People Dancing

Join Helen Poynor for a day long course that explores her Walk of Life approach to working indoors and outdoors.

This is an innovative approach to non-stylised movement and creative expression. It integrates moving in the studio with moving in response to natural environments.

Simple movement scores arising from the structure of the body are offered as springboards into motion. These serve to heighten awareness and to awaken vitality. This approach fosters an embodied sense of self and of presence in daily life and in performance and offers the opportunity to re-connect with the joy, strength, ease and simplicity that our moving being offers us. Grounding ourselves through an embodied encounter with the land, which refreshes both body and spirit, we rediscover our 'place in the family of things' (Mary Oliver). As we move in response to earth, rock and tree, different experiences and movement qualities are evoked. Working in a receptive and respectful relationship to the environment deepens our awareness of the natural world and our sense of stewardship and of belonging.

This approach to the body in motion has been applied in the arts and performance, education, self-development, movement therapy and daily life. It has proved valuable to people from all walks of life.

The morning will be moving inside in the Buckfastleigh Town Hall. The afternoon will be outside, moving in the environment. We will car share and walk to reach the outdoor site. This is a wild site, which means it is not fully accessible, with rocky terrain and uneven underfoot. If you wish to discuss accessibility of the site in more detail, please contact info@communitydance.org.uk.

N.B. You will need to bring appropriate outdoor gear for this course & will be notified of exact requirements nearer to the time.

This one-day course is ideal for artists at any stage of their career.

Above image credit: Anna Leatherdale. 

£60 People Dancing Members / £87 Standard

Book your place here

Standard price tickets include People Dancing Associate Individual Membership for one year with the joining fee wavered. To find out more about the benefits of this membership please click Associate Individual Membership.

Biography

Helen Poynor is an internationally recognised movement teacher, director and performer. She specialises in movement in natural environments, site-specific, autobiographical and improvisatory performance and cross art-form collaborations combining movement with installation, text, film and the visual arts.

An independent movement artist, whose approach evolved over 40 years of professional practice, Helen's early intensive training with Anna Halprin at the San Francisco Dancers’ Workshop and Suprapto Suryodarmo from Java served as the foundation for the development of her unique approach to non-stylised movement and performance practice. She was recognised by Suprapto as a teacher and is a guest associate teacher for Talmapa UK.

For many years a visiting Professor of Performance at Coventry University, Helen is a mentor for established and emerging dancers and performers. She is a Registered Dance Movement Therapist ADMP UK and a Registered Somatic Movement Therapist with ISMETA working with individuals in private practice.

www.walkoflife.co.uk