The Work Room

Autumn Term returns next Thursday!
Co-led with Barrowland Ballet, Autumn Term runs from 3 September - 18 December 2026.

The term kicks off with 2 special extended sessions, led by Kirstie Simson & Charlie Brittain 👉

Thursday 3 September, 9.30-11.30am
Friday 4 September, 9.30-11.30am
at Queens Park Govanhill Parish Church (QPGPC)

As always is
Thursdays & Fridays
9.30-10.45am
£7/ £5 / £3

https://theworkroom.org.uk/events/professional-contemporary-class-autumn-term-2026

📣 We are pleased to introduce our first COHORT artists – Amy Lawrence, Kiki Oladapo, Sara Kemal, and Tharanga Wikramasinghe!

The four artists will deepen their choreographic and performance-making practice over 12 months, through a series of solo and group residencies, a Peer-led Syllabus of practical and creative workshops, as well as regular opportunities for collective learning, exchange and peer support.

We’re excited to work with and support Amy, Kiki, Sara and Thara, in this first iteration of our new longer-term support programme.

Full details on our website.

https://theworkroom.org.uk/news/cohort-26-27-announced-27082026/

Earlier this summer, Embedded Artist Gail Sneddon joined Claire Pencak for a conversation about walking, place, practice, and how we stay connected from where we are.

Although both had chosen routes close to home, they met on Zoom, as the places they wanted to speak from had no reception.

Claire shared images from the Borders: rowan trees thick with moss, woodland landscapes, and places marked by clearing and change. Gail shared images from her own local landscape in the North East, including the aftermath of wildfires on the Dava Moor and the beginnings of new growth.

Their conversation moved through loss and change in the land, a shared love of working with stone, and the ways practice can be shaped by landscape, materials, histories, and people working in other fields - archeologists, historians, growers.
Claire spoke about being on the fringes as a generative place, and how life and practice are part of the same way of living.

They also reflected on gathering: what kinds of arts gatherings feel nourishing, what can be learned from rural gatherings, ceilidhs, potato days, winter gatherings, and the everyday ways.

Part of Gail Sneddon’s research with The Work Room, exploring how members across Scotland gather, connect, and sustain practice across distance.

Link to the full blog post: https://theworkroom.org.uk/news/walking-talking-with-claire-pencak/

📷 Image of Claire with the tree: still by Glenda Rome from the film Expressing the Earth. Other images: Claire Pencak and Gail Sneddon.

Descriptions: 1, A path through a scorched ash tree farm, 2, small tree set between a woodland and cleared woodland, 3, previously burnt landscape with dark soil, growing new plants, 4, the same tree from image 2 - but vastly grown, and covered in moss on its bark and the ground.

Last week to apply for our Festival bursaries!

We've partnered with Citymoves Dance Agency to support 2 members at an early stage of their career and who haven’t attended before to experience the Festival.

Support includes:
⚫ £300 bursary
⚫ reimbursed return travel by public transport
⚫ hotel room accommodation
⚫ and a complimentary Festival Pass giving access to all performances, classes and workshops.

Bursary recipients will also be invited to attend the Festival Launch and additional events during the Festival. This is an opportunity to immerse yourself in the programme and connect with colleagues from across the dance community in Scotland.

📅 Apply by 31 August, Midnight

https://theworkroom.org.uk/opportunities/dancelive-festival-2026

We’re excited to announce the recipients of our 2026 International Bursaries!

We are delighted to be supporting Juily Chen, Emma Jayne Park, and Nancy Jacinto to participate in Keđja’s Stretch Further: Exploring Identity event, in Oulu, Finland (7 – 13 September).

We are also supporting participation in VAP’s encounters for Katherina Radeva—Albanian Dance Platform (19 - 22 October 2026)—and Mark Bleakley—Iridescent Festival, Bucharest, Romania (5 – 9 November).

This year, we continue working with Keđja our long-standing collaborator—an informal, international network bringing together dance professionals across borders to create, share and inspire. Member organisations come from Finland, Iceland, Scotland, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway and Estonia.

We are also connecting for the first time with Visiting Artist Programme (VAP) to offer two artists from The Work Room network the opportunity to join with artists from across Europe at Artists Encounters. VAP is one of the projects that form part of Dance Festivals Network Europe, a coalition of European dance festivals dedicated to advancing contemporary dance’s role in building a sustainable, inclusive and innovative future.

