We had a fantastic time at our Library Dance on 19 December 2017 in Oxford’s Central Library at the Westgate Centre. The library had recently reopened after a long closure while the Westgate Centre was rebuilt and renovated. Our dance celebrated its reopening.
Class with K.J. Holmes on 16 December 2017
We begin, sat in a circle of perhaps 60 people on the floor of the sports hall at Caxton House where K.J. Holmes tells us that we have wings in our hands – between our fingers, in our shoulders and later she says, in our eyes. But it’s only after class the I understand her: she shows me her notes with an anatomical picture of our shoulder bones – scapulas, and says to me – those are wings.
Three Dancers, Two Chairs (Library Dance workshop)
We held a Library Dance workshop today (Sunday 17 December) at Oxford Contact Dance. Here’s one of the investigations with Naomi Morris, Lizzy Spight and Julie Nicholls: three dances, two chairs. Oh yes, and books!
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Material for the Spine with Steve Paxton
Have you seen Material for the Spine? It’s an interactive DVD-ROM devised by Steve Paxton – one of the pioneers of contact improvisation. It’s a beautifully produced resource for dancers.
CALL OUT FOR DANCERS! Dancing in the Library, Tuesday 19 December
It’s going to be great! I’m very excited about dancing in Oxfordshire’s Central Library in Oxford which re-opens just before Christmas. The dance is on Tuesday 19 December. We’re creating a dance using contact improvisation and as ever, most of the work is in the preparation. Here’s the details if you’d like to join us!
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Morris Dancing meets Contact Improvisation?!
I am starting a new project – combining Morris dancing – an English folk dance – with contact improvisation to produce a number of ‘sketches’. Dance artist Naomi Morris (yes, that really is her name) and I have already started jamming ideas. The working title is ‘Morris Remade’. I’m not quite sure where this is leading us … !
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Ana Barbour
Ana Barbour who co-founded Oxford Contact Dance with me about three years ago, died on Monday (6 November 2017).
English Folk Dance with Chloe Metcalfe
In this lecture/workshop at Oxford Town Hall on 3 October 2017, Chloe Metcalfe – a researcher from Roehampton University presented ‘When non-dancers dance: considerations of audience and performer in contemporary British community-dance events.’ She also taught a dance to the audience, and played violin accompaniment as they danced.
Class with Robert Anderson on 23 September 2017
Robert Anderson opens the class by acknowledging the teaching of Steve Batts in this session at London Contact Improvisation. We are studying space and spatial arrangement.
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Contact meets Contemporary 2017
In July 2017, I attended the Contact meets Contemporary dance festival in Göttingen, Germany. It’s a week long festival for contact improvisation with contemporary dance elements – people with backgrounds in either dance form – or both, attend the festival which gives it ‘an edge’. I kept a dance diary and recorded my experience and thoughts – presented here.