last day de-rig

After a fantastically lively and creative day, Lauren and Amy help with the de-rigging.

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Daisy defies gravity

Upside-down and loving a new view of the world.

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Aerial dance day one

Off to a great start with lots of energy and good listening. Made island duets with balanced stops.

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stepping between worlds

I've been thinking a lot this week about the practise of dance, how i view dance, how i assume the mainstream of society views dance, shows such as Britain's Got Talent and Gotta Dance.... and subsequently my presumed expectations from the class of what they think they will receive in a dance session.

Accessing worlds.

We might do the same explorations through our dance, yet if we play more current chart music in the background the engagement is higher. is it as focused? I am not sure. But some people are evidently more engaged with the explorations and therefore join in with the group.

not rocket science, although admittedly, it did take a gentle nudge from the support staff as a reminder of another way to enter each others' worlds with respect and honour.

Here is the Bridge Youth Dance Company exploring the same task as the week before, this time to chart music.... it was a joy to behold.... we went from these little balls in duet.....

to one huge ball as a group......

Fun fun fun.

Contact had a very Valentine's theme. We explored witnessing and reflecting our partner's movements, exploring empathy, and stepping into another's movement world through our dancing.

Haughton was wild and very exciting. Independent dancing, break-dancing, and ballet! All in one fantastic group explosion!

As always the sessions have all been magical, sheer expressive delight.

This is a moment where I pinch myself.... I love my job!

Dance Transformations studio time

Here at dx studios for the second day of studio creative time. Lovely to be back with the group again. I've really enjoyed getting out of the office and being closer to the practical work. It reminds me what all the management is for! Photographer Tim Cross joins us to capture their work. It's very gentle and absorbing at the moment. I'm interested to see what he comes up with and will share it later.
Also getting to grips with our new android phone which I shall be sending out with the team for more live updates. Lots of fun to be had...
Moya - company manager

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come hail or high water

Look how high the river was in Shrewsbury last night!!!

People arrived for Contact wondering if their cars would still be in the Gateway car park afterwards!

They were and we were all safe.... and managed to let it all stay safely outdoors as our worries washed away and we sank into some beautiful contact improvisation work.

Between Your Dance and My Dance there exists the Dance,
alive as an entity with an identity all of its own.

We explored similar principles in The Bridge Youth Dance Company, only with this group we are using a ball as our point of contact. The exercise begins as a game, the challenge: to keep the ball off the floor without using our hands. We also managed to explore this whilst traveling through the space, moving the ball between us as we traveled, creating a trio of 2 bodies and a ball. We might one day take the ball away and dance this as a duet.... watch this space.......

Strictly..... All Saints and Haiku!!

The Bridge Youth Dance Company
We made a dance to the All Saints song, Never Ever yesterday, using the groups' enjoyment of making strong shapes. It began with stillnesses contributed from each dancer, and built up to a crescendo of flowing group improvisation. It was really lovely and we enjoyed observing a gentle blossoming of the group's dancing.

Contact
I've just noticed how the two groups planning has been structured directly opposite to each each other! Not intentional I assure you! In Contact we started exploring ways we could make contact with the floor- especially using parts of our bodies that don't usually touch the floor! And shifting up and down the vertical plane. We explored being low but feeling very light, and being high but feeling very heavy, and vice versa. It was so funny how every time we went low whilst feeling high we all sped up!

We then used some Haiku to create duets which led to quartets. They were so satisfying to watch and had 2 completely different feels- one very seabased and windswept; one very animalistic, warm and controlled.

Haughton School:
If I hear "Can we vote now?" one more time! Ha ha ha. Haughton are obsessed with Strictly Come Dancing!! So we have compromised and have been exploring partner dancing through counterbalances. With yesterday being their first exploration of giving weight to their partner they did incredibly well. Everybody made a travelling duet with 3 counterbalances in 3 different places in the space. It was a lot of fun!