SUMMER
WORKSHOPS
TEACHERS 2026
photo credit: Elly Welford
Thursday 20th August 2026
Claire Lambert
Claire graduated from London Contemporary Dance School with Postgraduate Diploma in
Performance, having completed her BA (Hons) in Dance Theatre at Trinity Laban.
Claire has devised and toured new works nationally and internationally; Olivier award-winning
Angels in America at the National Theatre, Beyond Words, CoDa Dance, Lila Dance, Laura Booth,
Tavaziva Dance, Highly Sprung, Four Hands, Filskit Theatre, Beautiful Thing for GDIF18, Casson &
Friends, Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games Opening Ceremony, London 2012 Olympic
Opening Ceremony.
Aerial work; CastAway (gyroscopic flying rig), aerial rugby player (Robby Graham), R&D for concept
film vertical dancing on cliffs (Kate Lawrence) and vertical dance piece with Upswing Aerial for
Coventry City of Culture 2021.
Claire has received ACE funding for a DYCP & NLPG grants & teaches for Royal Birmingham
Conservatoire, Performer’s College, Brum Pro Class, Coventry Pro Initiative, Birmingham CAT Scheme,
BRB, Hippodrome, ACE Dance & Music and Dance Co-operative Birmingham.
Workshop Description:
Claire will lead an open level full-bodied, expansive class with a mixture of detailed content and
moments to explore your own physicality. Expect a blend of taught sequences, improvisation and
joyful playlist! Claire's class encourages personal expression whilst building connection, strength and
articulation in the moving body.
Following class, we will explore some choreographic games and spend time working on creative play
in solos and groups. We will finish with an invitation to share what we’ve made with each other in a
relaxed setting. The emphasis of the day is to invite your artistic ideas to emerge and lead the way
within a fun and friendly atmosphere. Let’s go!
Photo credit
Friday 21st August 2026
Sasha Roubicek
Biog:
Sasha is a dance artist, somatic movement practitioner and yoga teacher with a long and varied career in contemporary dance. She trained at the London Contemporary Dance school and went on to co-found Reflex Dance Company, as well as being a founding member of Small Bones Dance Company. She has performed with companies and choreographers including Motion House Dance Theatre, Yolande Snaith Theatre Dance, Joe Moran and worked extensively with Siobhan Davies Dance Company. She received the Southbank show performance award for her performance in Davies ‘wild air’ (2002) Alongside her professional dance career Sasha has developed a rich movement practice integrating her experiences of Aikido, somatic movement and yoga. She has travelled several times to Japan to study Aikido and is graded 4TH Dan and was awarded the Lisa Ullman scholarship to continue her studies in Japan. Sasha has also been several times to study yoga in the Himalayas in India and is a qualified master level and antenatal yoga teacher. She has taught dancers and dance companies nationally and internationally and was a long-term member of the faculty at the London Contemporary Dance school where she specialised in release based dance practice somatic movement and the work of Siobhan Davies also choreographing several original works for undergraduate and postgraduate students. Sasha has an MA in advanced contemporary dance studies continues to work as a freelance dance artist and yoga teacher in the UK and abroad.
Artist statement
My teaching draws unreleased based dance practice and somatic approaches, creating space for people to develop their own movement language. I value exploration, listening and choice and encourage dancers to work with their bodies rather than forcing movement was driving for a particular outcome. Rather than focusing only on how movement looks., I'm interested in how it feels and what we can discover through moving.
I'm particularly interested in the connection between technical and creative practice and how developing physical awareness can open up greater freedom, expression and imagination. I'm also interested in helping people become more curious about their bodies and how many possibilities of movement I enjoy working with people of different ages and levels of experience in creating environment environments where everyone can feel included., supported and able to explore. At the heart of my practice is a belief in movement as a way of connecting to ourselves to others and the world around us.
