About Pen Pynfarch

penpynfarch



About Pen Pynfarch

The Studio

Accommodation

Holiday Cottage

Workshops, Courses & Events

The Feldenkrais Method

Past Events & Links

E-mail us



Contact us

Andy Paget &
Eeva-Maria Mutka
tel: 01559 384 948


Past Events

March 5th - 9th & April 11th - 13th
Mentoring Programme 2007 with Guy Dartnell
This years artists were Cornelia Ottinger and Jon Beedell.
This creative retreat offers another opportunity for 3 artists to spend time in a studio or out in the amazing landscape - research ideas for performance, dive into new territory (whether that's using voice, writing, singing, moving in space..), start making a piece with support from a Mentor, change the focus of your work, or just take stock and have a dialogue, a chat, get feed-back...

Feb 9th - 16th 2008
The Dreaming Tree band, In Residence

Dec 2nd - 9th 2007
Fuel Theatre, In Residence

Sept 16th, Oct 21st & Nov 25th 2007
BOUNDARIES AND TRANSITIONS with Sally Ridgway
Moving Touch Sept 16th
Moving Sense Oct 20th
Moving Spirit Nov 25th


Sept & Oct 2007
Fecund Theatre, In Residence

Sept 2007
Sept 27th -30th In The Absence of Dances - improv for professional dance practitioners, with Adam Benjamin
Dancing with heart and humor, a passion for the absurd and for the contradictory demands of community. In this most appropriate of settings we explore, not just the exhilaration of improvising (group and solo) but the resonances of what we leave behind when we stop. A concern with the dance space itself as touchstone of what we experience. An invitation to listen to what is held in places and conveyed in the momentary passing of a dance.How do we leave a place/space better for our having been there? How do we hear what on Earth is being asked of us? All this, a good deal of swearing and mischieve making, text and torment.

Sept 1st to 8th Gerald Tyler and musicians, In Rehearsal

August 2007
Aug 4th to 11th Tim Jones Voice Retreat

July 2007
July 2nd to 8th Nikki Tomlinson - Artist In Residence

June 2007
June 22nd to 29th Frame 3-13 - band rehearsal

June 8th -10th, Fri afternoon - Sun afternoon Body and Earth: An Introduction, with Andrea Olsen & Caryn McHose
Andrea and Caryn consider experiential anatomy a resource for clarifying perception and deepening creative investigation. Evolutionary movement and outdoor excursions remind us of our inherent connection to the natural world. Authentic movement invites listening to the intelligence and mystery of the body. The combination stirs the senses and nourishes possibilities for creative forming, individually and in community.

June 12th - 17th, Tue eve - Sun lunch Body and Earth Training with Andrea Olsen & Caryn McHose
(For experienced movement practitioners)
This six-day residential “training” offered resources for clarifying personal movement and for teaching body and earth principles to others. During our daily practice, we focussed on three layers of the work: 1. Underlying patterns, through experiential anatomy, evolutionary movement, and treks on the land. 2. Perception, through investigation of the brain and nervous system in relationship to place—the food, fields, forests, water, and community of Pen Pynfarch. 3. Creative forming, through authentic movement, writing, and visual art.

May 2007
May 23rd - 27th 2007 Authentic Movement Retreat with Eilla Goldhahn

May 13th - 19th Welsh Independent Dance - Dance for Camera

May 12th and other dates Tanya Syed, film maker and Jessica Lerner, dancer

Tanya Blacking Out For Film

May 4th - 7th SONS 4 with Simon Whitehead
This residential workshop is for boys aged 6-12 with a parent, led by movement artist Simon Whitehead. The setting for this workshop is the 40 acre woodland valley of Pen Pynfarch with streams, clearings and abundant wildlife and these are the scenes for explorations in movement, walks (day and night), drawing, map making, painting and the gathering of materials. The workshop culminates in an evening fire, with performances and food. SONS 4 was the fourth residential workshop for boys celebrating the season, the place and the boy, alongside his guardians.

Angus'Water Bed Moss Bed

April 2007
Moving the Field - Exploring Attention and Flow, with Miranda Tufnell & Lucia Walker
This workshop/retreat was about time to play and finding pleasure in moving in and among the ideas that inspire us. Miranda and Lucia were using principles from the Alexander technique, Cranio-sacral therapy and Contact Improvisation. Looking at our responses to stimuli from inside and from around us and how we find width, length and depth. Exploring our relationship to gravity, to lightness and to space, and the ways we balance and unbalance in our relationship to ourselves and to what is around us. This workshop offered an opportunity to explore flow, sensory experience and the forming of our attention. Work happened both indoors and outdoors to find the unexplored aspects and qualities that enrich our experience of moving.

March 2007
March 19th - 23rd & April 27th -29th Mentoring Programme 2007 with Guy Dartnell
This years artists were David Richmond, Lucy Foster and Zena Edwards.

