Prodance April/May 2021

Classes will continue with a range of conditioning, ballet and contemporary sessions. All classes remain free for NI-based professional performers out-of-work due to the pandemic. For those with means, a nominal charge of £25 applies to access live class and catch up recordings for the term. The programme is curated by Ryan O’Neill. Please contact nicola@maidenvoyagedance.com should you wish to join the programme.

Professional Contemporary Class with Omar Gordon 

 Tuesday 13 April at 10am

Tuesday 20 April at 10am

Omar’s class focuses on activating and investigating the body’s range of movement through set technical exercises that have been designed to challenge and engage the participants, both mentally and physically. The class works progressively towards a final movement combination that incorporates all components that have been worked on during the class.

There is strong emphasis on empowering the participants to feel brave and dare to go beyond their limits. There will be talk of discovering textures and qualities through a vocabulary of imagery and physical states

Overall, the class is for the participants, and the aim is always to discover and learn something new about our bodies and technique.
There’ll also be a groovy playlist of music to hopefully inspire the participants to embrace the musicality whilst working and expanding on their technique.

Omar has had an extensive career spanning almost 30 years. He trained as a classical ballet dancer at the Central School Of Ballet in London. He immediately joined the Northern Ballet Theatre in Leeds, under the direction of the late Christopher Gable, and over 6 years rose to the position of Principal Artist.

In 1998 he transited into contemporary dance and moved to Italy to join the prestigious Aterballetto Company under the direction of Mauro Bigonzetti.

In 2000 he joined the Lyon Opera Ballet, France working with revered choreographers, such as William Forsythe, Ohad Naharin, Mats Ek, Maguy Marin, Angelin Perljocaj and Jiri Kylian.

In 2004 Omar returned to the United Kingdom as an independent artist working often with The Royal House ROH2 alternative stage, Covent Garden for their contemporary dance programs, The Glyndebourne Opera’s ‘A Fairy Queen’, and television, music videos and film work, such as Anna Karenina (Working Title Films) with choreography by Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui and Channel 4’s Random Acts.
As a guest artist, Omar has performed with Northern Ballet, The State Theatre Of Northern Greece and Gallim Dance Company, New York City.

He created and performed in the critically acclaimed dance theatre production, ‘LOL’ Lots of Love for Protein Dance (Luca Silvestrini).

Omar was resident ballet master and dancer with the State Theatre of Bern, Switzerland from 2008-2009 dancing and assisting choreographers Hofesh Shechter, Alexander Ekman and Hans Van Manen. It was during this time that he began to expand on his knowledge of designing a teaching system to help assist and support classically trained dancers on how to adapt themselves into contemporary dance and technique.

Since 2013, Omar has worked on two major productions with the immersive company PUNCHDRUNK Theatre, firstly in London with ‘The Drowned Man; A Hollywood Fable’, in collaboration with The National Theatre UK, and SleepNoMore, Shanghai, China. As an assistant choreographer/rehearsal director he has worked with companies such as Geneva Ballet, Switzerland, The Slovakian National Ballet, Skänes Danseteater, Sweden and Ballet De Monte Carlo’s Romeo & Juliet for Northern Ballet.

Last Autumn, Omar participated in the epic 12-hour Live streamed episode ‘The Third Day: Autumn‘ starring Jude Law, and produced by Sky Studios, Plan B Entertainment and PUNCHDRUNK Entertainment, which just won the prestigious RTS Programme Awards for best Live Event 2021.

Professional Contemporary Class with Fania Grigoriou

Tuesday 27 April at 10am

Tuesday 4 May at 10am

Over the course of the class there will be a build-up of energy through a set of exercises. We will stretch, twist, undulate, reach and shake. We will focus on building up stamina and observe the body’s intelligence and functionality. The overall goal of the class is to move, research and sweat no matter what limited space is on offer.

Born in Greece, Fania, studied at the State School of Dance in Athens. She joined the National Theatre of Northern Greece and during her time there worked with choreographers Andonis Foniadakis, Cyril Griset, Daniel Lommel, Dimitris Sotiriou, to name a few. She moved to London in 2009 to become a freelance artist and has since worked with PunchDrunk Theatre Company UK In Collaboration with the National Theatre London, Protein Dance, The Royal Opera House Covent Garden, Satore Studio, Yorke Dance Project, Maiden Voyage Dance, The Chemical Brothers, Pet Shop Boys and choreographers such as; Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, Liam Steel, Fernando Magadan, Cameron McMillan, Lynne Page, Luca Silvestrini, Paula Rosolen, Amit Lahav and Alex Reynolds, amongst others.

