The sessions this week will look at creating physical space or availability through our body. We will play with concepts such as opposition to create range and control, as well as the trio of actions: drop, scoop, and recover. We will explore the use of the hands to convey stories and to articulate detail of character. Megan's practice plays a lot with ideas of soft fireworks, painting the space with various initiation points, and building a stable structure from the ground up to expand or explode from. We will work a lot with improvisation, phrases, and breathwork. Additionally, we may do some partnering throughout the week.

I am Megan Bader(she/they), a queer nonbinary dance artist

originally from North Carolina, and currently based in London. As a lifelong trained dancer, I work in quite physical, but also creative settings both as a performer, choreographer, and teacher. I am driven by a desire to support artists to take risks, connect to vulnerability, and physically articulate stories untold previously. While my foundation of training is in quite athletic competitive dance in a range of styles, my work now exists within the contemporary world. My practice is infused by principles from floorwork, microbatics, partnering, improvisation, and release. There is also an element of somatic inspiration, as I connect a lot to working from the internal through to the external universe as well as tension versus release and breathwork. My work is also very rooted in connectivity- within oneself, each other, and the space.

I am really looking forward to getting in the studio with you all for my first week in Newcastle, and sharing the space with new friends as well as sharing a bit into what the work I am creating is all about!