As winter draws in, the bleakness of less daylight hours, bare-branched trees and cold frosty weather all take their toll and dull the human spirit. Positive thoughts, ideas, creative projects and fixing the mind on exciting and unknown results can all help to counteract this feeling. It is in this respect that artists are very lucky.

In this issue Kevin Alderson literally discusses the 'freeing of the spirit' that can come from putting ideas into practice, and Desmond Jones talks about the training needed to discipline the body, which enables the performer to enact his/her ideas.

As his school reaches its sixteenth birthday, students are continually attracted from all over the world. As anyone who has had the fortune to study there or to work or train abroad would know, the mixing of different cultures in a creative environment can be tremendously invigorating, exciting and powerful.

With such an output of energy, the performer can suffer from burnout and reach a point of stalemate. Hence there is nothing better as a cure than an injection of reaching out, travelling, and meeting people from different backgrounds for fresh input. This blending of styles can make for the most refreshing and original theatre.

Therefore we can see that mime today, as it has always been, is still a stimulating world to work in capable of constant regeneration, newness and energy. The perfect antidote to any cold winter evening.