Where: Greenwich Dance Academy
When: 14th-18th November 2011
The teacher: Theo Clinkard – for a full bio, click here
The class: Theo’s class begins with simple exercises that develop awareness and connection within the body, steadily building up through various movement patterns for coordination and articulacy, finishing up with challenging phrase work.
My verdict: Clinkard was the first UK dance teacher/choreographer I had worked with. I participated in his class in Melbourne’s Chunky Move earlier this year and thoroughly enjoyed it, so I was looking forward to this London-based installment.
Slightly different in structure, but no less enjoyable, I find Clinkard’s candid and entertaining attitude toward dance a refreshing one. His curiosity about this art form is evident and exciting, playing with different textures throughout the body and different skeletal articulations. Through a mixture of imagery, simple movement (incorporating attention and abandonment) and then traveling phrases, the class feels like a way to greet, charm and dance with your body from the inside, out.
For a further read, have a look at Clinkard’s blog here.