Siobhan Davies Studios

🌱 Join Maymana and June this Pride Month for a reflective wander and moving session through the green spaces surrounding SDS.

👣 This ecology walk and improvisation-based movement session attend to the space and time our bodies and plant bodies could together hold.

💭 Moving at a pace that makes room for looking closely, we’ll pause with plants and local wildlife, uncovering the q***r histories embedded in ecologies around us. Whilst we practise sensing, feeling and moving as and with these q***rly fugitive plant bodies, we will also consider what we might offer in return.

🌈 This session is exclusively for LGBTQIA+ people, contact us if you are unsure if this is for you.

📅 Friday 17 July | 5pm - 7pm
🎟️ Free
🔗 link to book: https://www.siobhandavies.com/events/q***r-ecology-noticing-feeling-moving/

📸
Top: June Yuen Ting by Sophie Le
Bottom: Courtesy of Maymana Arefin

💗 Keeping the energy going after last week's Pride!

🌈 SDS is hosting Town Square: Q***r Takeover next Friday, which is a space exclusively for LGBTQIA+ dance artists, movers & practitioners.

✨Town Square Studio: Q***r Takeover✨ a communal studio space for LGBTQIA+ dance artists to work alongside one another in our studios. This is as much a space for working alone, as it is for small groups and those looking to collaborate.

🕐 Friday 17 July 2026:
1:30 – 6:00 PM

✨Town Square Chat: Hosted by Loren Mck & Courtney Nettleford✨ a conversational sessions for LGBTQIA+ dance artists, art workers and SDS staff to unpack the "how" of continuing making and moving. The theme for this chat: Map, Archive, Desire and will be co-facilitated by artists Loren & Courtney.

🕐 Friday 17 July 2026:
12.30 – 2:00pm

☝ Learn more, sign up and book via links below-
Town Square Studio: Q***r Takeover: https://www.siobhandavies.com/events/town-square-studio-q***r-takeover/
Town Square Chat: Hosted by Loren Mck & Courtney Nettleford: https://www.siobhandavies.com/events/town-square-chat-hosted-by-loren-mck-courtney-nettleford/

📸 Rocio Chacon

🪷 Join our next Unscary Saturdays with Archita Kumar to experience Kathak.

Archita is a dancer and composer specialising in Kathak. She has served as a tutor for the Centre for Advanced Training (CAT) and Morley College London. Her work is deeply rooted in making dance accessible across all ages and abilities. As a versatile artist, Archita has performed and choreographed for leading institutions including Akademi, the British Museum, and the Southbank Centre. Her workshops invite participants to explore the rhythm and vibrant movement of Indian dance in a warm, low-stakes, and joyful environment.

🗓️ Sat 11 July | 1 – 3pm
🎟️ £10 – 15 · Free for under 16s
🧏🏽 This session will be BSL interpreted by Jadeaana Odle
🔗Book Here: https://www.siobhandavies.com/events/unscary-saturdays-kathak-with-archita/

🙀 Unscary Saturdays are a series of inclusive dance classes at SDS - the aim is to dismantle the unhelpful pressures and sense of intimidation that can often be felt in dance spaces. Classes are open to ALL ages and abilities.

🌀 Join us next Monday at the Underscore III for Global Majority/ BPOC dancers.

💬Sharing here a few words from our participants about the workshop:

"I like the scaffolding structure - starting out on your own, feeling your self, the space, the ground, the different spheres of the body, then beginning to overlap with each other, grazing, then connecting, while also honoring rest."

"There's a sense of dropping tension into more ease/safety being in a POC space."

💎 This workshop is exclusively for dancers who identify as BPOC/Global Majority, interested in exploring their practice in relation to Contact Improvisation. Led by Nathaniel Parchment , participants will be harnessing the framework of The Underscore to go deeper and question how to create a space where Contact Improvisation can be truly inclusive through a process of conscious decoloniality.

