Essential Information
| Type | Events and festivals |
|---|---|
| Location | |
| Date and Times | Sunday 17 November | 12pm-4pm |
| Prices | Free |
Join us at the Queen's House for an afternoon of talks and live performances to mark Remembrance Day.
In partnership with Matglen International Consulting, we invite you to remember the Armed Forces and their families, from Britain and the Commonwealth, through a mix of personal narratives and performances.
The reality of war has many different facets. Keynote speaker Ally Musthan will share his personal experiences and explore remembrance from a place where we can all freely share our thoughts and perceptions.
Find out about the events taking place below.
Event schedule
Remembrance: A Call to Mind
12pm- 12.15pm | Outside the Queen's House
The commemorations will begin with a Reveille from Bugle Major, Sergeant Jake Pugsley.
Keynote speaker Ally Musthan will give a short speech introducing the day and the events coming up. This will be followed by a two minute silence.
Dance performance: A Celebratory Remembrance
12.25pm - 12.55 pm | Great Hall
Watch a dance performance given by artist and educator Teal Darkenwald and students from Bird College. This includes a Josephine Baker inspired performance from dancer Regan Hutshell.
Bird College dancers: Bethany Anderson, James Ian Clark, JJ Garrix, Ellie-Mae Gough, Marlee Hancorn and Elliot Whitmore.
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About Teal Darkenwald
Teal Darkenwald (pictured) is an interdisciplinary artist, educator, and founder of Ultra Barre with a multifaceted background. Her choreography has been featured at Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM), New York Live Arts, and the Ailey Citigroup Theatre. She has directed and choreographed large-scale performances including site-specific and traditional shows, visual media, and industry entertainment in London, Paris, Hong Kong, and more. She is also an artistic associate and choreographer for BalaSole Dance Company in New York City, an organisation devoted to providing diverse, equitable, and inclusive performance experiences for dance artists.
Darkenwald is a tenured Associate Professor of dance and biomechanics and Honors College Fellow at East Carolina University. There, she was awarded the University of North Carolina system for excellence in teaching in addition to numerous grants for her scholarship and teaching.
Darkenwald is also pursuing a PhD in Dance Science at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance. Her scholarship includes creating choreography using emerging technologies, inertial motion capture, and virtual reality. Whilst on research leave in the UK, Darkenwald has taught contemporary dance, served as an academic tutor and performance enhancement tutor, and held research roles at Bird College, the University of Essex, and Trinity Laban.
This is Darkenwald's second year creating the choreography for Royal Museums Greenwich's Remembrance celebrations.
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About Regan Hutsell
Regan Hutsell began her dance training at the age of four in Houston, Texas. In her formative years, she had the privilege of studying in a diverse range of disciplines.After attending the invitational week of the Rockettes Summer Intensive, Regan was subsequently hired at the age of eighteen to be a Radio City Rockette. While a Rockette, Regan was featured in the New York Post, Dance Spirit Magazine, and on NBC Nightly News.
In 2021, Regan joined Birmingham Royal Ballet as an artist. Throughout her career at Birmingham Royal Ballet, she has had the opportunity to dance exciting roles such as Carabosse in Sleeping Beauty, Harlot in Romeo and Juliet, Spanish in Swan Lake and Snow Attendant in The Nutcracker. She has also danced in Ben Van Cauwenbergh’s Non, Je Ne Regrette Rien, William Tuckett’s Nisi Domini, Carlos Acosta’s The Dying Swans, Jorge García‘s Majisimo, and in Black Sabbath – The Ballet she originated the solo ‘In Ozzy’s Head’.
Regan has also danced professionally with Ballet Rhode Island and Houston Contemporary Dance Company.
Film screening
TURNING POINT
1pm – 3.45pm | Van de Velde Studio
Join us throughout the day to watch TURNING POINT, a film that highlights the experiences of individuals in Barbados and Jamaica after the First World War.
The film contains performances by actors including Paterson Joseph (The Beach, Vigil, Noughts + Crosses), Suzette Llewellyn (Holby City, Eastenders, Surgical Spirit), Ashley D. Gayle and Veronica Beatrice Lewis, which are set against a backdrop of projected archive footage and a 3D soundscape of community participant voices.
TURNING POINT was created by Sweet Patootee Arts, a production company that uses oral testimony and archive sources to inspire interdisciplinary storytelling for the arts, learning, heritage, community development and wellbeing sectors.
“We bring inspiring, compelling and diverse stories of real people to an international audience. All of our work is underpinned by our belief that people from all backgrounds have stories that deserve to be heard.
"We don’t do unemotional, academic history, because for us, history is personal. TURNING POINT addresses the gaining of freedom and agency within the colonial context. The narrative arc crafts history’s neglected voices with fierce beauty, in a call to arms: journeys from British colonial heritage await to be explored.”
Sweet Patootee Arts
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Talk with Naval Servicewoman of the Year, Kay Hallsworth
1pm - 1.25pm | Queen's Privy Chamber
Kay Hallsworth worked for 28 years as a nurse and medical services officer within the Royal Navy and Queen Alexandra's Royal Naval Nursing Service. In 2020, she was named Naval Servicewoman of the Year.
She has lived with a life limiting chronic illness for most of her adult life. In her talk, she will reflect on her journey and the importance of resilience and compassion in her career.
Talk: Reflections on a military career with Ally Musthan and Jason (Jay) French
1.25pm - 1.55pm | Queen's Privy Chamber
Join Ally Musthan and Jay French who will discuss their military careers and the complexities of transitioning from military to civilian life. They will also discuss the psychological effects of military service, and the discrimination that armed forces personnel face.
Please note that this talk will cover topics including suicide and survivor's guilt.
Dance performance: The Mirror Has Two Faces
Performance: 1.50pm – 2pm | Great Hall
Bringing together dance and spoken word, this performance explores the hidden facets of service members' personalities. Until 2000, it was illegal to be gay and serve in the British military; however, the acceptance and support has evolved to become more inclusive.
A Mirror Has Two Faces will take place in the Great Hall to demonstrate how remaining hidden in the closet can damage one's sense of self and identity. It will be performed by Thomas Paynter and Henry Paynter.
In conversation: The Caribbean and the Second World War
2pm –2.45pm | Queen's Privy Chamber
Listen to author Colin Douglas and Dr Kesewa John, lecturer in Black British History at Goldsmiths, University of London, as they discuss Colin's latest book The Caribbean and the Second World War.
The discussion will provide a longer historical context for the events of the Second World War and its impact on the region. Douglas and Dr John will map the ambivalent relationship between the Caribbean and its colonial rulers in war and peacetime, from labour unrest before and during the war to the persistence of the colour bar in the military. Their conversation will also focus on post-war Caribbean migration to Britain.
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Talk: Bugle Call – History of the Bugle
2.45 pm– 3.10pm | Queen's Bedchamber
Join Bugle Major Jake Pugsley for a performance and talk on the instrument synonymous with the military.
About Sergeant Jake Pugsley
Sergeant Jake Pugsley is an Assault Pioneer Platoon Commander and Bugle Major with a passion for combat infantry engineering and bugling. With operational experience in Kosovo, Afghanistan, and most recently Estonia, Jake has honed his skills in diverse and challenging environments. He has also participated in major NATO exercises in Kenya and Germany.
What’s On
More events at Royal Museums Greenwich.
Banner image: Yeo Tetraptych by Paddy Hartley, artist and former Royal Museums Greenwich Practitioner in Residence. Paddy Hartley is an artist working in ceramic, fabric and assemblage who explores themes of memorialisation and remembrance and the origins of World War I reconstruction.