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I have always been a fan of moving. I dance when I’m happy, stressed, blissfully confused. I dance out the whole rainbow spectrum of emotion that moves through my body. Free flowing movement gets what is on the inside, out.
When I move, my feelings and thoughts become more tangible, malleable almost. There, in movement, I can choose to literally shape my thoughts and feelings, or purely bear witness to them. To me this shapes potent self connection. This kind of communication to self (and to others beyond words) is aaaaaDictive, extraordinarily humbling and honestly, necessary.
In my youth dancing was an activity like any other sport. So I danced. I grew my foundation, I delighted, I performed. However, the more I craved new ways of moving the more I understood I had only dipped my young toes into the pond of possibility.
These aspects of movement – they are an ocean. I will always be grateful for my greatest teacher and friend, Kirsty Lee, who nurtured these aspects of dance in my forming years as it has guided much of the joy in my life. I grew my practice, diversified, experimented, listened, watched, felt, made contemporary works, joined contact jams, fused disciplines, spoke for artist circles, trained and performed internationally … and in all that I came to know what I wanted to share – I wanted to facilitate this profoundly connective movement in others.
And so I began facilitating. The more I taught, the deeper I too understood, felt and connected with myself and others. I have a fond memory of directing a dancework named THREADS – this was a site specific performance that considered how a thread could imbue memory, attitude and relationship.
By night I would gather with my gaggle of wonderful movement loving women inside a friendly and eccentric Op-shop in town. Here I explored ideas, created tasks, collaborated and blended together a string of thought in movement (occasionally interrupted by a frenzy of op-shop treasure hunting, of course). It was a space and project where the process was joy and the product was a bonus.
The pure juice of creativity is in the process; it’s in the making and the maintaining. It’s playful, vulnerable and thrilling.
Abundance is a series of dance workshops that uses grounded contemporary technique, curiosity, improvisation and wholesome conditioning to fuel the sense of embodied feminine.
I offer this series exclusively to Fertile Ground and The Melbourne Apothecary, to the mothers and the mothers to be, to join me in opening to, generating and maintaining your sense of feminine sensual movement. This is about confidence. This is about play. This is about curiosity and moving even more into connection with your body and mind.
AbunDance is a community where you can nurture your capacity to connect, where you can develop a practice of dedication to yourself and all that you are as a woman.
Katy Woods is a professional dancer, group facilitator and dance teacher. She loves developing classes that initiate and sustain the love of movement for others. to access her current class series – AbunDance. Katy is offering your first class for free.