March 12th - 17th Momentum Theatre - Artists In Residence

January 2007
Dec 30th - Jan 6th 2007 Fiona Wright - Artist In Residence

December 2006
Deep Winter Locator with Simon Whitehead
The Locator project is an ongoing series of residential workshops exploring the implicit relationships between ecology, perception and movement. Residing in the sensory life of the body and its movement, Locator is an active exploration of ecology and perceptual being through a process of walking and wandering, witnessing, gathering, moving in site, rising and falling with the sun, getting lost, drawing, fasting and making. Locator; a device that helps somebody locate something

November 2006
November 2nd to 10th Chris Goode - Artist In Residence

October 2006
October 27th, 28th & 29th Earth Connection, GM Workshop with Giulia Boden

September 2006
Sept 3rd 10am Move With Ease - Feldenkrais with Andy Paget
Half-Day Workshop - Movement & Environment and weekly class Sept- Oct

July & August 2006
August 21st, 22nd & 23rd Feldenkrais Mentoring Days with Veronica Rock

Aug 15th-18th Yoga Holiday with Julia Baldock

July 20th - Aug 6th Fecund Theatre company in residence

April 19th, May 31st & July 16th
Movement for Boys 6-12 with Simon Whitehead

June 2006
June 10th - 17th.
Body and Earth Residential with Andrea Olsen and Caryn McHose
Andrea Olsen is the author of Bodystories and Body and Earth (co-author Caryn McHose), and Caryn McHose and Kevin Frank are co-authors of a new book How Life Moves, Explorations in Meaning and Body Awareness, with a foreword by Hubert Godard

Body and Earth: Person and Place
A residential retreat focusing on experiential anatomy and movement in the unique landscape of Wales - Sessions engaging the studio, woods, fields, stream, and pond of Pen Pynfarch and travel to the nearby ocean for trekking and dancing.
Caryn and Andrea consider experiential anatomy a resource for clarifying perception and deepening investigation. Authentic Movement invites listening to the inherent intelligence and mystery of the body, and outdoor excursions remind us that we are part of a larger community. The combination stirs the senses and nourishes possibilities for creative forming individually and in community.
Priority this year was given to previous workshop participants and experienced practitioners in movement and/or bodywork.

Jan 29th, Feb 26th, March 26th, May 7th, June 4th & July 2nd 2006, 11am-1pm
A Monthly Sunday morning session of Iyengar YOGA with Jessica Lerner

From February to June, two series of Monday evenings 7.30-9pm
Move With Ease - group lessons in the Feldenkrais Method with Andy Paget

April 2006
April 27th - 30th, Thursday to Sunday Not Just The Good Stuff - Improv for Professional Dancers and Dance Practitioners with Adam Benjamin

April 10th - 14th In The Grain Of The Body - Movement Retreat with Miranda Tufnell

Miranda Tufnell retreat Making In The Studio
February 2006
February 18th - 20th Sons 3

January 2006
January 18th - 21st The Perfect Combination Workshop with Kirstie Simson and Andrew Morrish
Mornings - Ensemble Dancing Improvisation taught by Kirstie Simson
Afternoons - Solo Improvisation using Text and Movement taught by Andrew Morrish.

Jan 11th-13th Uhhuh Dance Co in residence, collaborating with Janis Claxton

Uhhuh Dance Co


Jan 14th The Centre Of Presence - The Presence Of Centre with Janis Claxton

August 2005
Aug 14th - Sept 5th Fecund Theatre company in residence

July 2005
July 21st - 24th Sounding the Land - with Poh-Eng San Freedom in sound & movement.

June 2005
June 29th - July 6th Ailsa Richardson and company in residence

Ailsa Richardson and company


June 6th - 12th Body and Earth: Dancing in Place. 7 Day Residential with Andrea Olsen and Caryn McHose from USA
"Our breath, blood, muscles, and bones are the air, rivers, animals, and minerals inside us, not separate but same." Body and Earth, by Andrea Olsen
In this week-long residential workshop, Andrea Olsen and Caryn McHose offered perceptual movement and dance-making in Pen Pynfarch. Each day began with a morning movement practice. Indoor sessions in experiential anatomy to deepen embodiment and expand awareness toward space and place. Afternoon sessions of moving with the fields, streams, forests, walking paths, and ocean near Pen Pynfarch, collecting "sketch book phrases" to assemble by the end into "solos" to share. During evening sessions Caryn discussed her work with Somatic Expressions and Andrea facilitated place/dance/writing with the group. Throughout, linking body systems with larger earth systems, acknowledging our inherent resonance with the natural world.

April 28th - May 1st
Improv for professional dancers and dance practitioners with Adam Benjamin This year's workshop had dancers participating from Australia, Germany, Ireland, Japan, South Africa and England.

February 22nd-26th & April 2-4 2005
7 & 1/2 days in total over two months. Mentoring Programme for 3 artists making performance work, trying out ideas, being solo in space - with theatre performer Guy Dartnell as Mentor. Opportunity for creative retreat, support from and dialogue with Guy in the making process. The three artists this year were Alison Blunt, Camille Litalien and Simone Kenyon.