Film and Series Credits include: The Third Day, Brave New World, Rebecca, The Mummy, How to talk to girls at parties, Les Miserables, Anna Karenina.

She holds an advanced level qualification in Stage Combat(APC).

An Introduction to Klein Technique™ with A de la Fe

Tuesday 11 May 2021 at 10am

“The purpose of Klein Technique™ is education, not on the superficial level of mimicking form, but on a profoundly deep level of understanding the full use of the body as an integral whole to maximize full function of each individual’s unique movement potential. Working
from the bones allows one to work from their unique identity, to dance and choreograph from their unique essential self.” (Susan Klein, 2018.)

In the Stretch and Placement classes, we work slowly, thoughtfully and deliberately; we work in order to find and improve the body’s connections on the level of the bone, and we learn to use the deep muscles of postural support (the psoas, the hamstrings, the external hip rotators and the pelvic floor) to integrate our bodies and improve our dynamic posture thus finding more effective ways of moving, dancing and choreographing.

A de la Fe is a Spanish choreographer and performer based in London with a background in physiotherapy. After coming relatively late to dance, initially in Madrid, they moved to London and completed an MA in performance at The London Contemporary Dance School (The Place) in 2010.  In 2011, they met Susan Klein while taking an Intensive Workshop in Klein Technique™ at Movingeast in London. Since then, they consistently and steadily studied with Susan whenever she is in Europe, taking many intensive workshops in Klein Technique™ and in 2016 joined the 4th Klein Technique™ Teacher Certification Program in London.

A was a recipient of the 2015 BBC Performing Arts Fund Fellowship, with support from Independence Dance. During the fellowship, they researched and developed Unrehearsed Series in collaboration with producer Martine Painter, dramaturge Mary Ann Hushlak and mentors Rosemary Lee, Graeme Miller and Nikki Tomlinson.

A is a freelance performer and has danced for London-based choreographers such as Florence Peake, Matthias Sperling, Eva Recacha, Riccardo Buscarini and Jonathan Lunn. A choreographed works includes 2011 Place Prize finalist Cameo, experimental an open OPENLAB: a hybrid, and most recently Unrehearsed Series, including latest works CROCODILE, CRY and Make Me Cool.

Photographer Credit: Zbigniew Tomasz Kotkiewicz.

Photographer Credit: Zbigniew Tomasz Kotkiewicz.

Ballet with Neil Towers

Tuesday 18 May at 2pm

Neil will take participants through a structured Ballet Barre series, followed by a few small centre exercises. The class will focus on aligning the body and activating the key ballet muscles for turnout and developing a sense of lift and buoyancy. Participants will need some sort of makeshift Ballet Barre, for example a high-backed dining chair.

Neil is a graduate of Northern Ballet School and was a Corps de Ballet member of Slovak National Ballet. He has 10 years of teaching experience as an RAD qualified teacher, and has taught for Centre Pointe, Shockout Theatre Arts and APPA-NI. Ex-students of his are currently in full time training at Institute of the Arts (Barcelona), The Rock School (Philadelphia), King’s International Ballet Academy (Leicester), and KS Dance (Warrington). He currently runs his own studio in Newtownards.

Floor barre with Vasiliki Stasinaki

10am on Tuesday 25 May

In this ballet class we will focus on the use of the upper body and on musicality but also on the strengthening of the core and the legs. We will use ballet technique as a base, focusing on how we can utilise the knowledge it can offer us as contemporary dancers. We will go through the traditional barre exercises and then move to the centre and we’ll work on our balances and port des bras without needing too much space. The aim is to remind ourselves of the beauty of ballet and get a full bodied workout.

Vasiliki is a dance and visual artist based in Belfast. She studied at the Greek State School of Dance, the Greek National Ballet School and at Northern School of Contemporary Dance. She has been performing with the Maiden Voyage since then and a selected artist on both their Match Make and a Resi-dance programmes 20-21.  Vasiliki has also worked with Greek National Ballet, Ludus Dance, Pair Dance, Dylan Quinn Dance Theatre, Springs Dance Company, Company Philip Connaughton and Tinderbox Theatre Company.  Vasiliki holds an MFA in Fine Art from Belfast School of Art, Ulster University.