Professional Contemporary Class
The Work Room and Barrowland Ballet co-run weekly, morning class for the professional dance community in Glasgow on Thursdays and Fridays.
Class is led by Aya Kobayashi and guest artists. The classes began in 2018 in response to the lack of professional-level contemporary dance classes in the city, providing a space for independent dance artists to come together to train and sustain practice.
The classes are currently subsidised by Barrowland Ballet and The Work Room. The class fee is £7 with the option of discounted rates (£5 & £3) for Work Room members/ professional dance artists. Please book in advance via TicketLab.
While we remain keen for these classes to be an accessible resource supporting the professional dance community in Glasgow, the long-term sustainability of these is not possible without generating income towards the costs.
Our aim is for these classes to be accessible to a wide range of physicalities. If you have any access requirements that you would like to make us aware of in advance or you would like to chat this through, please contact hello@theworkroom.org.uk
We encourage you to consider what you are able to contribute financially to make these classes possible. If, even the discounted rates are a barrier to you attending, please do contact us to discuss – hello@theworkroom.org.uk
Aya takes a different teaching approach to the classes on Thursdays and Fridays. Guest teachers follow a similar approach to Thursday and Friday classes as Aya, with Thursday class being more focussed around technique, stamina, and learning set sequnces, and Friday class taking a more open, improvisatory and explorative approach, aimed at widening access across a range of physicalities. While keeping this distinction, each teacher approaches class with their own focus.
THURSDAYS | 9.30am-10.45am | Queens Park Govanhill Church
The class includes both set materials and improvisations to train the clarity and embodiment through release based technique. We start with gentle way-in to our moving body, often focus on breath and energy paths to find attentiveness. With a few simple repetitive exercises we will try to find a deeper understanding of gravity, alignments and skeletal connections. The class is designed to develop your stamina and strength as we will move through with full bodied engagement and articulation. Some phrases are repeated over a few weeks to explore familiar and unfamiliar coordination of movement vocabulary.
FRIDAYS | 9.30am-10.45am | Queens Park Govanhill Church
The class starts with giving space to breathe, land or ponder then offering some images or small questions to navigate an explorative journey. Using various imageries, somatic exercises, or looking at other species or other art forms as hints or metaphors, we explore the anatomical potential and find the connections in things we live with. We will enrich our embodiment and feed into your practice. The class welcomes all movers. Aya cares about the journey of each class and within the inclusive facilitation, will move with openness and playfulness to cultivate the moving body together.
Upcoming Classes
Winter Term
Sept-Dec 2025
We understand that plans change or the morning gets away from us sometimes and many of you are rushing to book class online just before it starts. This ticket allows you to pay what you can after you have danced. Use for any class you have attended but ran out of time to book in advance.