BODY & LAND: a weekend workshop in the South Downs

Dancers in Landscape have been meeting regularly in the Weald since 2010 to practice movement outdoors. This group formed out of an instinctive desire to dance in community, responding to, and relating with, the earth. Originally all based in Sussex, some of the core members of the group are now based further afield but continue to join sessions when they can.  The full group is now Korina Biggs, Sophia Campeau-Ferman, Laura Gwynne, Mim King, Jo Shapland, Yumino Seki, Nikki Tomlinson, Clare Whistler.

After graduating in Sociology and Anthropology, Korina Biggs worked as a physical theatre performer with Frantic Assembly for many years and has since been working as an Alexander Technique teacher and creative somatic movement facilitator.  She is a member of the Society of Teachers of the Alexander Technique (STAT) and has an MA in Dance and Somatic Well-being. She currently teaches the Alexander Technique as well as movement and devising at RADA, London, and The Performers College, Brighton, as well as having a private practice. She runs professional development sessions for Alexander teachers working with performers and is part of STAT’s Equality, Diversity & Inclusion advisory group. Her passion is improvisational movement practice especially outdoors both in nature and in urban landscapes, and lindy hop!

Yumino Seki is a St Leonards-based dance artist, Butoh practitioner and qualified somatic movement educator. Born in Japan, and trained in classical and contemporary dance, she teaches, directs, makes and performs. Between 1999-2009 she performed in works by leading Butoh choreographers Tadashi Endo, Yumiko Yoshioka and Carlotta Ikeda. She later studied Vital Movement Integration with Patricia Bardi in Amsterdam, since which she has combined her Butoh and somatic work with outdoor practice. Her work now traverses dance, improvisation, site-specific performance art, installation and ritual and has been supported by Arts Council England, The Japan Foundation (Cairo), Chisenhale Dance Space and Hastings Borough Council. She also performs in work by visual artists, including works by Zadie Xa at The National Gallery, Venice Biennale, Art Night London, Dance International Glasgow and Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto.

Mim Kingis a Brighton-based artist who has been practicing since 1984. Moving from circus to visual theatre through to dance, live art and film, her most formative training was with Anton Adasinsky & his performance company DEREVO at their former studio in Russia in 1990. Mim’s work is also influenced by Butoh dance and her main teacher in this form was Masaki Iwana. Mim has taught and presented performances across Europe, Asia, USA and Australia. Her award-winning dance films have been shown at Lincoln Centre (New York), Pompidou Centre (Paris), ICA (London), the Venice Biennale and the Sydney Opera House. She has a ongoing collaborative relationships with Gallery Kruh, Kostelec nad cernymi Lesy (Czech Republic), SoToDo Gallery Berlin and the Congress of Visual and Performance Art. Mim is a founder member of BUTOH Brighton. Currently head of movement at Academy of Creative Training, Brighton, she also runs classes regularly at The Cockpit Theatre, London.  

Clare Whistler works across performance, site-specific projects, poetry, music and visual art. Her international career as a dancer, choreographer and director has included 15 years working in opera and education and community projects, including a decade as assistant director on operas directed by Peter Sellars. She has been artist in residence at The Library of Water (Iceland); Banff Centre (Canada), and the Centre of the History of Emotions, Queen Mary University (London). With artist Charlotte Still, Clare is co-creator of the long-running and award-winning WATERWEEK in Sussex. She teaches on local creative writing courses, and on the liberal arts programme at Stanford University (US). Ongoing collaborations include eco-poetry kin’d & kin’d with Kay Syrad, Turner & Whistler with visual artist Nicola Turner, with Rebecca Marsh’s Dear Future Films, with All Dementia Projects at the Royal Academy of Music, and Elephant Press which she co-founded with designer Raphael Whittle.Clare Whistler works across performance, site-specific projects, poetry, music and visual art. Her international career as a dancer, choreographer and director has included 15 years working in opera and education and community projects, including a decade as assistant director on operas directed by Peter Sellars. She has been artist in residence at The Library of Water (Iceland); Banff Centre (Canada), and the Centre of the History of Emotions, Queen Mary University (London). With artist Charlotte Still, Clare is co-creator of the long-running and award-winning WATERWEEK in Sussex. She teaches on local creative writing courses, and on the liberal arts programme at Stanford University (US). Ongoing collaborations include eco-poetry kin’d & kin’d with Kay Syrad, Turner & Whistler with visual artist Nicola Turner, with Rebecca Marsh’s Dear Future Films, with All Dementia Projects at the Royal Academy of Music, and Elephant Press which she co-founded with designer Raphael Whittle.

The Village Hall is in the village of East Dean in East Sussex. It’s at the foot of the South Downs and is within the South Downs National Park. It is surrounded by rolling countryside about 4 miles to the west of Eastbourne and is accessible by buses which run every 10 mins between Eastbourne and Brighton