PETER, dance with...

S1 Ep7 Dance workshop (Direction and Pathways)

In this session, we turn our attention to where movement goes, to direction, pathway, and the lines our bodies trace through space. What determines where we move? Is it choice, curiosity, gravity, emotion, or something else entirely?

We begin by drawing invisible lines through the air, straight, curved, spiralled, zigzagged, inspired by William Forsythe’s improvisation technologies, where the dancer becomes a kind of draftsman, sketching motion in space. From there, the session shifts toward losing and finding orientation: following impulses, sounds, or sensations that redirect us. We wander and deviate, noticing what happens when direction dissolves into discovery.

The episode then explores the body as compass, guided not by left and right but by north, south, east, and west, a way to reimagine orientation as planetary rather than anatomical. This expands into experiments with momentum and redirection, asking: how can we keep moving without simply continuing? What does it mean to be redirected, by a wall, the floor, another person, without stopping?

Finally, we play with forgetting direction: moving toward something, then letting go of the intention and finding a new path in the same motion. This practice of continuous reorientation invites a softer sense of purpose, where each line and curve becomes an open question.

By the end, the focus widens back to daily life, noticing how direction and pathway shape not only our dancing, but the way we inhabit the world: every trace, curve, and hesitation a kind of personal choreography.

Dance workshop
Explore, imagine, move.

A companion series to PETER, dance with. These short audio workshops invite you to explore dance through imagination, movement, and curiosity. A space to rethink what dance can be, anywhere, for anyone.

To listen to the workshops: https://stillpeter.com/peter-audio-dance-workshop/

Music leaning by mobygratis

Support the show

For information about PETER visit stillpeter.com.

And contact PETER email [email protected] PETER would love to hear from you.

Support the podcast paypal.me/dancepeter 

Today we danced with Neil Paris. To contact Neil Paris email [email protected]

References:

• Rambert School of Ballet and Contemporary dance
• Fabulous Beast Dance Theatre
• Micheal Kegan Dolan https://teacdamsa.com/about/
• Rite of Spring Fabulous Beast - https://youtu.be/jsRKugYT03c?si=aI0dO4iS4AjEmNn3 
• Agnes and Walter: A Little Love Story Created and Directed by Neil Paris
• Laban https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rudolf_von_Laban
• Dartington college of arts
• Steve Paxton ’Small Dance’ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_oWA1sWMlOk
• Alejandro Mexican Sharman
• Morris https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morris_dance
• The Corby group is Deep Roots Tall Trees Dancetheatre https://www.deeprootstalltrees.org/Activities/
• The group in Brighton is led by Yael Flexer https://www.flexerandsandiland.com/brighton-classes
• 'Course E' at Shawbrook 2007 summer school for aspiring dancers in Ireland led by Fabulous Beast (Micheal Kegan Dolan, Neil Paris,  and Philip Feeney)
• London Coliseum https://londoncoliseum.org/
• Family Constellations https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Family_Constellations

Support the show

For information about PETER visit stillpeter.com.

And contact PETER email [email protected] PETER would love to hear from you.

Support the podcast paypal.me/dancepeter 

S1 Ep6 Dance workshop (Tempo and Rhythm)

In this session we turn to time: the internal clocks that live in your breath and pulse, and the external cues that shape how we move. You’ll be invited to listen first, to your heartbeat, your breathing, the quiet rhythms already present in your body, then to use that inner tempo as a guide for movement.

We move through simple experiments: syncing movement to breath, exploring snail-slow and lightning-fast tempi, and noticing what kinds of movement each speed invites. Then you’ll make rhythm with your body, claps, stomps, vocal sounds, and feel the difference between sounding a beat and marking it with gesture. After that we bring in outside rhythms: dancing with, against, or ignoring a chosen piece of music, and watching how it changes your choices.

The episode also opens up the idea of polyrythm, multiple rhythms layered through the body, and offers a practical challenge: try moving one body part slow while another moves fast. Finally, there’s a long, free exploration without music, so you can discover how many rhythms may already be living in you and how they shape what you want to make.

By the end you’ll have a clearer sense of whether rhythm is central to your dance, how external structure helps or limits you, and what tempos light up your curiosity. Bring patience, a willingness to sound silly, and a notebook if you like, this one rewards listening and reflection.

Dance workshop
Explore, imagine, move.

A companion series to PETER, dance with. These short audio workshops invite you to explore dance through imagination, movement, and curiosity. A space to rethink what dance can be, anywhere, for anyone.

To listen to the workshops: https://stillpeter.com/peter-audio-dance-workshop/

Music leaning by mobygratis

Support the show

For information about PETER visit stillpeter.com.

And contact PETER email [email protected] PETER would love to hear from you.

Support the podcast paypal.me/dancepeter 

S1 Ep5 Dance workshop (Balance & Imbalance)

In this session we explore balance as both a physical and conceptual experience, how we find stability and how we lose it. Building from last week’s work on Weight & Gravity, this episode looks at balance as an ever-changing negotiation rather than a fixed position.

