somaticreach

Five day-long workshops, led by brilliant dance artists, chosen for their unique movement practice and histories, facilitation style and experience of age.

These day long workshops are open to all people (40 yrs+) who have a curiosity about the body and its relationship to movement. The workshops provide an opportunity for participants to go deeper into their movement and themselves through thoughtful and playful practice and discussion.

ABOUT

Emilyn Claid’s career stretches back to the 1960s when she was a ballet dancer with the National Ballet of Canada and the 1970s when she was co-founder of experimental collective X6 Dance Space in London, a pioneering organisation for New Dance.

In the 1980s she was artistic director of Extemporary Dance Theatre and in the 1990s choreographed for companies such as Phoenix and CandoCo. Working as an independent dance artist Emilyn made and performed a series of iconic solo works in which she found an authentic voice as a lesbian-queer artist.

Emilyn is also an emeritus professor and a Gestalt psychotherapist and has recently published FALLING Through Dance and Life, (Bloomsbury 2021), a book that re-thinks Western culture’s physical, metaphorical and psychological relationship to gravity.

Emilyn is currently performing the solo show ‘emilyn claid, UNTITLED’.

In this workshop we are going to explore ways of being present, to ourselves and
to each other, through letting go of fixed ideas of what each other ‘should’ be.

We begin by focusing on our embodied relationship with gravity and ground, as a
fundamental source of support for initiating change, exploring how letting go,
safely, impacts on our minds and our creativity, unravelling sense making,
dissolving fixed postures and crumbling what seems normal.

Between ‘I’ and ‘eye’, being, becoming, performing, the workshop includes playful improvisations, movement tasks, discussion, identifying, and letting go of, fixed patterns. We will consider our work together with open questioning and curiosity, to notice patterns of movement, identity, and relationship, and the impact these might have on our work, lives and loves.

Workshop:
LETTING GO OF THINGS

Workshop:
IGNITING THE SENSORIAL

ABOUT

Having worked as a dancer, teacher and choreographer since 1985 I continue to be inspired by the mediums of movement and touch, believing they offer an invigorating and intrinsic understanding of the world around us, as well as the world within.

The framework for my teaching is a curiosity around perception, pattern, and relationship. My particular fascination with how each individual discovers greater physical ease and expression has always underscored my work, leading me to explore and qualify in a range of
approaches. My dance practice is particularly informed by my current work as a Certified Rolfer®, Rolf Movement™ Practitioner, and Franklin Method™ Educator.

I value teaching in a wide range of settings: independently; for organisations such as The British Council, Oxford School of Drama, Latvian Cultural Academy; for dance companies such as Siobhan Davies Dance and Yolande Snaith Dance; and currently as part of Acting Our Age online.

I have had the pleasure of performing for a diverse range of choreographers, including: Deborah Hay , Gill Clarke, Rosemary Lee, Victoria Marks , Fin Walker, Charlie Morrissey . Currently as part of
Acting Our Age by Yael Flexer and Galit Liss and the European Project BET (Body Experience Time) Life Long Dance Practice 45+.

In 2001 I received a joint National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts alongside Gill Clarke for outstanding contribution to dance in recognition of my work with Independent Dance.

My interest (and need) as both dancer and human being is to continually refresh my perspective and undo habitual patterning as a catalyst for creativity and adaptability. This workshop explores the notion of ‘becoming’, in which we meet each moment from a fresh perspective through igniting our sensorial experiences.

With awareness being the antidote to habitual responses and an essence of creativity, delving into our sensoriality can provide a delicious fracturing of old patterns…a curve ball to broaden the senses.

My deepest appreciation of tuning the senses is that they are the maps that guide us to adventures within new horizons and unfamiliar territory, as well as the maps steering us back home. Offering a re-acquaintance, a deepening, and a richer intimacy of the inner world we experience as ‘I’.

Through anatomical and perceptual explorations, alongside elements of touch and imagery, this workshop aims to deepen the experience of how we each uniquely orient in gravity, space, and in relation to each other. Invitations offered will help tune, expand, and enliven our artistic responses, enhancing our creativity, and our capacity to embody. Through simple improvisational tasks, whether alone, with another, or as a group, we will take our time to savour and move from these new perspectives and orientations.

'That which we call imagination is from the first an attribute of the senses themselves; imagination is not a separate mental faculty…but is rather the way the senses themselves have of throwing themselves beyond what is immediately given, in order to make tentative contact with the other sides of things that we do not sense directly…’
David Abram, Spell of the Sensuous.

16th September 2023
7th October 2023

10:30 am - 16:00 pm

Saint Faith's Church Hall

West Parade, Lincoln

ABOUT

Gaby Agis is a choreographer, teacher and dancer living in London, UK. She has been making performances for the past four decades—both nationally and internationally—collaborating with artists from a host of fields: from architecture to opera to sculpture to film. She has created many site-specific works: for hospitals, train stations, museums, art galleries and theatres.

Gaby has taught the Skinner Releasing Technique (SRT) throughout the UK, US and Europe. This technique has been intrinsic to her creative practice.

She has sat on the boards of several dance organisations, acted as a director of her own company and worked curatorially within dance.

Skinner Releasing Technique (SRT) is a pioneering approach to dance, movement and creative process that has evolved from the simple principle that when we are releasing physical tension, we can move with greater freedom, power and articulation.

