Dancing mmmm naturally?

As moving is a voluntary act our will can be written in our movement. We can move in many ways and styles, but if we strip these away what would we find?

Maybe if we look at populations of people that still exist closer to the way our ancient ancestors did, (such as those that don't wear shoes!!) we could get an idea of what our common underlying human movement style might be. Taking this idea as an inspiration as well as examining the architecture of the body and applying ideas from the Axis syllabus, this class offers some ideas for movements, that lie within perceived natural bio-mechanical limits, with which we can dance.



Applied anatomy - functional training for dancers

This class combines many different training approaches into a single class and is intended to be a complement to dance technique training. Drawing on methodologies derived from pilates, the axis syllabus,and plyometrics amongst others, it provides the dancer with tools to improve their stamina, speed, power, strength and stability. An understanding of the structure and function of the body will be used to generate the parameters for a safe movement practice within which to train.



Matthew Smith
Matthew Smith is a dancer/teacher/choreographer from New Zealand where he worked primarily with the dance company Black Grace but also with many other NZ companies. In Europe where he now lives he has worked with Random Scream of Belgium, Carol Brown Dances of London, company Willi Dorner and Theater Combinat of Austria, Impure Company of Norway which also collaborated with the Brazilian dance company Cena 11. Matthew performs around the world for Klaus Obermaier in "Apparition". His own work "observing observing" was presented at S.E.A.D and at the ITS festival in Amsterdam and his first full length work "Spin" premiered this February with the Studio Contemporary Dance Company in Zagreb. When not performing he is involved in education. He has taught pilates at P.A.R.T.S. in Belgium and with Babara Mayr at the Pilates Akademie in Vienna. He has taught contemporary technique for various companies in Europe and in the dance school S.E.A.D as well as teaching regularly at Tanzquartier Wien. He is a teacher of the Axis Syllabus which is an approach to movement and dance developed by Frey Faust. He is in the Masters programme at the British School of Osteopathy.