You’ll be guided through a series of experiments: finding your own centre of balance, tipping, twisting, and reaching beyond your base of support. We’ll play with different dynamics, stillness and suspension, speed and softness, to notice how balance shifts with every choice we make.

Rather than drawing from established dance techniques, this session invites you to explore your own ways of balancing and destabilising, to ask how risk and control shape your dancing. Is balance a point of safety, or a moment of daring? How do you balance your references, your emotions, your sense of self within dance?

Through this, we continue developing a personal and felt understanding of dance, one that’s grounded, unstable, and alive.

Dance workshop
Explore, imagine, move.

A companion series to PETER, dance with. These short audio workshops invite you to explore dance through imagination, movement, and curiosity. A space to rethink what dance can be, anywhere, for anyone.

To listen to the workshops: https://stillpeter.com/peter-audio-dance-workshop/

Music leaning by mobygratis

Support the show

For information about PETER visit stillpeter.com.

And contact PETER email [email protected] PETER would love to hear from you.

Support the podcast paypal.me/dancepeter 

S3 Ep3  PETER dance with Hanna Gillgren
Today we dance with Hanna Gillgren. You can get in contact with Hanna Gillgren here https://h2dance.com/hanna-gillgren-biography-and-cv/ and follow Hanna on instagram @h2hanna. At the Rose Choreographic School https://rosechoreographicschool.com/ , Roehampton (University of Roehampton, London) https://pure.roehampton.ac.uk/portal/en/persons/hanna-gillgren and at Fest en Fest (festival founded by H2 Dance) https://festenfest.info/fest-en-fest/ .

Dates for festenfest 2026:
24th to the 29th March: APT gallery Deptford London
21st /22nd March : southeast dance Brighton
25th March: Colchester arts centre.

References:

• Choreographic Devices 4 https://www.ica.art/live/choreographic-devices-4
• ICA (Institute of Contemporary Arts, London) https://www.ica.art/
• Rose Choreographic School https://rosechoreographicschool.com/
• Roehampton (University of Roehampton, London) https://pure.roehampton.ac.uk/portal/en/persons/hanna-gillgren
• SKH fka DOCH (Stockholm university of the arts) https://www.uniarts.se/english/
• H2 Dance (co-founded by Hanna Gillgren and Heidi Rustgaard) https://h2dance.com/25-2/
• Heidi Rustgaard (co-founder of H2 Dance) https://h2dance.com/heidi-rustgaard-biography-and-cv/
• Martin Hargreaves (Head of the Rose Choreographic School) https://rosechoreographicschool.com/people
• Guy Dartnell https://www.choreographiclab.co.uk/guy-dartnell/
• Jonathan Burrows and Jan Ritsema (Weak Dance Strong Questions) https://vimeo.com/383037271 (https://burrowsfargion.com/)
• Fest en Fest (festival founded by H2 Dance) https://festenfest.info/fest-en-fest/
• Sadler’s Wells East (London, overlooking the Olympic Park) https://www.sadlerswells.com/your-visit/sadlers-wells-east/welcome-to-sadlers-wells-east/

Support the show

For information about PETER visit stillpeter.com.

And contact PETER email [email protected] PETER would love to hear from you.

Support the podcast paypal.me/dancepeter 

In this session we explore one of the most fundamental forces in dance: gravity. Together we investigate how weight shapes every movement, from the subtle balancing of Steve Paxton’s Small Dances to the dynamic play of falling and catching yourself. You’ll be guided through exercises that invite you to feel your centre of gravity, to yield or resist weight, and to notice how balance is constantly negotiated in the body.

We expand this exploration into movement with the ground, furniture, and even the walls around you, introducing ideas from contact improvisation, release technique, and somatic practices like Body-Mind Centering. You’ll also experiment with the “weight of consciousness,” sensing how holding or remembering weight changes your awareness and your movement possibilities.

By the end, you’ll have a richer felt understanding of how weight supports, challenges, and inspires dance, whether you’re walking, rolling, balancing, or simply standing still.

Dance workshop
Explore, imagine, move.

A companion series to PETER, dance with. These short audio workshops invite you to explore dance through imagination, movement, and curiosity. A space to rethink what dance can be, anywhere, for anyone.

To listen to the workshops: https://stillpeter.com/peter-audio-dance-workshop/

Music leaning by mobygratis

Support the show

For information about PETER visit stillpeter.com.

And contact PETER email [email protected] PETER would love to hear from you.

Support the podcast paypal.me/dancepeter 

S1 Ep3 Dance workshop (Stillness as Dance)

In this episode, we explore the role of stillness in dance and how pauses, holds, and subtle micro-movements shape the way we perceive and create movement.

Through guided exercises, you’ll develop a deeper awareness of your body’s natural stillness, experiment with accumulating stillness, and play with the contrast between motion and pause. You’ll also reflect on how stillness interacts with movement, space, and attention, helping you notice nuances in your dancing and expand your creative expression.

