Moved...by Decoda...

Moved…by Decoda…

Confirmation of January and February intensives in Coventry for dance professionals
This marks the opening of Moved by Decoda, a series of workshops for professional dance artists.

New Year Intensive With Charlie Morrissey
13th-15th January 2011
Coventry University, Ellen Terry Building
10am – 6pm
Price for 3 days £58 (no drop in)

We will explore improvisational approaches to specific movement materials and focuses. We will work with sensation, the application of the senses, anatomical imagery and explicit movement pathways and patterns as a means to expand the potential and hone the detail and content of our dancing.


Elements of partner work will be employed as means of exploring multi directional movement and awareness as well as to stimulate and cultivate an agile and articulate relationship through our engagement with internal and external focuses. This workshop is for experienced dance improvisers and will culminate in a public sharing on Saturday afternoon.

Charlie Morrissey is a performer, teacher, director and researcher working in the UK and abroad. His teaching is informed by his own research in somatic dance practices, his performance work, and by long term working relationships and collaborations with Steve Paxton, Lisa Nelson, Kirstie Simson, K.J.Holmes, Scott Smith, and many others. Charlie is part of Movement 12 in Brighton curating an international programme of professional development opportunities for dance artists.

Fees for this intensive should reach Summer Dancing by December 23rd…. please note there are only a handful of places remaining. (See payment information below).

Playful Physics: a contact improvisation workshop with Robert Anderson
11th-12th February 2011
Coventry University, Ellen Terry Building
10am-5pm
Price for 2 days £40 (no drop in)


Contact Improvisation is a dance of improvising and partnering based on the physics of touch, balance, weight, momentum, flow and resistance. In this workshop we’ll explore skills and strategies to tap our body-mind’s appetite for movement and connection. Awakening our senses and reflexes to be able to orientate through spherical space. Developing clear connections within our body, outwards into space and with other bodies. Channelling the required energy and tone in the body to glide, fly and fall with a partner. Expanding our ability to be both soft and strong, supported and supportive, receptive and responsive. The technical studies are designed to support and expand the range of possibilities in our dancing so that we can invite pleasure, play and poetry into our improvisation. The classes are open for those new to contact and for experienced dancers who want to become more attuned to the subtleties of touch, direction and intention.



Robert Anderson is an independent dance artist based in London. He teaches improvisation and contact improvisation at Rose Bruford College and in a variety of settings in the UK and abroad. Robert has been passionately involved with contact improvisation since 1996 studying with leading teachers from the US and Europe. He has studied with leading CI teachers including Nancy Stark Smith, Kirstie Simson, Martin Keogh, KJ Holmes, Andrew Harwood and Ray Chung. Robert has taught at international contact festivals in Germany, Israel, Poland, Russia, Spain and Italy and participated in co-teaching gatherings in Estonia, Sweden, Finland, Scotland, England and Austria. He was part of the organising team for CI36 in Pennsylvania (2008) and the European Contact Improvisation Teachers Exchange in Ormskirk, England (2009). He performs with Touchdown Dance and improvisation ensemble SoFt. In teaching dance improvisation Robert seeks to help students find a deeper connection with our senses, inviting pleasure, play and poetry for the dancing body.

To book a place or to find out more please email k.coe@coventry.ac.uk before 8th January 2011. Cheques (made payable to Summer Dancing for the full amount should be posted to decoda at Summer Dancing, Institute for Creative Enterprise, Parkside, Technology Park, Coventry CV1 2TT)