Facilitation
I have worked in higher education for over twenty years, delivering contemporary-dance-related subjects on BA/MA programmes in universities and conservatoires in the UK. My approach to delivering studio practice is based in movement research, encouraging a holistic approach to practice accompanied by contextual study and critical reflection. More recently, my facilitation practice has become focused around the delivery of experiential anatomy, the mover-witness framework (or ‘Authentic Movement’) and contemporary dance improvisation within professional development settings.
Current teaching engagements include workshop delivery on the MA/MFA in Creative Practice at Independent Dance/Trinity Laban (London), on postgraduate programmes at London Contemporary Dance School and on Janet Kaylo’s Laban/Barteneiff Somatic Studies International. I have delivered classes/workshops for Barrowland Ballet (Glascow), Dance North (Findhorn), Mobius Dance (Leeds), Cheshire Dance, 24 Hope St (Liverpool), Exitmap (London) and the Hong Kong Academy of Performing Arts.
I also work with artists as a creative mentor and postgraduate supervisor. To support these advisory practices, I participated in the Creative Articulations Process (CAP) catalyst training under the supervision of Professor Jane Bacon and Professor Vida Midgelow.
Below is information about two co-delivered workshop series taking place in 2023-2024.
Qualities of Presence (in-person)
With an increasing capacity to concentrate, to listen to inner impulse, the mover learns to recognise the channel within which the creative or authentic energy flows.
– Janet Adler (1987)*
Penny Collinson and Amy Voris are offering a series of six professional development workshops for movement/dance practitioners to support the exploration of spontaneously emerging movement and inner-witnessing skills.
The series will have an overall focus on ‘tracking’ bodily experience. The explorations will draw on somatically-informed methods from Experiential Anatomy and the mover-witness framework (also known as ‘Authentic Movement’). Each workshop will offer an investigation of a different ‘channel’ or realm of perception. The series will follow an overall progression from working with sensation, and how sensation accompanies movement, into awareness of emotion, image, and story. Each channel will be explored with some guidance/definition in relation to what it may encompass, while also supporting participants to source the style and depth of descriptive language which resonates with their own experience. Movement explorations will seek to illuminate the richness that attending to these realms (both distinctly and in conjunction with each other) can bring to our subjective and collective realities. In this sense, we understand ‘tracking’ to be a process of attending which evolves from the moment of moving into the process of shared-reflection.
Within each workshop we will shift between somatically-informed solo movement and reflection, simple hands-on (or touch) work in pairs, and group moving and witnessing explorations. Each day aims to offer movement/reflective frameworks for participants to listen into and work with their individual inquiries and needs, while acknowledging the companionship of others. We hope that the activities offered will create space for attuning to your movement, energy and imagination and for cultivating internal resources.
Who is it for?
Movement practitioners who work within teaching, therapeutic as well as creative and performative contexts.
Please note that this series is suitable for those with prior experience of in-depth somatic movement processes.
Practicalities
The workshops will take place monthly between September 2023-March 2024 in Lancaster and Cheshire. Participants can sign up for the entire series or for stand-alone sessions. See below for the dates, location and theme of each workshop:
Sat 23 Sept 2023, 12.30pm arrival/1.00pm-7.00pm (The River Room, Halton nr. Lancaster):
Introduction (or ‘taster’) to the series which will weave principles underpinning the methods of moving/witnessing and touch — with a focus on tracking proprioception and orientation
Sat 28 Oct 2023, 09.30am arrival/10.00-5.00pm (Winsford Library, Cheshire):
Tracking sensation – the sensory organ of the skin and the special senses
Sat 18 Nov 2023, 12.30pm arrival/1.00pm-7.00pm (The River Room, Halton nr. Lancaster):
Tracking interoception and emotion – the presence and movement of mood and feeling
Sat 6 Jan 2024, 09.30am arrival/10.00am-5.00pm (Winsford Library, Cheshire):
Tracking the emergence of image – the presence (and movement) of metaphor
Sat 10 Feb 2024, 12.30pm arrival/1.00pm-7.00pm (The River Room, Halton nr. Lancaster):
Story – the presence of personal and collective narratives
Sat 9 March 2024, 09.30am arrival/10.00am-5.00pm (Winsford Library, Cheshire):
Qualities of presence revisited – a recap of the series
Locations
The River Room, Halton Mill, Mill Lane, Halton (near Lancaster) LA2 6ND
OR
Winsford Library, High Street, Winsford, Cheshire CW7 2AS
Payment
Full series cost: £330.00 waged / £270.00 unwaged
(payment in instalments is possible – contact the organisers to arrange)
Cost per workshop: £55.00 waged / £45.00 unwaged
For ENQUIRIES, contact:
Penny: hello@pennycollinson.com
OR
Amy: info@amyvoris.com
For BOOKING, contact:
Amy: info@amyvoris.com
Penny Collinson has worked in dance and somatic practices for thirty years. She lives in Morecambe, Lancashire where she teaches somatic-informed movement in the community, and also one-to-one therapy sessions. She is a registered Somatic Movement Educator & Therapist with the International Somatic Movement Education and Therapy Association (ISMETA), and offers professional supervision, mentorship and consultancy to independent practitioners and organisations.
