Biog:

Jodie is a choreographer, movement director, facilitator, & performer, & is lead artist at Jodie Cole Dance. Inspired by the healing powers of movement to cross social divides, she celebrates difference, uses movement to unite experience & brings performance to unexpected places.

 

Jodie runs weekly Open Practice sessions in Margate, an invitation to do your own thing in the company of others, with a playlist of eclectic tunes. She works internationally in communities, in theatre, & in disability arts settings, & is trained to level 3 British Sign Language.   

 

In 2021 she was appointed as Jerwood Creative Fellow with Extraordinary Bodies to develop inclusive practice. In 2022 she toured Boogie Booth, a popup participatory dance with embedded BSL. In 2023 she completed a DYCP research exploring “Class, Collaboration, & Complex PTSD" and she developed "Feel the Beat", a participatory dance show with embedded audio description playing with sensory ways into dance.

 

In 2024 she was associate artist with Arts & Homelessness International exploring her experiences of homelessness in solo dance making. She is currently an associate for the Jerwood Toolkit promoting socio-economic diversity in the arts, working with organisations nationally. 

 

Class description:

This session is for anyone who would like to explore the creative potential of their body, with others, through gentle tasks, joyous play, and structured improvisations. 

 

You will be invited to connect inwards to sensations, breath, feelings and imagination, and outwards to others through play. You can expect great tunes, soft melodies, dad dancing, and lots of lying down to take it all in. 

 

Jodie’s practice explores moving in community as a healing experience. Jodie seeks sensation, connection, and pleasure through moving to music with others and with shared aims. Having experienced physical discomfort and relational fear for most of her adult life, moving and playing with others has been a way to ease out of these experiences.

 

Jodie is an experienced facilitator, known for her gentle and joyous approach having worked with LAMDA, Mountview, SLiDE, Step into Dance, Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, Extraordinary Bodies, Diverse City, Camp Bestival, Gecko, New Adventures, and Good Chance Theatre.

 

No previous movement experience is needed