See the News section of our website for more information about the supported artists and these international programmes for dance artists.

https://theworkroom.org.uk/news/international-bursaries-2026-announcement

Image: courtesy of Keđja network

Members - new slots available for our OPEN ACCESS STUDIO TIME! 💥

Find the booking link & info in your emails or on our website.

can book free time in our studio, at Glasgow Tramway.

Studio time is bookable in half-day blocks (3.5 hours Mo -Sat & 5hour on Sun), and can be used for closed rehearsal and practice, i.e. to develop or sustain practice, rehearse, test ideas, get back into moving, and more.

This is free, short slots of time in the TWR studio, and there is no bursary or fees associated with this offer. Please note – these slots cannot be used to hold classes, workshops or any public facing activity.

Image Winter Term 2026, by Brian Hartley
[Description]: cropped image of dancers hands, feet, and bodies on a dance floor.

Mabel Blair joins us this and next week for her residency, Triptych!

Mabel is in residency developing choreography for a new short dance, based on the spoken word piece ‘Triptych: Three Ways of Looking at the Moon’. Split into three sections the work will use movement to explore the female relationship with the Moon, looking at themes of birth, death and the sea as a metonym for the moon’s power, and its influence over our female ‘bodies of water.

This is the first our of new residency programme, for Sept 2026 - Feb 2027.

Full announcement coming soon.

https://theworkroom.org.uk/residencies/triptych/

Last month, Embedded Artist Gail Sneddon joined Tom Goodwin for a telephone walking conversation, with both choosing routes close to home, a place they often walk to work things out. Tom walked from an elevated area behind his house, surrounded by lush green landscape, while Gail walked through a poppy field on the edge of a forest behind her home.

Their conversation moved between place, practice, and past connecting journeys through training in London and time spent at Plum Village Monastery France. They reflected on the experience of leaving home for work, and the desire to develop and sustain practice more fully from where they live and how to create the conditions to do that.

They also chatted about Tom’s Kinship Workshops, which explore how we meet the “other” in non-human-centric landscapes. Kinship invites deeper attunement to nature, landscape, and the wild or free-roaming animals we may share space with www.kinshipworkshop.info

📍 Daily walking routes close to home
📷 Images by Tom and Gail

Descriptions: 1 & 3, images of a dry red poppy field, 2 & 4 images of a landscape with lots of green foliage.

Part of Gail Sneddon’s research with The Work Room, exploring how members across Scotland gather, connect, and sustain practice across distance.

🏃‍♀️‍➡️ The Work Room is seeking new Board Trustees 🏃‍♀️‍➡️

We are seeking 4 – 5 people to join our Board of Trustees to support The Work Room in its mission to empower artists in making thoughtful and pioneering dance for diverse contexts at home and internationally.

Our Trustees include artist-members of The Work Room as well as people who bring expertise and experience from other sectors to our governance.

"The support offered by The Work Room is vital in these precarious times. Whether it be through advocacy, one-on-one advice or international exchange; residencies, bursaries or yearlong peer-supported research; The Work Room ensures that artists continue their work and that the Scottish dance sector remains vibrant and relevant. The impact of The Work Room is inspiring. Yet equally inspiring is the deeply embedded ethos of the organisation and the meaningful engagement with members that shapes how decisions are made and programmes are developed." - Kirsty Alexander, Co-Chair & TWR Member

Apply by 18 September!

Full details on our website.
https://theworkroom.org.uk/opportunities/the-work-room-is-seeking-new-board-trustees-2026

This summer, Embedded Artist Gail Sneddon has been spending time in conversation with The Work Room members across Scotland as part of her practice-based action research project.

Based in the North East, Gail is exploring how The Work Room can support a more dispersed and networked model for members across Scotland one rooted in reciprocity, connection, and place.

Through walking conversations with people whose practices are rooted in and shaped by the landscape, particularly those living and working rurally or at a distance from central networks. Gail has been exploring how we gather, sustain creative practice, and remain connected across distance.

Over the next few weeks, we’ll be sharing some photographs and reflections from these conversations.

Image Description: Map of Scotland showing 5 connected points, with walking routes connecting them in blue.