When I saw this workshop was offered immediately following MMMI Summer School, I was interested. Partly because I’ve heard other MMM’ers speak favourably of Joseph Stella and also because I have recently attending a contemporary dance class so was interested to experience another teacher’s work.

I always feel the ‘End of Summer School Blues’… That awful anti-climax at the end of a fun, action-packed week with wonderful people, laughing & dancing then all of a sudden it’s ended, finished and everyone gone. The wonderful ‘bubble’ that is MMM Summer School is popped, so… the extra days for the Joseph Stella Workshop were very welcome.

Chichester campus with no more than a handful of MMM people around was very strange but it was comforting to know that I had a few days of dancing to look forward to, with no commitments, no work, just indulging myself and dancing with a few of my MMM friends – perfect!

Joseph Stella was completely interested in us, who we were, our interests etc. we all instantly felt comfortable and at ease with him.

There were 12 of us altogether. Joseph wanted to work long days with short breaks which initially alarmed us at first, but we spent a lot of time on techniques to aid relaxation and repair our aching, dancing bodies; there was never any pressure to do any more than we were comfortable with.

Over the three days we covered a whole range of improvisation ideas and techniques, learnt two beautiful choreographies which Joseph skilfully built up and although challenging, we never felt overwhelmed, that was due to Joseph’s gentle, supportive and encouraging manner. He encouraged us to say what we enjoyed in dancing and creative work, this lead to one wonderful session dancing outside on one of the lawns at Chichester, a highlight for me!

Joseph has never danced MMM but has such an empathy with its philosophy and approach. His style of dance is very different too but I found it to be completely accessible, it really related to and complemented MMM.

We all had a wonderful, challenging, fulfilling workshop, and I'm so pleased I could take part. Thank you Joseph… I hope it’s not too long before I am able to experience one of your workshops again!

by Gail Borrows