Teachers and Schedule
Wilhelmina Ojanen
Wk/c 17 February 2020 – LIMITED SPACES (3 per day)
09:00 – 10:30 Northern School of Contemporary Dance, Leeds
- CLASS
Spirals, strength and softness — Through this class, we will be exploring strength in softness, uncovering the innate poetry of the body by pushing the limits of our sensitivity.
Drawing upon practices that exercise our presence and attentiveness, we will be warming up the body through spiralling floor-work to standing up, building into contact work and guided improvisation, and delving into a spectrum of choreographic material. This is a physical practice will leave the body soft and the mind open for the rest of the day. We will aim create a positive, encouraging and inclusive atmosphere that allows for honest exploration, risk-taking and connection.
- BIO
Wilhelmina Ojanen is a Finnish-born, Chilean-raised contemporary dance artist based in London. Wilhelmina completed her training at Trinity Laban, graduating with a Distinction from her Master’s in Dance Performance (Transitions). As a performer, Wilhelmina has most recently worked with Hagit Yakira, Richard Chappell, Jarkko Partanen, Ben Wright and Stephanie Schober. She has continued to work with Hagit Yakira since 2015.
An emerging choreographer, Wilhelmina was a Young Associate Artist at Sadler's Wells 2018-2019. She has recently made work for Sadler’s Wells Main Stage, Lilian Baylis Studio, The Place Theatre and the Laban Theatre, and is currently in process of creating at 45-minute piece for Möbius Dance Company. Wilhelmina’s choreographic work delves into realities of human connection; studying poetically, through movement, our relations to one another and the world around us. Her work explores the intersection of physicality and poetry, of softness and strength, and of memory and embodiment. Wilhelmina has taught community and professional classes internationally, and she is also an accredited Authentic Flow Yoga Teacher.
Jennifer-Lynn Crawford
Monday 24, Tuesday 25 & Wednesday 26 February 2020
09:00 – 10:30, Yorkshire Dance, Leeds
- CLASS
Class is based on a strong belief that dancing is enjoyable and physical and intelligent in equal measures. Emphasis is placed on patterns as sensory and tactile, giving different angles and insight into individual possibility and preferences. These patterns are a means to an end - helping us find useful information with our bodies, not to remember ‘steps’ or co- ordinations, but to find connections that can sustain us as we dance. Sometimes class starts from the ground, supporting organisation and clarity through developmental and evolutionary movement patterns. Sometimes class grows out of relational play with others or the space we share. End sequences are offered as templates for individual play and experimentation. Improvisation is always welcome.
- BIO
Jennifer-Lynn Crawford is a freelance dance artist and Certified RolferTM. A transatlantic transplant, she trained in Canada at Quinte Ballet School and the School of Toronto Dance Theatre before joining the postgraduate group EDge at London Contemporary Dance School in 2002. She has a long-standing involvement in the UK’s conservatoire system for HE dance training and was on faculty at the Northern School of Contemporary Dance 2007-2016. She has taught and performed throughout the UK and internationally, working with choreographers such as Charlotte Spencer, Siobhan Davies and Hofesh Shechter. She is currently working with Hagit Yakira, developing her new work ‘If One Keeps Walking’.
Marcus Francisco
Thursday 27 February — 09:00 – 10:30 Yorkshire Dance, Leeds
Friday 28 February — 09:00 – 10:30 Kala Sangam, Bradford
- CLASS
Tap back into dancing from the spirit, being able to play, explore and vibe through improvisation. Share, connect and exchange with fellow dancers in a fun open spontaneous space. Exploring different methods, tasks and forms to connect with one’s inner spirit and expand one’s movement possibilities.
- BIO
Marcus is an Improvisation Dance Practitioner, Choreographer and DJ based in Leeds. Originally from East London, he has graduated in 2019 from Northern School of Contemporary Dance where he had the opportunity to perform pieces by Humanhood and Vinicius Salles. He also had past experience with Alias LDN. He is currently leading improvisation classes and jams around Leeds. Marcus is really interested on developing people raw movement potential, exploring different kind of dance qualities and connecting with the spirit of just enjoying moving.
