To start the year we have Georgia Rowan teaching us on September 13th – in Sheffield.
All other workshops through to June will be at NSCD. It’s Azzurra Ardovini on October 11th and Sandrine Monin on November 15th.
May 2026 Matt Slater
Blogs from previous workshops are below….
April 2026 Jen Wren
Blogs from previous workshops are below….
Jen writes:
My session with YMD took place during a period of in-depth research for a new performance project, ESPE. Instead of deviating from my research process to conduct a traditional workshop, we chose to focus on exploring some of the thematic elements emerging within my work. Each dancer engaged with the challenge of exploring narratives, resulting in a diverse and expressive movement vocabulary unique to each individual.
Through dance, the body’s capacity to convey what cannot be articulated in words was clearly demonstrated, driven by an open mind, curiosity and dedication. Yorkshire Movement and Dance is a remarkable group of movers; there is no other quite like it. It was a pleasure to have this opportunity to collaborate with them, contributing to my project and the exploration of the concepts behind ESPE.
Seraina Dejaco March 2026
Effie McGuire Ward – February 2026
Effie, always a great friend of YMD, stood in for us at short notice and delivered a great workshop to the twelve of us participating.
She writes:
It was a joy to return to both Yorkshire Movement and Dance, and to NSCD this February – where in reception I bumped into my ballet teacher from my training days.
Connection, conversation and community is as strong as ever in the group but also at hand is such a huge appetite to learn and discover through movement.
I think in the morning technique class, everyone found moments that they were particularly satisfied with alongside challenges to grapple with – and it is lovely to have a group that will feedback, question and put into words their experience as it is happening. My personal highlight of the day was witnessing these incredible improvisers move with a unified focus – particularly exploring the prompt ‘I soften, I give’ and the finishing tableau of attentive stillness that came from each group’s rendition.
Sandrine Monin – January ’26
VERY UNFORTUNATELY WE HAD TO CANCEL SANDRINE’S WORKSHOP BECAUSE OF THE BAD WEATHER – SNOW AND ICE.
We hope she will be able to lead another workshop for us later in the year.
Georgia Rowan – December ’25
Georgia is a dance performer, teacher and choreographer based in Sheffield, and it was great to have her lead a workshop for us for the first time.
She taught with clarity and humour, and brought interesting ideas to the creative work in the afternoon. This included using masks, which made us focus on communicating emotions through our bodies rather than our facial expressions.
Azzurra Ardovini – November ’25
There were only a very few of us for Azzura’s workshop – none of the Nottingham contingent could come, there was illness and injury, and clashing dates – but we had a wonderful session.
In the afternoon Azzurra used two interesting but very different prompts to get us to devise solo sequences, which she brought together very satisfactorily into a three minute piece. Her workshops are always fun, they get us creating in innovative ways….. it’s a shame so many YMD people had to miss it!
brought together into a three minute piece.
Phil Sanger October 2025
It was so great to have Phil over from Sweden and available to teach us again. He is always so positive, bringing interesting ideas, and new ways to challenge us mentally as well as physically.
Some of the things he wrote last year were relevant again this year:
It was a joy to be back with the YMD dancers (in May 2024), there is passion and generosity of spirit among the dancers which fills me up, especially when they share my enthusiasm for dance research. In 2018 the group welcomed the chance to be part of my MA research, we played with ideas about location and attention and captured on film some beautiful moments that were included in my dissertation.
This time it was research for my PhD and again the dancers threw themselves into it. Themes of body and autobiography were explored using life-coaching techniques and again we captured the potential of an exciting project.
The creative work for this workshop first centered on the idea of acknowledging: working in pairs to observe closely and then picking up on elements of movement to develop, and then being observed as a stimulus in turn. This gave us a movement vocabulary to take to our next task. This was based on autobiographical material- dancing and speaking the stories and meanings behind our names. Initially as individual sequences and then melding them in trios was interesting and fun, as Phil asked us to ‘perform’ to an imagined audience. As ever it was wonderful to have Phil working with us with such thoughtfulness and integrity. It is especially nice to know that he appreciates us as well. Last year he said:
One of the reasons I find these days so rewarding and refreshing is because I get to explore new and interesting ideas in collaboration with some of the most expressive people I know. This is a group of dancers who do not hold back when they are interpreting and creating, they are all about the experience of being social, and having a good time whilst being fully invested in creativity. It’s great to be reminded that both things are possible.
Louisa Keohane Sept 2025
Lou has been a part of YMD for many years and is a wonderfully positive and energetic teacher. She challenged us to move and create in new and interesting ways based on the simple idea of circles, working individually, in pairs and trios.
This is the fourth year running that Lou has lead our September session – we really appreciate her support and its such a great way to start the year!
Yorkshire Movement And Dance 