Dance to Move workshops - Llanelli and Newport

Great to run another couple of figure drawing workshops for Ballet Cymru - part of of their Dance to Move programme for children with paediatric rheumatology and other health conditions, together with their families.

 

I've been involved in the programme for a few years, and the workshops are always a delight, involving as they do children who may never have drawn from life before, and adults who very often haven't drawn a picture since they were at school. These recent sessions - with artists ranging for four years old to free bus pass - were no exception.

 

Poses ranged from classical ballet positions to others, more spontaneous and gestural, discovered through improvised dance using exactly the same processes I employ in the painting studio myself - though with children in charge.  We also introduced costumes from the company's current production, Sleeping Beauty, and invited the young artists to join dancers in modelling for pictures, which was a lot of fun.

 

Find a selection of images here, in charcoal and oil pastel, all from two- to four-minute poses.  

 
Dance to Move is run by Ballet Cymru and the Cardiff and Vale University Health Board, and is supported by Arts Council Wales and the National Lottery Community Fund. For further information about the programme, please see here.
April 28, 2026
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