Andrew Dance – Andrew Wood's dance diary

One year on: stay home, save lives, do Qi Gong!

It’s about a year since the Coronavirus epidemic began in the UK (March 2020) and there have been two periods in lock-down (stay at home order). During this period, I’ve had a regular practice of Qi Gong (Qigong) – the 18 movement form – and this is what I’ve found in it.

Spring Awakening #HeadstandChallenge

Oxford City Council (as Dancin’ Oxford) asked for contributions to its Spring Awakening project. Dancers contribute video clips of themselves dancing which are edited into a final film for digital distribution. A headstand seemed to summon-up the period in which we were living – the world turned upside down by Coronavirus!

Taking a point of contact for a walk

The artist Paul Klee is famously quoted as saying “a drawing is taking a line for a walk”. Can we choreograph a point of contact as it is drawn over the body? Or – as we might say – can we take a point of contact for a walk?

New dance : Spring Awakening (triptych)

The Arts Centre at the Old Fire Station, Oxford had requested proposals for short films under the banner of ‘Lights Up’. I submitted a dance called ‘Spring Awakening (triptych)’ which used the concealed human figure – inverted in a headstand, as its basis. It’s a solo piece and used humour – which seemed appropriate for a venue that hosts Oxford’s fringe festival.

Lessons from dancing with sticks – the semiotics of stick dancing

When I began teaching and facilitating dancing with sticks, I draw on my experience of contact improvisation but quickly found it wasn’t enough. I needed new concepts. A movement practice with sticks, has its own semiotics (meanings) and its own physics.

Becoming Gentleness: performance

I’m very proud that despite a global pandemic, we still managed to create a new dance – ‘Becoming Gentleness’ – at Oxford Contact Dance. We danced with sticks – outdoors – in University Parks, Oxford on 23 October 2020. There was a beautiful sunset and a carpet of autumn leaves.

Becoming Gentleness: composition session

A dance performance during a global pandemic was always going to be a bit different. At the composition session for it on 14 October 2020, we devised an outdoor dance in a park using sticks called ‘Becoming Gentleness’. The outdoor setting and the distancing from each other through sticks reduced the risk of infection from COVID-19.

Zoom! Dancing together – alone

When the UK Coronavirus lock-down started in March 2020, dance sessions and classes were halted. The response of many organisers was to host the sessions by teleconferencing – often using the service from Zoom. Here, I reflect on three Zoom sessions at London Contact Improvisation with Robert Anderson, Rachel Dean, and Angus Bainbridge in spring and summer 2020.

Looking back: Tango Diferente 2015

In Summer 2015, I attended Tango Diferente – a week-long course combining Argentine tango and contact improvisation, organised by Adriana Pegorer. It was held at Ponderosa, Stolzenhagen on the German Polish border. I wrote an essay about it ‘Dancing the metaphor : impressions of Tango Diferente 2015’ which is presented here.

Moving with the Times

Oxford City’s Council’s dance programme ‘Dancin’ Oxford, invited submissions for its March 2021 production at the Pegasus Theatre in Oxford. I made a submission called ‘Touch’ – a solo work using video projection.