Workshops

See NEWS for up and coming workshops

Classes and workshops are available for professional level, student groups (MA / Degree), community or theatre companies. Workshops are tailored to suit the group and their needs.
Inclusive practice is a priority for Jo,  she regularly works with elders groups, people with learning differences, LGBTQAI+ and PoC gatherings, neurodiverse people, people with disabilities and people who simply love to move. Sessions can be centred around current projects, creative experimentation for choreography or theatre making, movement for theatre practitioners or improvisation techniques. Important to Jo are notions of liveness, creating spaces where people can connect and thrive, listening AND DANCING.
Workshops give an insight to the creative methods of Jo’s work and offer invaluable advice and feedback.
Supporting or mentoring artists and projects in progress is part of Jo’s practice. She works with writers, visual artists, theatre makers and choreographers and Jo regularly contributes to arts organisations who want to think about new ways of working and finding ways to diversify their spaces.

Classes Jo’s working practice is an evolving, interactive and a playful approach. Play has become the very nature of how Jo approaches her body, her voice, her performance roles and her making processes. In the studio-based sessions Jo shares the instigations and the receptive and active techniques. An efficient, imaginative and dynamic approach.

Example workshops

Ways of Being Together / How Shall We Begin again example

Research on Nettles: How to Disagree? – example

Research on A Brief History of Difference –  example

Workshop comment – Shropshire Inclusive Dance

“The rich sense of trust that was there… the fascinating mix the day had of being both robust and vigorous, yet also appropriately sensitive and caring; the playful sense, at times, of being thrown about like a ballet dancer or acrobat, yet also feeling empowered, at ease, in enough control. It was all quite delightful. And fun!”  Satyo

Project related workshops

Workshops have been a way to spark new projects such as Sons and Mums with Everybody Dance. Jo worked with 6 men with autism and their mums, co-creating a performance for Malvern’s Feast Festival 2023.

Ways of Being Together  is a series of workshops, discussions and performances centred around the idea of Belonging – A Sense of Belonging. Jo leads a warm-up/class followed by pair work, group work and games that she developed as part of the creative process for a new work for Cardiff Dance Festival, Nov 2017. This study went on to be re-created CAN Festival in London, Feb 2020. The intital workshops for this development took place in October 2018 as part of China Changing at Southbank Centre, London. Most recently aspects of this work were shared with artists and people who love to move in Viet Nam 2023.

Click here for images from the initial Ways of Being Together workshop

Studio time is part of a larger conversation about community, participation, inclusivity, integration and rather than sustaining something, a body, a practice, a career… thinking about what it is to thrive both individually and as a community. Embedded in the all the gatherings have been the notion of belonging. A sense of belonging is intimate and powerful, connected, optimitstic, unknown and curious making.

At this time it is essential to work on our Ways of Being Together.

We walk, we talk, we listen, breath, see, observe… Dance has a special place in this face to face, touch, respond – hearing ourselves, each other, being seen, the value of our bodies, movement, presence, proximity, growing a physical sensitivity and our own physical power.

A great deal of this practice is about meeting people well. As a language Jo has developed a self generating score, simple instructions / games that play out, encouraging awareness, listening, range, presence and also simple acts like noticing.

Workshops based on current work take the form of guided improvisations and function especially well with mixed groups flexing our ability to move with others. Initially the warm up is about relationships with our own bodies and voices following individual and inherent desires. Working from the inside of the body to the outside the process incorporates a sense of play, listening, response and investigation.

Jo’s practice is influenced by her range of experiences in dance and theatre making processes and performance.

“Jo Fong is an extraordinarily gifted dance artist. The workshops that she teaches for Rambert School have given our students a real insight into finding new ways of moving. The depth of Jo’s experience and artistry is always delivered with sensitivity and generosity, helping our students to find their own creative voices.” 
Barry Ganberg, Head of Musical & Choreographic Studies, Rambert School.

For enquiries, prices and further discussion about workshops, classes and residencies that would be suitable for your group contact jofongjofong@gmail.com

Jo regularly teaches professional level classes at Groundwork Pro and lectures at various MA creative development courses in London.

Previous workshops and classes include:

  • National Dance Company Wales
  • Siobhan Davies Dance Studios
  • Independent Dance, London
  • Shropshire Inclusive Dance
  • Bristol Dance
  • Everybody Dance
  • Stopgap Dance
  • Butterfly Soup LGBTQAI+ meet up.
  • SE Dance
  • Southbank Centre, London
  • Volcano Theatre, Swansea
  • Gather Up, Bristol
  • Chapter Arts Centre, Cardiff
  • Manchester Royal Exchange Theatre
  • Dance International Glasgow
  • Dance Base Edinburgh
  • Interplay International Contemporary Dance Festival
  • Dance International Glasgow, Tramway
  • Budapest Dance Company
  • Take Art – Somerset
  • Milton Keynes Dance Centre
  • Welsh Independent Dance
  • New Adventures
  • Mark Bruce Company
  • DV8 Physical Theatre
  • Random Dance Company
  • Greenwich Dance Agency
  • The Place Open Classes
  • Pro Dance Leeds
  • Groundwork Collective Cardiff
  • Ballet Cymru
  • Bi Ma Dance Company
  • Arc Dance Company

Previous choreography for students include:

  • Swansea University
  • Rubicon Dance
  • Willows High School, Cardiff
  • Laban Centre
  • Koeln Dance School

Previous workshops for dance or theatre schools and Universities

  • Rambert Dance School
  • Laban Centre / Independent Dance MA developing creative practice
  • The Place MA Developing Creative Practice
  • Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama
  • Bath Spa University
  • Aberystwyth University
  • London Contemporary Dance School MA developing creative practice
  • Laban Centre
  • Skolen for Moderne Dance, Copenhagen
  • Dance School of Ekaterinburg Contemporary Arts Centre
  • Royal Ballet School, London
  • University of South Wales
  • Middlesex University
  • Bangor University
  • Hijinx Academi (actors with learning differences)

Movement leader for theatre and opera

  • Royal Exchange Theatre
  • Das Clarks
  • National Theatre Wales
  • Luke Hereford’s Grandmother’s Closet
  • Quarantine Theatre
  • Wales National Youth Opera
  • Welsh National Opera
  • St. Gallen Opera, Switzerland
  • Young Vic Theatre

Recent Mentoring

  • MA students at Siobhan Davies Studies, Rose Bruford and The Place
  • Artists Rowena Gander, Sahar Saki, George Wale, Sara Sirati and Nikhil Vyas

 

Credits:
Photo Credit: Jamie Morgans, Simon Banham and Heloise Godfrey - Talbot
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