In SRT classes, spontaneous movement evoked by guided poetic imagery, supported by music and sound, enables a creative and easily accessible exploration of technical movement principles such as multi-directional alignment, suppleness, suspension, economy and autonomy.

As participants let go of habitual holding patterns, they are supported to cultivate an increasing sensitivity to their own physical and imaginative experience. The result can be a deeply embodied awareness of new possibilities in how they move – both inside the studio as dancers and creators, and in daily life.

Workshop:
Introducing Releasing

Skinner Releasing Technique workshop

courtesy of the artist

EMAIL: kayladougan78@hotmail.com

10:30 am - 16:00 pm

Saint Faith's Church Hall

West parade, Lincoln

10:30 am - 16:00 pm

Saint Faith's Church Hall

West Parade, Lincoln

Simonetta Alessandri

ABOUT

Simonetta is an Italian dance artist and a somatic educator based in London. She applies the Feldenkrais Method in dance and movement training and in performance making. She teaches at Trinity Laban, Goldsmiths University and London Contemporary Dance School. Her work is informed by more than 30 years of dancing, teaching and choreographing.

Her choreography has been for dance companies, student pieces, large scale opera, improvised performance, site specific and movement direction for theatre. She was one of the few dance practitioners in Italy who began working with CI in the 90’s. 

She has been a guest teacher in Germany, Colombia, UK, Norway, Israel, France, Switzerland, Italy, Poland, Spain and Taiwan. She obtained the Post Graduate Diploma at London Contemporary Dance School; she is qualified teacher of the Feldenkrais Method and she holds the Teacher Certificate of the Royal Academy of Dance. She is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. She is one of the founders of CI@Goldsmiths London.

10:30 am - 16:00 pm

Saint Faith's Church Hall

West Parade, Lincoln

Workshop:
Feldenkrais
into Improvisation

In Feldenkrais we explore movement that navigates individual body structures and natural process of ageing. With the Feldenkrais Method we direct our attention to internal sensations, without judgment. Opened to potentiality, curious about new possibilities, we identify habits and clarify choices to promote efficiency, freedom and a sense of ease that involve our whole selves.

This specific way of cultivating awareness will affect our capacity to be present and alert, nourishing the journey from inside out while engaging in self-discovery and authenticity. We will find a felt sense of self that aims to be related to others and to the environment, to be experienced and then transformed. 

This journey will give us a renewed sense of ownership, ease and pleasure in our dancing. Playfulness and individual pathways can be explored at our own pace.

"I was surprised at how something so gentle can be so powerful!"

"It was slow and thoughtful – something I’m not usually good at."

"I feel refreshed and rejuvenated."

"I loved the pauses for rest a lot! I really appreciate these moments for reflection, absorption and learning/assimilation."

"I found the workshop exhilarating and freeing…and the touch felt nurturing."

"Really interesting. Love the images to generate movement. I am surprised at how easy movement becomes using the technique."

"I experienced real awareness of movements/separating different bits of my body – it was a little ‘transcendental, freeing and safe. After so much movement I feel surprisingly still. Thank you, Kayla and Gabi."

"I enjoyed how calming the workshop was. How much we smiled and laughed and we all just somehow became one with the space as though we belonged here."

"I was pleasantly surprised to have such a focus on anatomy and really enjoyed the session about feet.
There are ideas and practices that I felt I could carry into my everyday life and would be beneficial for me."

"I was surprised by the deep connection that movement generates with other people."

"The workshop content was unexpected but also quite rewarding."

"It was educational and enjoyable, fortunately, not too strenuous so I was able to participate fully when I had been a little concerned, I might not have the stamina to complete."

"I have started to think about how we are taught to label falling. How we don’t really create time to observe spaces with curiosity and how much we miss by not doing so. How we can easily loose our sense of presence in the desire to form bounds and connections. How mirroring can be so supportive to feeling held and that real confidence comes in seeing the other while feeling totally grounded and present. The experience of yielding, push, reaching and feeling. That letting go can be an exchange. So much in one workshop. Thank you."

"Thank you for an amazing set of workshops!"

"The workshops continue to be brilliant and I’ve started to feel a great sense of closeness and community with other participants."

"The trust Kayla’s established amidst group members meant we were open to explore the workshops fully."

"These workshops allowed me to reconnect with my body in a way that I haven’t for a long time.
They also enabled a way of being with others that I have not had the opportunity to do for a long time. This is a lovely safe space."

"I’ve really enjoyed these workshops. I like the consent for touch and all the movement ideas which
I can integrate in everyday life. The workshops have felt safe, inclusive, and made me feel it was possible
and that my body is absolutely ok as it is."

"I think it’s incredibly important that these sorts of events carry on happening in Lincoln – there is a community forming and it’s so important for wellbeing and happiness. "

"I love the idea of visiting experts sharing their wisdom and experience. I wish there was more stuff like this in Lincoln. Thank you! "

"Thank you for making this possible and creating such a welcoming and inclusive space."

"It's so valuable for mental, emotional and physical wellbeing to have the opportunity to learn and practice somatic movement, to understand the constructs and conditions of society norms that impact our wellbeing:- physical, emotional and mental and how we can through spaces like these re imagine and re-experience life to benefit our wellbeing and support friends, family and the community.