Rambert School Clowndance Intensive 2023
In autumn 2023 I ran a week-long workshop intensive introducing the Clowndance syllabus, open to all students at the Rambert School of Ballet and Contemporary Dance. The intensive ran over their autumn reading week, and we only worked in the mornings, leaving them some time for other study. For me, this was intended as a first run of the full syllabus which will be the key outcome of this research project. I wanted to see how the ideas could grow and develop over several days, and I specifically wanted to work with vocational dance students, as this material is designed as an intervention into undergraduate level contemporary dance training.
The material for each day was themed around a central idea: Play, Audience, Solos and Duets. Frustratingly, a sudden illness meant I was only able to run four of the five planned days of sessions, so we weren’t able to cover the final theme of the week, taking these ideas and provocations into set choreography. I’m hoping to be able to return to Rambert School in future, and perhaps to pick up where we left off.
The material for each day was themed around a central idea: Play, Audience, Solos and Duets. Frustratingly, a sudden illness meant I was only able to run four of the five planned days of sessions, so we weren’t able to cover the final theme of the week, taking these ideas and provocations into set choreography. I’m hoping to be able to return to Rambert School in future, and perhaps to pick up where we left off.
Dancers watching a game, Kitty caught in the mirror in the background.
I was joined in the studio by seven wonderful dancers and humans. They were all in their third year at Rambert School, all in their late teens to early twenties, with a range of genders and gender expressions. Their usual training regime is incredibly intense; they are used to being in the studio for at least two classes a day, plus choreographic classes, improvisation, repertory and conditioning. Entry into the school is highly competitive, and many graduates go on to successful careers as professional dancers, choreographers and in related dance practices.
I am immensely grateful to them all for the playful, generous and rigorous way in which they engaged with the workshops; I feel incredibly lucky to have been able to try this material out with them. As with other student participants, I will be using pseudonyms to refer to them in this write-up; they deserve the protection of anonymity while they are still exploring who they are as artists. So, Finch, Mistlethrush, Nightingale, Heron, Swan, Kestrel and Magpie, you are all wonderful. Thank you.
Huge thanks too to Amanda Britton, Darren Ellis and Phaedra Petsilas at Rambert School for supporting my research journey, and making me feel fully part of the Rambert fam.
In the following write-up I outline the material covered each day, pull out some key moments of excitement or insight, and give a flavour of the written reflections.
Click on a day to read...
I am immensely grateful to them all for the playful, generous and rigorous way in which they engaged with the workshops; I feel incredibly lucky to have been able to try this material out with them. As with other student participants, I will be using pseudonyms to refer to them in this write-up; they deserve the protection of anonymity while they are still exploring who they are as artists. So, Finch, Mistlethrush, Nightingale, Heron, Swan, Kestrel and Magpie, you are all wonderful. Thank you.
Huge thanks too to Amanda Britton, Darren Ellis and Phaedra Petsilas at Rambert School for supporting my research journey, and making me feel fully part of the Rambert fam.
In the following write-up I outline the material covered each day, pull out some key moments of excitement or insight, and give a flavour of the written reflections.
Click on a day to read...
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Ethical Research Statement
This practical research was carried out with ethical approval from the Doctoral College at De Montfort University, Leicester, UK. Participants have all given explicit consent for their pseudonyms, words, and images in the form of photography and video to be acknowledged in the research write-up and on this research website.