It was fantastic to deliver some workshops last week with Creation Theatre's Youth Chorus for their Christmas production of Pinocchio. 

As well as basic theatre and performance skills we also looked at creating industrial-inspired group movement sequences, different types of puppetry and ways in which classic stories and fairytales can be re-told (along with plenty of fun games and breaks as well!).

A big highlight of the sessions was creating a larger puppet called Bob, controlled by 3 young people at a time. We looked at creating weight, breathe and eyelines to make Bob come to life and challenged teams of 3 with different actions and scenarios for Bob to act out.

Over the past few weeks I've had the privilege of helping out at DanceXchange's Critical Mass Summer Camps. Critical Mass is a creative, ambitious dance and movement project for up to 300 young people who will make up a collective that will perform at many exciting events in 2022, including the opening and closing ceremonies of the Birmingham Commonwealth Games.

It has been fantastic to see so many young people come together, no matter their dance experience or ability, to move, create and make new connections with people all over the West Midlands.

To find out more about Critical Mass, head to: ​https://criticalmass22.org.uk/

Yesterday I was able to visit Ascendance (who I work with over zoom) in Leeds for their HYBRID and in-person Dance with Parkinson's morning classes and for a creative session in the afternoon, exploring site-specific choreography. I had never met the team or participants in-person before - only online! - so it was absolutely fantastic to be able to meet everyone (and to surprise them with how tall I actually am...)

I had a brilliant day and can't wait to visit again soon. In the meantime, I'll be carrying on hosting Monday Dance Burst classes, dabbling with social media and helping out where I can.