Jun 2016 | Spotlight On Professional Development

Q&A with Kevin Edward Turner, Co-Artistic Director

Why professional development?
Essentially it enables you to maintain and develop your practice. Often dance artists find themselves drawn to teaching work. This is fantastic but it doesn’t leave much space for artistic development. To grow your own practice and to remain relevant, you have to push yourself, and professional development helps you do this.

What makes a good class?
Rigour! It’s really important that after class, you feel sweaty and like you’ve really worked. When you keep on going, even when you want to stop, you’re pushing your boundaries and therefore improving yourself. It’s also important that you take something new away from every class. More depth can always be found, even in the simplest exercises. This might be through introducing more physicality or through clearer articulation or execution: there’s always a way to make it more exciting.

Why improvise?
Improvisation builds awareness and articulation in the body. It’s the gateway to exploring new possibilities with the body in space and time. It’s fantastic for generating material in a devised choreographic process and it makes you aware of the choices you’re making in the moment.

Why do you recommend Chameleon’s PRO CLASS?
We’ve been developing our own method and approach to movement for nearly ten years. Our approach is a real melting point of techniques, grown from working with dance artists from around the world. Classes provide an excellent representation of all those influences, which so expand the movement choices available to you.

Book for PRO CLASS here: Monday (Contemporary) & Friday (Strength & Conditioning)