Vanessa Grasse
Vanessa Grasse
Monday 2 & Friday 6 March 2020
09:00 – 10:30 Kala Sangam, Bradford
- CLASS
Vanessa's teaching is grounded in curiosity about how the body transforms as a result of imagination, active shifts of perception, attentional dynamics and a clear relational engagement with others and the environment, whilst finding clarity and playfulness in our awareness of the physiology and physics in motion. These dynamic classes will begin with guided explorations and suggested movement pathways that will support us to explore: center to periphery and periphery to center; nurturing our capacity to guide our inner flows of energy; the under-curves and over-curves of our swinging and spiralling movement; multidirectionality; listening to our fluid weight. As we access our full multidirectional dancing body we'll be encouraged to remain curious and attentive to our individual discoveries. We will also nurture our playful and relational selves by relating and responding to others around us.
- BIO
Vanessa is a dance artist from Sicily based in Leeds. She explores the crossover between choreography, walking-art and installation through site-specific, improvisation, participatory and cross-disciplinary practice. She has been commissioned for outdoor and site-responsive work by The Great Exhibition of The North, Dance4, Dance City, Yorkshire Dance, Still Walking Festival, The University of Leeds, Ludus festival, Juncture festival, amongst many others. She has been an artist in residency in several visual arts settings such as Yorkshire Sculpture Park, The Hepworth Wakefield, MoMa Oxford, 4Bid gallery in Amsterdam. Her practice is grounded in somatic, improvisation and Contact Improvisation movement research. She holds an MA in Creative Practice from Trinity Laban and regularly teaches at Universities including Leeds Beckett University, NSCD and Trinity Laban. She teaches Contact Improvisation across Europe and runs Leeds Contact Improvisation. Currently also co-teaching & running with Jennifer-Lynn Crawford professional morning classes in Leeds.
Margherita Elliot
Tuesday 3, Wednesday 4 & Thursday 5 March 2020
09:00 – 10:30 Kala Sangam, Bradford
- CLASS
Within the multitude of inputs typical of freelance minds and bodies, Margherita’s class desires to answer the need to find balance, focus and presence in the moment. It is thought as a space and a time to warm up and train the body, the senses and the attention. Devised as a guided improvisation, it encourages moving, watching, breathing, keeping wakeful, sensitive, communicative and related to the group.
- BIO
Raised in Italy, Margherita trains at NSCD joining in 2013 postgraduate company VERVE, under the artistic direction of Gianluca Vincentini. Since then she performs with artists Gary Clarke, Carlos Pons Guerra, Flora Wiegmann, Bridie Gane, Hannah Ringham, Ann Liv Young. She is currently working with Igor&Moreno and CollettivO CineticO as a performer, movement artists and rehearsal assistant. She creates work of interdisciplinary nature alongside her brother, sound artist and longterm collaborator Edoardo R. Elliot; their latest creations are the live installation Lavanda and the duet U. Also involved in the organisational aspects of cultural and artistic projects, Margherita is one of founders of the collective resina through which she co-directs various residency projects, she works as press office assistant for the journalism festival Internazionale and produces the festival Danza Sassari Danza, in Sardegna (It). Since 2017, she is a teacher and choreographer at the professional intensive DOMO, in Mexico.
Susanna Recchia
Monday 9 & Tuesday 10 March 2020
09:00 – 10:30 Kala Sangam, Bradford
- CLASS
The main ingredients of the class will be experiential anatomy and improvisation as practices that support technical awareness and creative growth as a mover and as a dancer. We will work on the floor and through space, alone and in relation to others. We will focus on the inner anatomical landscape as a source of sensual information and poetic inspiration as well as inhabit space through travelling and whole-body dancing. Attention and perception will enable the study of the relation between sensation and form and will support choice making and expressive qualities of moving. As a facilitator, I offer deep respect for different forms of expression, love for playfulness and flow, the joy of being in the studio moving with others and deep interest for movement as a research practice.
- BIO
Susanna is an Italian dance artist living in the UK since 2001. She studied dance at the National Academy of Dance in Rome, and is a Graduate of Laban, where she received the Award of Best Performer in 2004. Following a Foundation Course in Dance Movement Therapy at Goldsmiths University, she obtained an MA in Dance and Somatic Well-being at Lancashire University.
Her ongoing practice is fed by Body & Earth, a yearly meeting led by Andrea Olsen and Caryn McHose.
Her work shifts between performing, teaching, mentoring and researching in academic and artistic contexts. As a performer Susanna has toured internationally, and collaborated with choreographers who involve improvisation either in the process of making or in performance and has devised her own work joining practitioners from disciplines, such as photography and film. Susanna is currently the Research and Rehearsal Director of Candoco Dance Company, and has worked with the company in different capacities since 2008: as a company teacher, dancer and Candoco Artist co-leading educational and performative events.