NCVM Pure Movement Day with Jackie Snow

The Northern Centre for Voice and Movement was set up last year by Gary Horner, Course Leader for the MA in Professional Acting at ALRA North. Set picturesquely amongst the canals at Trencherfield Mill in Wigan, its purpose is to bring top-notch practitioners to work with performers and teachers based outside of the South East, for professional and personal development.

Jackie Snow's excellent day of Pure Movement completed the first round of workshops. These have included voice and text with Barbara Houseman, a day run by vocal guru Kristin Linklater, and another about Rudolf Laban's approach to movement.

We began the day with a few words on the origins and context of Pure Movement. Jackie's teacher Trish Arnold drew on her own experience of ballet and European dance theatre, alongside emigrés such as Litz Pisk and Laban, to develop movement skills in actors; they wanted to make the actors’ inner world visible to the audience through freeing their bodies.