Professional Contemporary Class - Autumn Term 2026

The Work Room and Barrowland Ballet co-run weekly, morning contemporary class for the professional dance community in Glasgow on Thursdays and Fridays. 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.ABOUTClass is led by Aya Kobayashi and guest artists. Aya takes a different teaching approach to the classes on Thursdays and Fridays, with guest teachers taking a similar approach. Guest teachers in this term include: Kirstie Simson & Charlie Brittain, Jack Anderson, and Saffy Setohy. More details for each guest and more guest artists to follow.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 Thursdays, 9.30-10.45am 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 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 in