Past Projects – AO Global

An online dance workshop series for global artists to standout in the digital landscape

Due to unforeseen circumstances, our AO Global programme has been postponed until further notice. We are really excited about the programme we had lined up and look forward to delivering it in the future.

AO Global: The Fifth Direction

This online workshop series moves beyond the existing format of dance teaching online to provide a holistic, shared experience. Spread across four weeks, the programme is led by Aakash Odedra Company’s team of international dance artists: Artistic Director, Aakash Odedra (UK), and Associate Artistic Directors Melissa Ugolini (Italy), Gizem Aksu (Turkey) and Kesha Raithatha (UK). With dancers joining from across the globe to share their learning and experiences, you will become part of a global family. As a member of this global cohort, you can work with renowned artists and experts from a range of specialisms to explore and develop your dance practice for the future and within the digital world.

Learn in your own time zone

Each weekly two-hour session can explore kathak and contemporary dance techniques and would contain a flexible hour with guest teachers delving into other art practices including music composition and dramaturgy. All sessions can be recorded and shared to participants the Monday after the session allowing you to learn at your own pace if you are unable to attend the live session.

The Fifth Direction

This series of AO Global’s programme touchs upon the ideas of orientation, belonging and sense of direction. During four different sessions, each dedicated to a cardinal point, there are opportunities to explore how we react and interact with each different context (North, East, South and West), with the intent of drawing an internal map which guides us to a fifth sense of direction, our own, unique and complete.

When delivering this programme, we aim to offer a global sense orientation which can be of support and help in your personal movement practice. With every session we plan to explore and unravel a layer, getting deeper to our core and to a centred state, a defined intention, a singular sense of direction.

2020 and 2021 evoked a number of emotions in us all across the globe in our different geographies, a global reaction to the world around us and in turn the earth reacting to us. But what are the coordinates we use to navigate through this complex network of reactions?

Working with our incredible artists you would be able to learn how professionals have evolved their work in 2020 and 2021 to continue to lead and innovate. Complimentary resources support each of the live workshops in the series. A short piece of introductory information would be available with some visual aids ahead of each session to experiment with in preparation for the live online workshop.

AO Global is tailored to those with kathak or contemporary dance experience although novice movers are welcome to join to experiment with and explore the possibilities of movement you have yet to discover. Through internal and external exploration, you can expand your understanding of dance. For some, this would be an experimental process, please keep in mind that your fellow artists may be trying new movement vocabulary for the first time or observing the process of the body moulding to their emotions in a different way.