Orley Quick (BOTH Contemporary)

Orley Quick is a dance fanatic. Her eclectic teaching history spans many contexts including conservatoires, colleges, universities, special workshops and events. For the last eight years, she’s been busy with fellow Labanite, Beatrice Ghezzi, curating and delivering a programme of dance as BOTH DANCE CLASSES, pooling together ‘dancers’ and professional hobbyists alike. Additionally she teaches weekly Contemporary Dance classes at City Lit and most recently has been teaching on the BA programmes at LABAN and IRIE! dance theatre.  

For the last four years, Orley has been studying with David Zambrano and has become, by her own admission, somewhat of a nerd in relation to his techniques: Flying Low, Passing Through & Couple Dancing, drawing closer links to her long term commitment to the Salsa scene. The information from these systems has shaken up her thinking about contemporary dance and even when not teaching those styles directly draws influence from their inherent sociality and specificity. 

Alongside teaching, Orley makes and performs, always in collaborative fashion. Her work has been presented in theatres, outdoor spaces and galleries, and at her own curated festival ‘Screwed: she hopes there will be more of these DIY initiatives.  She’s currently deep in long-term research of the dance and writing variety with fellow artiste Elliot Minogue-Stone working with practice-based archiving, ownership and legacy cheek and challenges. Prior to this she was working with Salomé and Sam Pardes performing WE MOVE IN CLOSE CIRCLES across homes in the UK: shared more than 20 times from 2023 – 2025. 

CLASS DESCRIPTION 

This Contemporary class draws from Release Technique with Limón-based and Passing Through principles to arrive at the tentative title ‘Dynamic Release’. 

The session will build gradually, beginning with dance phrases for the spine and mobilisations/oiling throughout the body. The sequences shared will include floor work, crossings, swing and travelling alongside short improvisational tasks. With a 9am start in mind, the class is designed to: warm the body up; move up, down and through space; provide the mind with the occasional puzzle; and facilitate ways to move pleasurably, collectively, socially and intelligently. Expect excellent tunes, lots of moves and ideally a great crowd to move with (this is in your hands…) 

Whilst the class aims to get the sweat on, and to work through a range of tones and dynamics, the concern is not tricks and bravado. Instead the focus is patterns, cycles, weight, three dimensionality, tripping out on repetition, space and pathways. There is a shameless whiff of old-school undertones here – we learn some phrases, we refine them, and do them together.  

Come start the day right and keep yourself in the game.