Oxford Contact Dance – Andrew Dance

Dance in the face of coronavirus

The outbreak of the coronavirus epidemic in March 2020 caused the suspension of our dance and class sessions at Oxford Contact Dance. Assembles were unlawful, ‘social distancing’ the new normal, and most people were isolated at home. We couldn’t dance together. What could we do?

Stage dancing : Christmas Lights 2019, Oxford

On Saturday 16 November, dancer Jo Dyer, cellist Josie Webber and I, took to the stage in Oxford at the Christmas Lights Festival. We performed a revised version of the ‘In-between’ dance created earlier in the year.

‘I learn so much from my [dance] students’

‘I learn so much from my students’ is often said by those who teach. But is it true? Teaching/facilitating at a session of Oxford Contact Dance in October, I had something of a rude awakening!

Yoga into dance : narratives from yoga & dance

Yoga into Dance was a two hour class led by me and Ashka from Ashka Zasada Yoga on 13 October at Oxford Contact Dance. Afterwards, I pondered our use of narratives in the session.

Fountain: a dance

Ideas for dance rarely come from nowhere. A few years ago, I saw a fantastic image of a man throwing a handful of small sticks into the air. The photograph had caught the movement, and indeed the moment in time as the sticks were suspended in a ‘stick cloud’. That was my starting point for a dance involving buckets and water.

In-between Performance films

There were two films of the In-between performance shot on Saturday 25 May by Fiona Bennett. A short feature with highlights, and a full length version. Both are presented here.

‘In-between’ performance

The Turrill Sculpture Garden in Oxford was the venue of my latest public dancing in a performance called ‘In-between’: two dancers, two cellists and a lawn to dance on. Thankfully, it didn’t rain!

Photographs of the ‘In-between’ performance by Andrew Bell

Photographer Andrew Bell took some great black & white photos of the in-between performance at the Turrill Sculpture garden on May 25 which you can see here.

Composition & rehearsal: ‘in-between’ performance

We had a composition and rehearsal session on Saturday 18 May for the ‘in-between’ performance. Cellists Bruno Guastalla & Josie Webber and the dancers – me and Josephine Dyer, created a score and jammed ideas for the performance the following week.

Jamming at Oxford Contact Dance

We had a silent jam (dance session) for contact improvisation at Oxford Contact Dance on Sunday 17 March 2019. Here’s a few photos of a very juicy jam! Photos by Piotr Znamierowski.