Writing dance

Choreographer Jonathan Burrows leads a workshop focussing on discussion leading to practical work in the studio. Emphasis will be towards investigating choreographic and compositional process, performance and philosophies, questioning how a dance can be made and what it can communicate to someone watching. Practical work will concentrate on short task-based exercises looking at how to find material and work with time, to hold the attention of an audience and make them care what happens next. Days will be punctuated also with viewpoints on other mediums and ways of working, asking all the time what dance can do and what it can't do.

This workshop is for dance artists with experience of performing and making, who are interested in re-examining and extending their own process and practice.



Jonathan Burrows
Jonathan Burrows was born in 1960. He danced with the Royal Ballet for 13 years, rising to the rank of soloist, before leaving in 1991 to pursue his own choreography. After touring with his own company for some years he decided in 2001 to concentrate on one to one collaborations with other artists, who would share the conception, making, performing and administrating of the work.

His first collaboration was "Weak Dance Strong Questions" (2001), made with the theatre maker and performer Jan Ritsema, which toured to 14 countries. This was followed by a series of duets with Matteo Fargion, beginning in 2002 with "Both Sitting Duet", followed by "The Quiet Dance" (2005), "Speaking Dance" (2006). "Cheap Lecture" (2009) and "The Cow Piece" (2009). The two men have now given over 200 performances across 28 countries. "Both Sitting Duet" won a 2004 New York Dance and Performance 'Bessie' Award, and "Cheap Lecture" was chosen for the 2009 Het Theaterfestival in Belgium. In 2010 he also made "Dogheart", with the dancer Chrysa Parkinson. Other high profile commissions include Sylvie Guillem and William Forsythe's Ballet Frankfurt, and in 2008 he was Associate Director for Peter Handke's The Hour We Knew Nothing Of Each Other at the National Theatre, London.

Burrows has been an Associate Artist at Kunstencentrum Vooruit in Gent, Belgium (1992- 2002), London's South Bank Centre (1998/9) and Kaaitheater Brussels (2008 -). In 2002 he received an award from the Foundation for Contemporary Performance Arts In New York, in recognition for his ongoing contributions to contemporary dance. He is a visiting member of faculty at P.A.R.T.S., and is also Visiting Professor at Royal Holloway, University Of London, Hamburg University and the Free University Berlin. He holds an Honorary Doctorate from Royal Holloway University of London. 'A Choreographer's Handbook' (2010) by Jonathan Burrows is available from Routledge Publishing.