.jpg)
Photo credit
Saturday 22nd August 2026
Sophie Arstall
Biog:
Sophie Arstall is a London based Contemporary Dance Artist working as a performer, maker and facilitator for over 20 years. She has worked extensively in the UK scene and beyond with many choreographers such as Hagit Yakira, Rosemary Lee, Stacked Wonky, Protein Dance Company, Candoco Dance Company, Vanessa Grasse, Annie Hanauer and Charlie Morrissey, performing and devising new work whilst creating her own work for stage and film. As a facilitator she has a developed teaching practice bringing Creative Contemporary Dance to professionals and communities alike, and has been Rehearsal Director for the renowned Candoco Dance Company and choreographer Rosemary Lee amongst others. Her work focuses on improvisational and compositional approaches, drawing upon Somatic techniques, Internal Martial Arts and an ever present outdoors practice. She has most recently become a mother of 2 girls and is currently training to become a Tai Chi Qigong teacher.
Workshop Description:
In this day workshop we will come together to explore our dancing through guided improvisation, somatic movement and Contemporary Dance approaches.
We will begin the day with a class to warm up the body and mind, bringing our attention inwards to guide and cultivate our energy, drawing upon Tai Chi-Qigong and experiential anatomy to do so. We will ground ourselves, allowing us to work with gravity, release tension and expand, opening up a flow of connection throughout the body mind. From this place of nourishment we will move outwards resourcing a variety of imagery, qualities and energies to open up our possibilities of expression. Bringing attention to our environment and the relational will offer more information and intelligence to dance with.
In this wider field, we will activate an awareness of composition that is ever present whilst maintaining an inner attention to resource us. This dialogue between our internal and external worlds will continue as we introduce scores and set material to play with, offering new possibilities in time and space. We will work solo, in small and larger groups and perhaps introduce the possibility of contact.
In the afternoon we will continue with the weaving of set and spontaneous material. We will break things down to look at and to bring details into our dancing whilst building structures to frame and develop the material offered. We will open up our dancing further to be witnessed by each other and to explore this state of presence and awareness.
By the end of the day we will be thoroughly danced out and I hope happy!
Photo:
Sunday 23rd August 2026
Barnaby Booth
Barnaby is an award winning choreographer, theatre maker and lighting designer. His work in contemporary dance has been seen all across Europe, in China, Singapore, South Korea, Mexico and the United States. He has directed shows for Classical Pride, Club Guy & Roni (Netherlands), Sub-Lab Pro Dance Company (Hungary), Los Little Guys (USA/Mexico), NSCD Verve (UK) Folkwang Tanzstudio of Folkwang University of the Arts (Germany), TRAK Dance Ensemble (Austria) and Dantzaz Dance Company (Spain). He has also collaborated on performances for English National Opera at the London Coliseum, has directed musical numbers for short films and music videos, and has been commissioned to make dance work on students at a number of Universities and Conservatories and youth companies internationally. His solo for dancer Samuli Emery won them multiple prizes at the Stuttgart solo competition, and continues to tour internationally. As well as create his own work, Barnaby is also a guest lecturer and mentor at Northern School of Contemporary Dance and London Contemporary Dance School.
His lighting credits include work for Sita Ostheimer, DeNada Dance Theatre/Carlos Pons Guerra, Xie Xin Dance Company in Shanghai, Żfin Malta, Andrea Costanzo Martini, Jamaal Burkmar/Extended Play Dance, National Dance Company of Wales, Sebastian Abarbanell, Northern Rascals, SAY, Crystal Zillwood, Akeim Toussaint Buck, German Staatstheaters Kassel, Pforzheim and Braunschweig, Volkstheater Rostock, Mir Dance Company, Mavin Khoo, Wilhelmina Ojanen, Mobius Dance, Northern Ballet, Abbott Dance Company/Kristin Kelly Abbott, NSCD Verve, Unholy Mess Theatre Company, Feet Off the Ground Dance, Utopia Theatre Company, Mala Kline and Lewys Holt.