🗓️ Mon 6 July, 6 -9pm
📍 Pembroke House , SE17 1QR
🎟️ £10-£15
🌟 Learn more: https://www.siobhandavies.com/events/the-underscore-3-for-bpoc/

📸 Image: Sophie Le

📣 The Last session of Freestylers is next week.

🪩 Join them at Goldsmiths CCA for a free live session of dance and improvisation. Come and go, make noise, or even join in while the Freestylers will perform against their large backdrop paintings exhibited in Flare-Up.

💙 Show up with friends and be part of this unique relaxed and intimate space.

🗓️ Tuesday 30 June 6.30pm-8.30pm
📍 Goldsmiths CCA, St James’, New Cross, London SE14 6AD
🎟️ FREE
🔗 Link to book in bio, or turn up on the door.

📸 Freestylers, Honey You Are Art, 2024 [still]. Courtesy of the artists.

Meet our artist for the Living Image Chapter 1.

Introducing Sasha Mahfouz Shadid, a British/Palestinian artist, born in Portsmouth, Southsea. He is an experienced movement artist, painter and culture worker. His greatest passions are Street-dance, focused on Hip Hop, Krump, House Dance and traditional Palestinian dance. learning these from artists and renowned dancers from around the world.

He has have worked locally and internationally, touring with Hip Hop theatre shows, Assistant Director roles for theatre work and has performed in venues including The O2 Arena, Wembley Stadium, The Royal Albert Hall, The Royal Opera House, Sadler’s Wells Theatre and The National Theatre on the Olivier stage.

Aside from theatre, his work commercially is also ongoing having danced for pop and indie artists from GreenTeaPeng, Clean Bandit, Ellie Goulding and many more. He has been on a journey of discovery, gaining experiences that contributes to his creative path allowing him to create theatre, film and perform relentlessly.

🌟 Marking SDS’s 20th anniversary, this four-chapter project (July 2026 – July 2027) invites 20 artists to deconstruct, dismantle, and reclaim movement traditions in a project that dis/honours Siobhan Davies’ original work, challenging how dance history is archived and celebrated.

🗓️ Thursday 2 July + Friday 3 July, 7 – 9 pm
🎟️ £10 - £20
🔔 Book here: https://bookwhen.com/siobhandavies?tags=Living+Image =ev-s0h62-20260702190000

📸 Image: Sasha Mahfouz Shadid (Elena Cremona)

🙀 Going to a dance class can be scary! Unscary Saturdays are a series of inclusive dance classes at SDS - the aim is to dismantle the unhelpful pressures and sense of intimidation that can often be felt in dance spaces. Classes are open to all ages and abilities.

🥻 In this session Archita Kumar will take you on a journey through Kathak dance, where bare feet become the percussion and hands tell a story! In this session you will explore rhythmic recitation, introduction to the basic musical time cycle, wrist articulation, dynamic arm and body movements, percussive footwork, turns and hand gestures.

🗓️ Sat 11 July | 1 – 3pm
🎟️ £10 – 15 · Free for under 16s
🧏🏽 This session will be BSL interpreted by Jadeaana Odle
🔗 Book here: https://bookwhen.com/siobhandavies/e/ev-sms1q-20260711130000
🌟 All ages and ability welcome

📷️ Simon Richardson

Meet our artist for the Living Image Chapter 1.

Introducing Andrea Buckley, a movement artist with over 30 years of experience in performance, teaching and somatic practice. Her work grows out of improvisation and contact work, shaped over many years through collaborations with artists including Sue MacLennan, Kirstie Simson, Nancy Stark Smith, Gill Clarke, Rosemary Lee and Deborah Hay.

