Huge excitement about launching into a whole tour of my What About You? weekend workshops this year. Such an inspiring bunch of creatives and outlaws showing up to explode creativity, ignite our playful genius and transform shadows into rocket-fuel - or 'demons into employees' as one collaborator commented recently. The sessions began as an extension of the talks and Q&A evenings I was doing after 'What About Me?' screenings...
http://www.cultureunplugged.com/play/2424/1-Giant-Leap--What-About-Me
...where the group conversations were becoming increasingly edgy and inspiring. Soon we were getting into what really makes us create, where the juice comes from and especially how to access it without waiting around forlornly for some abstract 'muse' to whisper from the walls. Once we started meeting up in groups of 40 or 50 in various locations around the globe it became clear that our creativity had a lot to do with playing with our shadows and thereby harvesting the energy we'd wasted by hiding them and 'dragging them around in a sack behind us' as Joseph Campbell said (or maybe it was Jung, I can't remember).
Soon we were project building from a whole rejuvenated and powered-up place and ideas and plans were soaring - and they still are by all accounts.
It was an exciting prospect to mail out the new workshop dates to the 20,000 folks on my mailing lists from my music and films. But what I hadn't banked on, or remembered, were the people I had alienated in the last 10 years by being a total self-involved dick-head! Yes, it was great to receive hundreds of loving and supportive emails from fans and friends and excited creatives and outlaws all signing up on the first day - but the replies which stick in my memory are the two or three (or was it four) letters I got back from still-frothing and vitriolic people who I had offended, hurt, dumped-on, arrogantly dismissed or, in the case of one, trashed their house (apparently). I felt like a drug addict in rehab on one of the Twelve Steps where you make amends or acknowledge all the people you've done wrong to.
It made me reflect on how unpleasant I had been at times in the past, mainly to cover up my insecurity at feeling so out of my depth in those situations. I cringe when I think of myself swanning about with my big 1 Giant Leap boots on thinking I had all the answers. Thank God I had such a genius team working with me or What About Me? would have never seen the light of day.
Thankfully now I really DO have all the answers, so be assured, if you come and create and connect and laugh and shadow-dance with us you'll be in safe, all-knowing and benevolently humble hands.
these are the dates so far:
28/29 January Frome, Somerset, UK
4/5 February Amsterdam, Holland
11/12 February London, UK
18/25 February Koh Phang Gang, Thailand
17/18 March Deia, Mallorca
24/25 March Bristol, UK
14/15 April London, UK
21/22 April South Africa (tbc)
5/6 May Gibraltar
Please have a look at the new website:
...and turn right for the workshops.
Or if you'd like to reserve a place right now, click here:
http://www.jamiecatto.com/workshop/signup
They are all for DONATIONS ONLY - partly because I'm much more interested in everyone coming and not excluding those who can't afford my A-list celebrity rates, but secretly also because I'm scared that if I put a real price tag on it maybe no one will show up................shhhhhhhhhhhhhh
[youtube http://youtube.com/w/?v=oWzTWEPU5wU&feature=youtu.be]