MOVEMENT DIRECTING
INFUSE AUTUMN RESIDENCY
PHYSICALITY & NARRATIVES
WITH AYŞE TASHKIRAN
ABOUT THE RESIDENCY
7TH - 11TH SEPTEMBER
CHISENHALE DANCE SPACE
5 days, 10am - 5pm £280 (subsidised from £600)
INFUSE Artist Development Programme returns this autumn with one of the UK's leading movement directors, Ayşe Tashkiran, Associate Artist at the Royal Shakespeare Company and founder of the MA/MFA Movement: Directing and Teaching at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama.
Combining movement direction, actor movement and dramaturgical thinking, exploring how physical language is developed from text to body to stage.
Ayşe Tashkiran has built an international reputation across over two decades of movement direction, building a body of work with the RSC and major theatres including Chichester Festival Theatre, Hampstead Theatre, Donmar Warehouse, the Young Vic and Shakespeare's Globe.
Ayşe has been a vital collaborator with the country's leading theatres from the RSC's Hamnet to the York Minster Mystery Plays - as well as leading movement research through the first of it’s kind MA programme and co-founding the Movement Directors' Association, the first professional network for movement directors in the UK.
Movement Directing: Physicality & Narratives
INFUSE your practice with Movement Directing: the Physicality of Narratives, joining Ayşe Tashkiran for a week-long deep dive into how movement is developed from encountering a play text, through preparing and developing movement impulses, to activating them with and for actors on their creative movement journey.
Drawing on Ayşe's decades of practice across physical theatre, actor movement and movement direction, participants will go on a bespoke journey exploring what a movement director needs to develop their unique practice within the dramaturgical possibilities and parameters of a text and production.
The week will introduce key approaches to movement direction. from initial text analysis to physical exploration to working with performers in the room, inviting participants to develop their own movement directing language and methodology.
INFUSE will add new resources to your toolbox, enhancing your practice and so you will be encouraged to interrogate, share, adapt as well as absorb and transform the work.
Across the residency you can expect to be nurtured, uplifted and challenged in your own making, creative practice and ultimately energised in your artistic decision making.
INFUSE ARTIST
Ayşe Tashkiran
Ayşe Tashkiran is one of the most influential movement directors working in British theatre today. A practitioner, teacher, researcher and advocate who has spent over two decades shaping how the body is understood in performance.
Trained in Drama at Bristol University before spending two years at L'École Internationale de Théâtre Jacques Lecoq in Paris, Ayşe built her foundation as a physical theatre performer before turning her attention to movement direction and teaching.
Since joining the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama in 2003, she has led the pioneering MA/MFA Movement: Directing and Teaching, the longest-running course of its kind in Europe and the training ground for a generation of movement directors now working across the industry. She is an Associate Artist at the Royal Shakespeare Company, only the third movement director in the RSC's history to hold that title, and co-founded the Movement Directors' Association, the first professional network in the UK dedicated to advocating for the field.
Her work in the rehearsal room spans some of the most significant productions of the last two decades. At the RSC alone her credits include Hamnet (2023–2026), Romeo and Juliet, The Duchess of Malfi, As You Like It, Doctor Faustus and over a dozen more. Beyond the RSC she has brought her practice to the Donmar Warehouse, the Young Vic, Shakespeare's Globe, Hampstead Theatre, Chichester Festival Theatre, Birmingham Rep and York Minster, as well as national and international tours across the UK, China and Ireland.
Alongside her practice, Ayşe has built a body of written work that has become essential reading for the field. Her book Movement Directors in Contemporary Theatre: Conversations on Craft (Bloomsbury, 2020) is the first publication of its kind dedicated to the craft of movement direction, and she has contributed chapters to Research and Development in British Theatre (Bloomsbury, 2025), The Routledge Companion to Jacques Lecoq, and a new introduction to Litz Pisk's seminal The Actor and His Body.
"Ayşe has been working at the highest level and at the very forefront of contemporary movement practice for over two decades. Her work, in the rehearsal room, in the academy, and in the field, has shaped how multiple generations of theatre makers think about the body."
Joseph Lynch, Artistic Director, Babel
Image credits:
Desire Maps Projekt Europa photo by Serena Bettiolder, Anna-Karenina Chichester Festival Theatre photo by Marc Brenner, Barbarians, Young Vic photo by Ellie Kurttz
★★★★★
“Breathtaking writing, flawless staging. Folk deserves to be around for a very long time."
Financial Times on FOLK - Hampstead Theatre (2022, Olivier-nominated)
★★★★★
"A stunning achievement... both gripping and harrowing in equal measure."
Essential Surrey NEVER LET ME GO
★★★★
"Fleet, fluid production... seamless transitions, the company using minimal props to great effect. "
London Theatre HAMNET - RSC
Dates
7TH - 11TH SEPTEMBER
10am - 5pm
Chisenhale Dance Space
London
E3 5QZ
Price
Standard Price for a week residency £600+
INFUSE Residency - £280
APPLICATIONS OPEN
Applications take around 10 minutes
Places are offered on a rolling basis
The residency will be a unique opportunity to receive nurturing and development at an accessible price. Led by Ayşe Tashkiran, the workshop will focus on how movement direction develops from text to impulse to activation - building your unique practice within the movement possibilities and parameters of performance.
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INFUSE is specifically targeted at established and working artists who wish to develop their practice and is heavily subsidised to make it an accessible and affordable training opportunity.
Anyone working within the creative industries with a passion for movement and performance practices is welcome to apply, priority will be given to those who demonstrate why this is would be useful for them.
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Applications will be offered on a first-come, first-served basis and we expect the workshop to sell out quickly.
Key dates
Friday 3 July — Waitlist email sent
Monday 6 July — Applications open
Friday 17 July — Round 1 places offered
Friday 31 July — Round 2 places offered
Friday 21 August — Returns and waiting list places offered
7–11 September — INFUSE residency week
INFUSE is heavily subsidised to make it an accessible opportunity for those working in the arts.
Applications are via a simple online form, with the option to upload a short video or voice recording as part of your submission.
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Successful applicants will be informed within 14 days of their application and can confirm their place by paying the full amount.
Confirmation of your place will be acknowledged upon receipt of the full amount. You can reserve your place by paying a deposit of £120 and set up a payment plan for the remainder which must be paid 14 days prior to the residency.
If this is still a barrier please get in touch.
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Babel means ‘the sound of many things’ through collaborative, radically inclusive spaces, we amplify underrepresented voices, providing creatives a platform to share their stories with the world.
We strongly encourage applications from Black, global majority, working-class, neurodivergent and LGBTQI+ participants and we will be responsive to any information on what you need to be present in the space.
We have reserved 50% places for Black and Brown participants
Unfortunately Chisenhale Dance Space is not accessible via a lift, so if this is a necessity for you please get in touch with us.
If you have any questions or would like a chat about your application you can reach out to Joseph on hello@babeltheatre.co.uk