MONDAY MORNING CLASs
Our classes support the continuous training and development of experienced movers and professional dance artists. They take place weekly on a Monday morning in term time.
GATHER UP invites different Bristol-based practitioners to lead a block of classes with an intention to host a programme that offers a variety of contemporary dance approaches, techniques and interests.
See below to learn more about upcoming classes and the specific offer from the lead artists.
Time: Studio is open from 9.40am, class time is 10-11.30am, with time to stretch and meet 11.30-12noon.
Location: Bristol Old Vic
Booking: Book in advance to secure your place via Headfirst. Pay-what-you-decide with a min. price of £5.00 + 50p booking fee (donated to a Bristol-based charity via Headfirst).
Realise you can’t make it?:
We try our best to price our classes and workshops fairly and offer good value for money. To ensure the viability of our programme we do not offer refunds. However, you can put your ticket up for resale if the event is fully booked or you can arrange to transfer your ticket to a friend using the Headfirst booking system.
Waiting List:
When an event is sold out, a waiting list will be set up, should you wish to join it and be informed when a ticket gets released.
Access:
Get in touch if you have access needs that we could support you with: info.gatherup@gmail.com
Creative Audio Description: if you are a visually impaired dancer planning to attend a class, you may like to book a free Creative Audio Describer to provide you with 1-1 support during the class. Please get in touch if you would like to request this support.
Care Pot: the Care Pot exists to offer cash support towards childcare, parking, travel, access or other extra costs that may surround coming to these classes. Take a read and please be in touch with how we could cover some of your extra costs so that you can come along and participate.
Rest: Our spaces are rest welcome. There are various benches, seats and corners in the studio or you are always welcome to leave the studio for a break.
Morning CLASS With LiBBY Ward
Image description: Woman in late twenties swinging her right arm away and her left arm towards her body. She is wearing a black shirt and is standing in a dark room with bright lights in the background.
Photo credit: Alix Meulemans
Class info: The contemporary dance classes will guide you through a dynamic mixture of movement exercises and structured improvisation. With set floorwork and standing material, we will travel through the space focussing on movement connectivity, awareness of weight distribution and sensation of movement. Later on we will also explore certain qualities pinpointing musicality, and interaction with the space and each other. The aim is to breathe, bring awareness to the body and awaken our senses to get you ready for the day. In the beginning of class we will be using closed eyes.
About Libby: Libby Ward (UK/BE) is a dancer, researcher and teacher. After graduating from the Royal Conservatoire Antwerp (RCA), she worked as a freelance dancer in the Belgian and European dance field for several years with Romeo Castellucci, Anastassya Savitsky (Theater Froefroe), Damien Jalet and Moonstein amongst others. After the pandemic she returned to RCA to attain an educational MA in Dance and now teaches contemporary dance training and choreography to the Dance programme. This year she performed her first solo piece SPLIT MOUNTAIN - Thoughts on being more than one which received the PlayRight+ award. Recently, her performative writing was also published in the first issue of Mutter Magazine. Currently, she continues to work with choreographer Anastassya Savitsky on developing her artistic research on displacement and estrangement.
Image description: a black & white photo of a woman in motion, wearing tracksuit bottoms and a high-neck sweater, facing profile with arms raised and rotated, eyes lowered, on a white background.
ABOUT CLASS:
Anna’s movement sessions are primarily about coming together, with whatever's present in you, to tap into the wisdom of our bodies and find joy in our senses. A guided warm up, bringing awareness and connectivity to breath, body and mind will be followed mostly by structured improvisation and some set sequences. Closing the eyes will be encouraged at times to deepen the awareness, and although largely on our feet, we will be moving in and out of the floor. The classes will focus on some if not all of the following: harnessing different states of energy to find more wholesome ways of moving, rhythm and musicality, imagination and play, elements of folk dance, influences of yoga and using the body as a whole instrument including voice and sound. Expect some light contact within the sessions with the option to opt out or modify, as well as some bodywork drawing from Anna's background in massage therapy.
About Anna:
Originally from Wolverhampton, Anna obtained BA Hons and MA Degrees from London Contemporary Dance School. She has worked extensively in dance theatre with choreographer, Michael Keegan-Dolan/Teac Damsa for productions such as Rian (2011),The Right of Spring & Petrushka (2013) and Swan Lake/Loch Na hEala (2016) touring nationally and worldwide. Other notable companies include Scottish Dance Theatre, Dan Canham/Still House, Emma Martin/United Fall, Catherine Young Dance, Company Philip Connaughton and Anatomical. After receiving an Arts Council Award to develop her practice, she's been enjoying exploring theatre, voice and clown work, with the intention to work more interdisciplinary. Anna is also a massage therapist in Bristol and loves to hike, volunteer on eco-builds when she can, and is trying to grow things this year.