She has worked widely across the UK and internationally in both professional and community settings, and has maintained a long and meaningful connection with Siobhan Davies Dance (now SDS). Andrea works with a broad range of people — from dancers and students to people with learning disabilities and mixed‑ability groups. Her teaching and mentoring adapt to the needs of each group and each place, making her practice responsive, inclusive and grounded.
Andrea is also an Advanced Certified Rolfer™ and Rolfing® Movement Practitioner, supporting individuals and small groups to explore how body and mind relate through movement and touch.
Based in her hometown of Wirral in the Northwest of England, she continues to co‑create and facilitate work with colleagues Mary Prestidge and Paula Hampson. Recent projects include First on the Heel (2023), a film commissioned by Output Gallery with filmmaker Tommy Husband.

Her solo practice has recently expanded into making short exploratory films. She is interested in perception, curiosity, connection and embodied presence. Working closely with horses has opened up new layers in her creative process — their sensitivity and attentiveness have become an important influence. A recent highlight was collaborating with film artist Lucy Cash within this environment as part of her research.
Andrea is especially inspired by the possibilities that arise when people come together to create something new in a shared, live moment.

🌟 Marking SDS’s 20th anniversary, this four-chapter project (July 2026 – July 2027) invites 20 artists to deconstruct, dismantle, and reclaim movement traditions in a project that dis/honours Siobhan Davies’ original work, challenging how dance history is archived and celebrated.

🗓️ Thursday 2 July + Friday 3 July, 7 – 9 pm
🎟️ £10 - £20
🔔 More information on our website: https://www.siobhandavies.com/events/living-image-chapter-1/

📸 Image: Andrea Buckley (Daniel Williams)

🌀 The Underscore is a structure developed by Contact Improvisation founder Nancy Stark Smith in the 90's. It includes 20 different phases, each has a name and an associated symbol called a ‘glyph’.

In this session, Nathaniel will be harnessing the framework to go deeper and question how to create a space where Contact Improvisation can be truly inclusive through a process of conscious decoloniality.

Please note that this is a BPOC / Global Majority exclusive workshop, and it will take place at Pembroke House .

🗓️ Mon 6 July, 6 -9pm
📍 Pembroke House, SE17 1QR
🎟️ £10-£15
🔗 Learn more: https://www.siobhandavies.com/events/the-underscore-3-for-bpoc/

📸 Photo Credits: Sophie Le

Meet our artist for the Living Image Chapter 1.

Introducing Dan Daw, the Artistic Director of Dan Daw Creative Projects. Dan Daw Creative Projects is a disabled-led company who are leading the way in creating accessible international touring work that blurs the lines between theatre, dance and activism.

Dan began working as a performer with Restless Dance Theatre (Australia) in 2002, and since then has gone on to work with Australian Dance Theatre, Force Majeure, Queensland Theatre, Sydney Theatre Company (Australia), FRONTLINEdance, Scottish Dance Theatre, balletLORENT, Candoco Dance Company, National Theatre Scotland (UK) and Skånes Dansteater (Sweden).

Dan’s critically acclaimed live performance work has toured to over twenty venues around the World, being nominated for a UK National Dance Award in 2022 and more recently awarded a Green Room Award for Best Contemporary and Experimental Performance during his season at Rising Festival and APAM.

A Sadler’s Wells Associate Artist and working as Auawirleben Theatre Festival Associate Curator (2024 – 2025), Fokus Tanz Co-curator (2024), Internationale Tanzmesse NRW Associate Curator (2021 – 2024), Associate Artistic Director of Candoco Dance Company (2021), Sadler’s Wells Summer University Artist (2015 – 2018) and Associate Director of Murmuration (2015 – 2022), Dan continues to work at the forefront of disability-led performance making and international performance programming.

🌟 Marking SDS’s 20th anniversary, this four-chapter project (July 2026 – July 2027) invites 20 artists to deconstruct, dismantle, and reclaim movement traditions in a project that dis/honours Siobhan Davies’ original work, challenging how dance history is archived and celebrated.

🗓️ Thursday 2 July + Friday 3 July, 7 – 9 pm
🎟️ £10 - £20
🔔 More information on our website: https://www.siobhandavies.com/events/living-image-chapter-1/

📸 Image: Dan Daw (Hugo Glendinning)