Lecturer at London Contemporary Dance School

Apart from leading occasional workshops, my teaching work started in 1999 when I began lecturing at London Contemporary Dance School at The Place. It happened by accident rather than design: my (now) long-term and valued collaborator Sue MacLennan, who I had made a piece with in 1996, was teaching choreography there and when the current Head of Music was leaving, she suggested me as someone who might be able to work with her and Karen Greenhough on teaching the Music and Choreography course at the school. I took up the offer and for more than twenty years, teaching at the school was a major part of my working life.

For a few years in the 2000’s I was Head of Music at the school, teaching everything from music and listening skills for dancers, music history, music and choreography to collaborations with Post Graduate composers from Guildhall School of Music and Drama.

I found that being on permanent staff at the school took up too much of the energy I felt I needed for my own creative work, so I went back to working as a freelancer there until I left the school in Spring 2021.

My work there focused on:

Co-teaching a Music and Choreography course with Lauren Potter.
A course with second year choreography students that introduces people to a variety of different approaches to working with music and sound. In the second half of the course we work with the choreographers in pairs over a period five weeks to assist them in making a piece of choreography with a chosen piece of music.

Listening and voice work.

One-to-one mentoring with Post Graduate Choreographers.

Co-teaching Improvisation.

Independent Improvisation and Voice Workshops

Outside of my teaching work at the school I also lead workshop intensives with Seke Chimutengwende, Rick Nodine and the other members of Neat Timothy, the improvisation group I work with (Gabriel Reuter, Jane Leaney, Gareth Green and Bryony Perkins). The teaching can take place in pairs or in larger combinations. In the workshops I work with the participants as a sound / music improviser, but also sometimes lead voice work that moves into movement and voice improvisation. We’ve worked together in this way at venues like Tanzfabrik, Berlin, Trip Space, London and The Place, London.

I also from time to time run workshops that focus on voice alone. The approach is one of exploring breath and the physical embodiment of voice and singing. It has some similarities to Natural Voice work and is clearly influenced by my collaboration with dancers over many years. We also simply experience the joy of vocalising and singing together in a group.