Dancing Practices that Promote Well-being, Resilience and Healing in Challenging Times. A movement workshop with Charlie Brittain and Kirstie Simson

There is deep inspiration and rigour in a practice of improvisation that posits vulnerability at its heart. Developing the skills to be able to care for, engage, respect, and respond to that state of openness in oneself, others and our environment generates creative work that is powerful and transformative. Learning from a place of interconnectedness can give us the resilience and insight to face life's challenges and complexities.

In honouring our body’s innate attraction and drive towards wholeness, balance, creativity & healing, we will explore embodied intelligence and imagination utilising dancing practices that emerge from the radical softness of the heart-space. These reflective practices support us in witnessing the transformation and joy that is realised through the challenging simplicity of experiencing our bodies in motion.

Over the course of the workshop, we will journey through shared dancing, scored movement explorations and space for group processing - affirming the poignancy of our human connectedness, and its implications for health and resilience in facing the universal and personal challenges of our lives today.

The work emerges from the grounding of care gleaned from their extensive collective experience, comprising improvisation, Contact Improvisation, contemporary dance, Alexander technique, bodywork and myofascial release, movement rehabilitation, human biomechanics, musculoskeletal health, integrative health practice, Aikido, meditation and emergency care. We share our work through facilitated exercises, open time for play and exploration, movement scores, observations, self-reflection, deep listening, discussion, and humour. Much of the work is experienced through partnering and connection with others, balanced with solo/group time for processing and reflection.

Kirstie’s broad knowledge of improvisation as a renowned teacher and performer, and Charlie’s extensive experience as a professional dance artist, choreographer and performer brings rigourous depth to their work, which is regenerative and Life-affirming. Together we will explore new avenues through which we can move forward to face the uncertainty in our world today.

Kirstie and Charlie’s ever-evolving collaboration is centred on their shared passion and dedication for dance and healing, which manifests through teaching, performing, and co-creating. Their work expands as it is shared internationally and in the diverse contexts of dance, healthcare and, Life.

Note:
On Saturday 5th after the workshop (19:30-21:00) Kirstie and Charlie will give a special performance. This is in the same location of the workshop but needs separate booking at: https://bookwhen.com/tgj/e/ev-saxvh-20260905193000

Kirstie Simson (UK)
Has been a continuous explosion in the contemporary dance scene, bringing audiences into contact with the vitality of pure creation in moment after moment of virtuoso improvisation. Called "a force of nature" by the New York Times, she is an award-winning performer and teacher who has "immeasurably enriched and expanded the boundaries of New Dance" according to Time Out Magazine, London. Kirstie is internationally renowned today as an excellent teacher, a captivating performer, and a leading light in the field of Dance Improvisation, with a dance practice that spans over four decades. From 2008 – 2020 Kirstie held a position as a tenured professor in the Department of Dance at the University of Illinois. In August 2020 Kirstie returned to her home base in Wales from where she continues to deepen the investigation of her work, sharing her findings with others around the globe. Kirstie is framing her work now, in the light of our uncertain future, as practices that can help us develop resilience in the face of challenge. She uses her own experience of facing a life-threatening health issue as a foundation for ongoing research into the wisdom and healing powers we discover through listening deeply into our embodied intelligence.
www.kirstiesimson.com

Charlie Brittain (UK):
Charlie’s passion lies in empowering others to take ownership of their practice and champion their values through dancing. He continues to perform internationally with dance companies, independent projects and in collaboration with other artists alongside his choreographic work, which looks to the processes and innate wisdom of the body as a vehicle for learning and a means to extrapolate compositional methods. He is a sought-after rehearsal director and choreographic facilitator working across a range of artistic environments and ventures as well as a passionate teacher, regularly invited to lead classes and workshops for dance companies, educational institutes and festivals worldwide. Charlie integrates his art with his practice as a bodyworker, movement rehabilitator, biomechanics specialist, musculoskeletal health specialist and integrative health practitioner, specializing in the treatment, rehabilitation and education of dancers and movement practitioners as well as lecturing and examining on higher education programs in the U.K. and Europe. Charlie continues to practice clinically in frontline pre-hospital emergency care for U.K. emergency ambulance services; he is currently studying his MSc in Acute Medicine from the University of South Wales.
www.charliebrittain.com