Amy Voris is a contemporary dance-maker, facilitator and somatic-movement therapist based in Manchester. Her practice is process-oriented and collaborative, driven by the desire to develop enduring relationships with people, places and movement material. Alongside her artistic practice, she has worked in higher education for over twenty years and completed training in Integrative Bodywork and Movement Therapy with Linda Hartley.
*Adler, J. (1987/1999) ‘Who is the Witness? A Description of Authentic Movement’. In Authentic Movement: Essays by Mary Starks Whitehouse, Janet Adler and Joan Chodorow. Edited by Pallaro, P. London: Jessica Kingsley Publishers, 141-159
Reflect, Re-align and Reframe (online)
Cycle 2 of Reflect, Re-align and Reframe will run between October 2023-July 2024 (dates below). The aim is to create space for artists, therapists and educators who are at a crossroads of their professional practice to reflect upon, re-align and reframe their work and career pathway from an embodied and creative perspective. Participants will be invited to move and reflect on their current work, drawing on somatic stimuli to do with orientation, alignment and transitions to generate reflections and insights. The workshops will involve some guided activities, as well as time for individual processing and sharing in small groups.
The year-long programme consists of six online sessions, preceded by a free optional ‘taster’ session on Saturday 30 September.
Saturday 30 Sept 2023 – 12.00-4.00pm BST (free taster/optional introductory session)
Saturday 21 October 2023, 12.00-4.00pm BST
Saturday 2 December 2023, 12.00-4.00pm BST
Saturday 3 February 2024, 12.00-4.00pm BST
Saturday 23 March 2024, 12.00-4.00pm BST
Saturday 11 May 2024, 12.00-4.00pm BST
Saturday 6 July 2024, 12.00-4.00pm BST
Recordings of the content delivery of each session will be available for any sessions missed.
Please note that no prior experience of coaching practices is required to join this series, but some experience with your own in-depth processes as a mover is advantageous.
The cost of this programme will be £150 (waged) or £100 (unwaged). There are two places offered at no cost for those experiencing financial hardship.
For ENQUIRIES or BOOKINGS, contact Amy: info@amyvoris.com
One-to-one online coaching with Natalie and/or somatic movement sessions with Amy or Natalie are available at a reduced cost for those who take part in the workshop series (£20 per session or a block of six sessions for £100).
Amy
Info: https://www.amyvoris.com/one-to-one/
Natalie
E: garrettbrown73@icloud.com
Info: https://www.facebook.com/GarrettBrownCoachingandFacilitation/
Natalie Garrett Brown is a dance practitioner, teacher, researcher and leader in Higher Education. She undertook her dance training and education at Trinity Laban and London Contemporary Dance School completing her doctoral studies at Roehampton University. She is also a trained executive Coach and Somatic Movement Educator. She is Dean of School for Arts and Creative Industries at London South Bank University.
Amy Voris is a dance-maker, facilitator and somatic-movement therapist based in Manchester. Her practice is process-oriented and collaborative, driven by the desire to develop enduring relationships with people, with places and with movement material. She has completed training in Integrative Bodywork and Movement Therapy with Linda Hartley and a Foundation Course in Gestalt Counselling and Psychotherapy.