discovered her grandmother’s role in the cycling rational dress movement.
“I have no sympathy, whatever with the skirt, in any shape or form, and if a woman is not prepared to ride in knickers(knickerbockers), I think she should not ride until she is.”
Home Chat magazine, June 27, 1896.
This fantastic quote is from London based 1890s cycling champion Monica Harwood. It was found by her Worthing based, grand-daughter also named Monica, who has become one of our first volunteers, and who has been digging into her family history. It appears before Monica Harwood married, she became a cycling champion, then joined Bert Howard’s troupe of lady cyclists and was Captain of the Chelsea Rational Cycling Club. She never mentioned her cycling career to her family.
Photo: Monica’s grandmother
It has been well documented in various blogs and books that Brighton 16 year old, Tessie Reynolds, made a record breaking cycle ride of 8 hours and 30 minutes from Brighton to London and back again in 1893. It caused a media sensation as she wore bloomers and rode a drop handlebar bicycle with a cross bar, paving the way for wider societal change. A new discovery in local newspapers by Sussex Blazing Saddles volunteer Irena, reveals more about the young Tessie’s organizational skills.
In May 1894 Tessie created Brighton’s first Ladies’ Cycling Club with 20 other women as reported in the Brighton Gazette newspaper. The following month The Worthing Gazette observed that this new club, with its proper title of Brighton and District Ladies’ Cycling Club, was growing ambitious: “Recently they had a ride to Worthing, and found the journey far too short!” Worthing Gazette 27 June 1894