March 2005
March 21st - 25th 2005 Going To The Well - 5 Day residential with Miranda Tufnell
This workshop was about taking time to listen to the silent voices of the body, to the rhythms of breath, skin, heart and bone. The partcipants took time to both work and to play, walking and being in the land so that each could find their way to catching up with body and soul and over these five days find a richer more connected sense of body, self and environment.


Spring Equinox time, March 18th - 20th Sons 2

SONS2


December 2004
Dec 18th - 20th Skinner Releasing Technique classes, movement sessions open to all, taught by two SRT teachers in residence - Florence Peake is a London based Dance Artist and Certified SRT teacher and Sally Dean coming from Seattle now based in London is a Dancer ,Choreographer, play writer and Certified SRT teacher.

Autumn 2004/ Spring 2005
Ante-natal Yoga sessions with Gro-Mette Gulbrandsen and Baby yoga with Lisa Harley

October 2004
Oct 1st-3rd Sounding the Land - with Poh-Eng San Freedom in sound & movement.

August 2004
Aug 28th-31st Little Seeds - Movement Play and Music Making for children under 6 and their parents

Aug 16th-21st Jeff Higley, Michael Ormiston and Kate Pyper - Artists in Residence
The beginnings of an attempt to explore the way humans connect to their particular landscape through the body. We will use movement of the the body, dance, drawing, walking, sound - wood, stone, water and the voice in singing and story. A small group will gather at Pen Pynfarch to explore the landscape and record their reactions. Musician and overtone singer Michael Ormiston, dancers Kate Pyper and Eeva-Maria Mutka, artist and filmaker Jeff Higley will create a short film exploring the way inner emotional and psychological landscapes fuse with contour, form and the present and historical landscape.

Aug 8th-28th Claire Henderson - Writer in Residence

July 2004
July 3rd-7th Maryke Brommer from The Netherlands - Artist in Residence

July 9-10th A Community Dance Wales event:Interpreting and Moving in the Landscape with Simon Whitehead.

June 2004
June 7-13th
Body and Earth: Anatomy, Movement, Place - Workshop with Andrea Olsen and Caryn McHose from USA. Andrea Olsen is the author of Bodystories and Body and Earth.

Caryn McHose


March/April 2004
Apr 29th-May 2nd "Not Just the Good Stuff" - Improv for professional dancers with Adam Benjamin. A residential workshop for a small group. A continued research into where improv begins - looking at the loose ends, the disgarded moments, the bits that we would, in ordinary circumstances throw away. Starting from a belief that we are crammed full of interesting, absurd and original ideas and the premise that we are usually the last person to realise it, Adam encourages a playful hunt for the illusive origins of improv. Thoughtful, analytical and irreverent.

Mentoring Programme for 3 artists making performance work, trying out ideas, being solo in space - with theatre performer Guy Dartnell as Mentor. Opportunity for creative retreat, support from and dialogue with Guy in the making process. The artists for the spring programme were Jane Bacon, Anthony Haddon and Sheron Wray.

February 2004
I7th February 2004 Kids & Parents Day Movement play,storytelling & outdoor fun.With Eeva-Maria Mutka & Andy Paget

hawk & mouse game

Autumn 2003
December 20th-22nd Sons

Active Pregnancy and Birth
30th November 2003. A day of Pregnancy Yoga, massage & body work, an Active Birth session & an intro to Baby Yoga, reflections on pregnancy, birth & parenthood, and relaxation, - with Lisa Harley.

Skinner Releasing Technique
27-30th May 2003 and 14-16th Nov 2003. Residential Workshop with Gaby Agis.

"My stay has been utterly pleasureable. I look forward to coming back again for future courses or to use this space for my own projects"

"Great mini-break. Lovely to mix work with unwinding."


Open Day
2nd Nov 2003. About 25 people attended the day with Feldenkrais, Qi Gong and Space Dance sessions with Andy Paget, Taiga Prizibylla and Eeva-Maria Mutka respectively. To those that attended, thank you for coming.

Little Seeds
August 14-18th 2003. Six families atended this creative Long Weekend for Children and Parents.
Sessions were led by dancer Tracey West from Sunderland, movement teacher Andy Paget(Pen Pynfarch), dancer Eeva-Maria Mutka (Pen Pynfarch) and multi-instrumentalist Nick Cattermole from London.

 

kids on steps

Maryke Brommer - Artist in Residence
July 28th-Aug 2nd 2003

Floating Islands
19th-22nd June 2003. A Midsummer long week-end for artists from different disciplines led by Jeff Higley and Kate Pyper.

potmaking floating island

Links
Adam Benjamin
Biddy's B&B and Self-Catering Flatlet in Llandysul
London Contact Improvisation
Feldenkrais Guild UK
Jeff Higley, Art Land and Environment
The Landscape and Arts Network
Malcolm Manning - Move To Learn
Move into Life
Moving Arts Base
Caryn McHose - Resources in Movement
Vegetarian Vacations - Veggie Holidays Directory