With exercises designed for solo practice or paired exploration, this episode highlights how both movement and stillness are essential tools for understanding and shaping your personal dance vocabulary.

Ref. If you liked this check out this audio recording of Steve Paxton guiding “The Small Dance” https://soundcloud.com/the-amam/audio-recording-of-steve-paxton-guiding-the-small-dance

Dance Workshop
Explore, imagine, move.

A companion series to PETER, dance with. These short audio workshops invite you to explore dance through imagination, movement, and curiosity. A space to rethink what dance can be, anywhere, for anyone.

To listen to the workshops: https://stillpeter.com/peter-audio-dance-workshop/

Music leaning by mobygratis

Support the show

For information about PETER visit stillpeter.com.

And contact PETER email [email protected] PETER would love to hear from you.

Support the podcast paypal.me/dancepeter 

S3 Ep2  PETER, dance with Dan Canham
Today we danced with Dan Canham. Follow Dan Canham on instagram @dan_canham https://www.instagram.com/dan_canham/ or on Dan’s website https://www.dancanham.com/

And see Dan’s work at the closing event for Bradford City of Culture 2025, Winter Solstice 20th and 21st of December in Myrtle Park. Book here https://bradford2025.co.uk/event/brighter-still/   

References:

• Fabulous Beast Dance Theatre
• National Theatre Public Acts -  https://www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/about-us/theatre-nation-partnerships/public-acts/
• Public Record - https://www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/whats-on/public-record/
• Marina Abramović & Ulay (Great Wall of China walk)
• Rite of Spring Fabulous Beast - https://youtu.be/jsRKugYT03c?si=aI0dO4iS4AjEmNn3
• Cèilidh - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C%C3%A8ilidh
• Olivier Theatre - https://www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/your-visit/venues-at-the-national-theatre/olivier-theatre/
• Peter Carter (traditional eel catcher in the Fens)
• Dance is life, Hudson River Park’s Pier 76 - https://www.danceislife.love/locations
• Restoke - http://restoke.org.uk
• Paul Rogerson director at restoke - https://www.restoke.org.uk/people
• ROSALÍA & Travis Scott - https://youtu.be/q5xIoeG4uVI?si=kOMydrTFuzKVTXMv
• Public Works New York - https://publictheater.org/artistic-programs/public-works/
• Dahlia Lopez Ramsay - https://magnettheater.com/people/dahlia-ramsay/
• Emily Lim - https://www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/artists/emily-lim/

Closing event for Bradford City of Culture 2025, Winter Solstice 20th and 21st of December in Myrtle Park - https://bradford2025.co.uk/event/brighter-still/   

Support the show

For information about PETER visit stillpeter.com.

And contact PETER email [email protected] PETER would love to hear from you.

Support the podcast paypal.me/dancepeter 

S1 Ep2 Dance workshop (Space and Self)

In this session, we turn our attention to space, the rooms we move in, the pathways we carve, and the invisible boundaries that shape how we dance.

Through guided explorations, you’ll notice how your body relates to positive and negative space, how personal space expands and contracts, and how moving across a room creates paths that carry meaning. You’ll also experiment with proximity, boundaries, and how awareness of the environment, walls, objects, even imagined others, changes your felt sense of dancing.

This episode invites you to deepen your awareness of where you are, how you occupy space, and how space itself becomes a partner in your dancing. By the end, you’ll have new insights into how the environments around you shape your movement, your choices, and your evolving sense of dance.

Dance workshop
Explore, imagine, move.

A companion series to PETER, dance with. These short audio workshops invite you to explore dance through imagination, movement, and curiosity. A space to rethink what dance can be, anywhere, for anyone.

To listen to the workshops: https://stillpeter.com/peter-audio-dance-workshop/

Music leaning by mobygratis

Support the show

For information about PETER visit stillpeter.com.

And contact PETER email [email protected] PETER would love to hear from you.

Support the podcast paypal.me/dancepeter 

S1 Ep1 Dance workshop, What is dance?

In this first session, we begin with the deceptively simple but endlessly complex question: what is dance?

Through a series of guided exercises, you’ll explore your own felt sense, the bodily awareness that tells you when something feels like dance and when it doesn’t. Starting with the practice of not dancing, you’ll learn to notice where dance emerges in your everyday actions, how it shifts with your attention, and how your personal definitions already shape the way you move.

No experience is required. Whether you’re new to dance or returning after years of practice, this episode invites you to pause, experiment, and reflect on your unique relationship to movement.

By the end, you’ll have started building your own map of dance, one rooted in curiosity, perception, and the knowledge already in your body.

Dance Workshop
Explore, imagine, move.

A companion series to PETER, dance with. These short audio workshops invite you to explore dance through imagination, movement, and curiosity. A space to rethink what dance can be, anywhere, for anyone.

To listen to the workshops: https://stillpeter.com/peter-audio-dance-workshop/

Music leaning by mobygratis

Support the show

For information about PETER visit stillpeter.com.

And contact PETER email [email protected] PETER would love to hear from you.

Support the podcast paypal.me/dancepeter