ID: Ania has a shaved head, they are wearing black top with long sleeves and brighter trousers with stripes on the side. Ania is captured mid-movement, amongst many people.

GATHER UP Presents is a gathering for the celebration of contemporary dance practice in Bristol, in partnership with Bristol Old Vic. Set over 3 days, between 26th-29th April 2025, we will present the work of Bristol movement practitioners and beyond through live performance, workshops, artist talks, and screen-based work.

Workshop with Ania Varez
Flying Low & Passing Through

In this workshop, Ania will share their practice of Flying Low and Passing Through. These techniques have been developed by David Zambrano for the last few decades, and together they offer a different approach to moving in and out of the floor: we will use a never-ending spiralling motion to travel into the floor and back up, as well as through the space, looking to dance in constant connection to everyone in the room.

We will work with set sequences and also improvisation scores. For the improvised section of the class, we will rely on our vision and our hands to connect to each other safely as we create curved pathways in space, whilst the set sequences are focused on finding the spiral motion in our own bodies. During the class some gentle touch might occur, as people try to safely negotiate their pathway in space. This class will be energetic, with lots of going up and down, sometimes slowly and often quite quickly, as well as an upbeat playlist to get us grooving!

Ania Varez (they/them) is a Venezuelan dancer, teacher and community facilitator based in Bristol, making performances that live in-between the sociopolitical and the poetic. Their work is highly collaborative and experimental, straddling the mediums of dance, community development practices, live art and poetry. Ania's performances might look like a party, an installation, an immersive theatrical experience or a carefully crafted space for conversations.They collaborate with other artists and with communities that may feel art is not for them. Ania's work has been showcased internationally and in the UK, including: SPILL Festival, Seoul Marginal Theatre Festival, Migration Matters Festival, Taipei Centre of Contemporary Art, the National Gallery of Venezuela and Trinity Centre. They were awarded a Leverhulme Scholarship from the Bristol Old Vic (2019-2020). Ania is a proud member of Interval, an artist support network based in Bristol.

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Access:
Get in touch if you have access needs that we could support you with. Email us at: [email protected]

Creative Audio Description: if you are a visually impaired dancer planning to attend, you may like to book our free Creative Audio Describer service to provide you with 1:1 support during the class. Please get in touch if you would like to request this support.

Care Pot: the Care Pot exists to offer cash support towards childcare, parking, travel, access or other extra costs that may surround coming to these classes. Take a read and please be in touch with how we could cover some of your extra costs so that you can come along and participate.

Rest: Our spaces are rest welcome. There are various benches, seats and corners in the studio or you are always welcome to leave the studio for a break.

Find out more here: www.gatherup.live

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GATHER UP Presents is made possible thanks to our partner Bristol Old Vic. It is supported using public funding by the National Lottery through Arts Council England and by Bristol City Council (Originators).

Entry requirements: 18+ — Read more — Read less