New Prodance season – January to March 2022

Curated by Ryan O’Neill, Maiden Voyage Prodance returns with a range of Contemporary, Ballet and Conditioning sessions. These are in studio classes on Tuesdays from 10.00 – 11.30 am at Crescent Arts Centre, Belfast.

Book here

The classes cost of £5 per session and have limited capacity in order for us to socially distance. Participants are required to conduct an NHS Lateral Flow Test within 24 hours of attendance and log their negative result via the gov.uk website.

A limited number of bursary spaces are available for dance artists experiencing hardship due to the pandemic. Please contact nicola@maidenvoyagedance.com in confidence should this apply to you.

Professional Contemporary Class with Ryan O’Neill
Tuesday 18th and Tuesday 25th January 10.00-11.30
Crescent Arts Centre

Ryan’s class incorporates his recent training in Garuda and opening the muscles and joints to create a free body with an emphasis on the macro and micro details of internal and external space we inhabit.

Ryan achieved a first class honours degree in Dance from the Ulster University and studied his Masters in Dance Performance at Trinity Laban as part of their professional post graduate company Transitions. Since then Ryan has worked with Maiden Voyage Dance, Off The Rails, ponydance, Tinderbox, Primecut, Oona Doherty Works (NI), Irish Modern Dance Theatre, Junk Ensemble, Pan Pan Theatre, Company Philip Connaughton, Coisceim, Liz Roche Company (IRL) Gwyn Emberton Dance (UK) and for two years with Punchdrunk for Sleep No More in Shanghai. Ryan is also a qualified Ashtanga Yoga teacher.

Professional Contemporary Class with Sandy Cuthbert
Tuesday 1st and Tuesday 8th February 10.00-11.30
Crescent Arts Centre

Sandy will teach a release-based class with a somatic sensibility. Focusing on breath, the use of the weight of bones and muscles and connection to skin. As we slowly move back into the dance studio, we can take the opportunity to re-engage with our body and spatial awareness, ourselves and other. Imagery and finding a sense of flow and connection within the space will be a feature of the movement and choreography

Sandy is a freelance dance and somatic practitioner with a background in contemporary dance and movement improvisation. Qualifications include a BA (Hons) Creative Arts, PGCE, Post-graduate Certificate in Contemporary Dance & Choreography-London Contemporary Dance School and a MA in Dance and Somatic Well-Being. As a professional dancer she has worked as a commercial dancer, a circus performer and as a contemporary dancer, companies include: The National Dance Company of Wales, In Transit, Maiden Voyage Dance, Off The Rails. Sandy recently returned to performing in ‘Epilogue’ premiered at the Belfast International Arts Festival 2021. She has over 20 years FE & HE dance lecturing experience. Sandy is a professional member of ISMETA-Registered Somatic Movement Educator. She recently retired as Company Manager of Maiden Voyage Dance but continues her work as ‘Engagement Coordinator’ for the company. She has a BAFTA in Costume Design (film), is a qualified Garden Designer and has recently rekindled a passion as a textile artist.

Professional Ballet class with Clare Novaes
Tuesday 1st & Tuesday 29th March 10.00-11.30
Crescent Arts Centre

Prodance promo image

Clare’s class is a healing mixture of conditioning exercises and technique formulated with the classical ballet structure in mind. It addresses and respects the complexities of the body as we change with age, injury and workload. The body’s natural intuition is encouraged through careful attention to alignment and energy flow.

Clare enjoys the classical aesthetic values of simplicity, purity and balance in ballet. She is the owner and teacher at The Clare Novaes Ballet School established 1998 and director of Ballet Retreats. Her first job after graduating from The Royal Academy of Dance in London was at Crystal Palace London, teaching the Olympic high board diving squad a continuous body conditioning ballet barre created by John O’Brien. At RAD Clare worked with Dr Ann Hutchinson Guest, the director of the Language of Dance Centre, London on Laban notation and used this research when teaching dance in Brazil, South America. Returning from Brazil Clare was inspired by John Blacking at QUB to study Anthropology with Ethnomusicology. Clare worked with the highly skilled multidisciplinary team at Blackstone Physiotherapy and Sports injury clinic to develop a Barre Tone class. She also worked with Clare Guss-West at the RAD developing dance and lifelong wellbeing.

Clare was a dancer in Boots, real woman 40+, as they unveiled the New Global Brand Direction with Alessandra Ferri as headliner.

“I continue to develop my own relationship with dance and explore movement with the aging body” Clare Novaes

Professional Contemporary Class with Suzannah McCreight
Tuesday 1st & Tuesday 29th March 10.00-11.30

The class will draw on Suzannah’s background in Limón technique influenced by release-based approaches. She works with sensing body connections as a way into movement and exploring sequences that involve using weight, breath and fluidity.

Suzannah discovered contemporary dance through the Cornwall Youth and National Youth Dance Companies. She trained at Laban gaining a BA (Hons) before joining Transitions Dance Company in 1997. She went on to dance for Scottish Dance Theatre with Janet Smith, and danced for Attik, Springs, Cathy Seago and Maiden Voyage Dance. Suzannah returned to Laban (now Trinity Laban) in 2000 to study choreography at MA level under Ana Sanchez and Rosemary Butcher. She also joined the faculty, teaching technique and movement analysis. She has worked as a Rehearsal Director for BareBones and Maiden Voyage Dance and has had choreographic commissions from Maiden Voyage, Springs Dance and Terra Nova.

Pilates for Dancers with Jayne McIlveen
Tuesday 15th March 10.00-11.30

This is an advanced pilates class for dancers to enable them to improve dynamic strength and stability for creative performance whilst remaining injury and pain free. Participants will need a mat and band.

Jayne is a STOTT certified Mat, Equipment and Rehab Pilates Specialist and Muscular Therapist with a background in Contemporary Dance. Jayne is passionate about optimising each individual’s body potential, helping her clients to recover from injury and life stress, to help the client understand their body and create the best version of themselves. She works in Physiotherapy clinics in Belfast offering private sessions for pain management, injury/condition rehabilitation, athletic performance as well as a series of Pilates/mobility classes.