Ghost and John
Embodied Ecology
There are rivers, minerals and energy that pass through us as we are being nourished and sustained by landscapes that carry us. Every gathering of us is a gathering of the lands and the rivers. The care we demonstrate becomes a new source of strength for nature, which in turn supports us in building sustainable and resilient futures. This artistic research looks at modalities that hold the potential for collective healing and liberation for all, gentle inner space discovery and capacity building for internal peace, from a queer and migrant perspective.
The Embodied Ecology research understands the body as a living ecology and an archive of cultural, environmental, and political experience. We explore how embodied cultural workers hold knowledge of land, labour, migration, care, and survival within our bodies—and how these lived archives can generate new languages: performance, movement, choreography.
The workshops will centre on research-based movement practices informed by Traditional Chinese Medicine, Eastern philosophies, and ecological thinking. Using the five seasons of the lunar calendar as a structural framework, participants will be guided through imageries, phrases, and improvisations inspired by corresponding organs, meridians, elements, and emotional landscapes. These exercise offer a distinct yet adaptable movement language, enabling each practitioner to weave their own histories, somatic intelligence, and socio-political contexts into the work.
Our approach invites participants to consider how urban and rural transformations, climate crisis, ecocide, and geopolitical conflict register within the body. Beyond producing set material, the research equally emphasise process: cultivating sensitivity, ensemble listening, and choreographic agency. Sessions will combine somatic practice, composition, reflective discussion, and collective experimentation, encouraging participants to treat the studio as an ecology—where bodies, memories, environments, and imagination co-compose.
The workshops are suitable for movement artists, dancers, performers and scholars interested in the intersection of body-as-archive, queering performance and abolitionist choreography.
Previous seminars and workshops at Peaks of Colours Sheffield, V&A Dundee, The Place (2025); Rambert Dance's The Playground, Rambert School, University of Cambridge, Bow Arts, Pushkin House (2024); Civic Square and Centric Lab(2023), and Cell Project Space (2022).
Invite us to run workshops / lead projects / work with you now: info@ghostandjohn.art
Read more about Ghost and John here
The workshops will centre on research-based movement practices informed by Traditional Chinese Medicine, Eastern philosophies, and ecological thinking. Using the five seasons of the lunar calendar as a structural framework, participants will be guided through imageries, phrases, and improvisations inspired by corresponding organs, meridians, elements, and emotional landscapes. These exercise offer a distinct yet adaptable movement language, enabling each practitioner to weave their own histories, somatic intelligence, and socio-political contexts into the work.
Our approach invites participants to consider how urban and rural transformations, climate crisis, ecocide, and geopolitical conflict register within the body. Beyond producing set material, the research equally emphasise process: cultivating sensitivity, ensemble listening, and choreographic agency. Sessions will combine somatic practice, composition, reflective discussion, and collective experimentation, encouraging participants to treat the studio as an ecology—where bodies, memories, environments, and imagination co-compose.
The workshops are suitable for movement artists, dancers, performers and scholars interested in the intersection of body-as-archive, queering performance and abolitionist choreography.
Previous seminars and workshops at Peaks of Colours Sheffield, V&A Dundee, The Place (2025); Rambert Dance's The Playground, Rambert School, University of Cambridge, Bow Arts, Pushkin House (2024); Civic Square and Centric Lab(2023), and Cell Project Space (2022).
Invite us to run workshops / lead projects / work with you now: info@ghostandjohn.art
Read more about Ghost and John here
FAQ
Why do we start delivering workshops on Embodied Ecology?
Who is this intensive suitable for?
Is there an age guidance on this? Could I bring my six-year-old or my parent?
How long are the sessions?
Can this be evolved into a performance project or a longer term collaboration?
What are we doing during the intensive?
Would I be mainly dancing / moving / making solo or with other people in the intensive?
What would the participants gain out of this workshop?
Who will be delivering the intensive?
Photo credits: Ghost Chan, Jane Lam, Deacon Liu, Angela Grabroska
info@ghostandjohn.art
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