This workshop is about being in movement – with ourselves, with others, and with the world around us. It’s a space to explore how dancing can help us inhabit our own bodies more fully, not just as physical structures, but as complex, perceptive, imaginative entities. For Charlie, imagination is physical. It’s evolved in humans as a way of surviving, relating and navigating the world. It’s not separate from the body. It’s generated by it in relation to the environment, through touch, vision, sound, memory and sensation.
In this workshop, you will treat imagination as a real, embodied presence, something that informs how we move, how we perceive, how we make sense of time, space and relationship. Participants will work with practices of proximity, touch, and layers of spatial awareness, mapping your own structures in relation to other bodies and the environment. You will explore moving alongside, into, with and through – tuning in to how movement is always relational.
The practice draws on elements of Steve Paxton’s Material for the Spine and Lisa Nelson’s Tuning Scores and offers a frame for improvisation as a way of thinking, feeling, and researching through action. This is an invitation to engage fully. To move with gravity, lightness, and attention, and to explore dancing as a way of becoming more resilient and more present.
This workshop is open to all with a committed movement practice. The work is rigorous, physical, and will involve touch and contact with others.
Cancellations and refunds
Please see our policy for workshops here.
Charlie Morrissey has been working with movement for over 30 years as a teacher, performer, director and curator. Charlie’s work is informed by long-term working relationships with artists including Steve Paxton, Lisa Nelson, Scott Smith, Katie Duck, Siobhan Davies, Andrea Buckley, Rosemary Butcher, K.J. Holmes, Kirstie Simson, Karen Nelson, Katye Coe and many others. Recent projects include: Scáling a duet performed with Markéta Stránská, co-commissioned by Candoco Dance Company and Sadlers Wells; Co direction of HERD – a major site-based work conceived by Orlando Gough with Artichoke; Supernature a solo created with Siobhan Davies; Goldberg, (with tea and cake) – a duet with Lucy Suggate; Grapple – a new performance with Katye Coe.
Charlie has taught for companies including Carte Blanche, Skånes Dansteatr, Bern Ballet, Candoco Dance Company, Scottish Dance Theatre, Siobhan Davies Dance and others. He has taught at colleges including Rambert, The Place, Trinity Laban, Northern School of Contemporary Dance, SNDO and Amsterdam School of the Arts and many others. Charlie also teaches at festivals and for independent organisations internationally. Charlie co-organises and curates an artist-led dance programme at Wainsgate Chapel in Yorkshire, which includes artist residencies, workshops, performances and daily Open Practice sessions.
Independent Dance is resident at Siobhan Davies Studios. To find out more about accessibility and the amenities available within the building please see here.
If you have any questions about the accessibility of our programme and would like to discuss any specific access requirements, please feel free to reach out to us via email info@independentdance.co.uk or by phone on 0207 091 9665, to speak directly to a member of the Independent Dance team. Alternatively, you may phone the main reception at Siobhan Davies Studios on 0207 091 9650.
During the workshop, all participants are welcome to take breaks, observe, exit and enter the space as they wish. Lounge areas are available on the first and ground floors of the building. Yoga mats, blocks, cushions and ear defenders are available for use. We also welcome you being in contact if you would like to discuss the option of bringing your access support worker. Please speak to a member of the ID team if you require any assistance.