My practice in dance, writing and photography is grounded in embodied awareness: felt states and processes of being and becoming within spatial, energetic and political contexts.
I work with deeply embodied feeling states alongside a heightened sense of presence in the here and now - playing within embodied densities, orientation and energy. Mediating multiplicitous inner and outer forces and negotiating contrasting states, moments of emancipation or collapse, I am excited by possibilities of frankness, gentleness and agency.
I create intimate solo and duet works; and group movement rituals for public space. I write and make photographic images, exploring states of being, compassion and potential.
My work is presented in private spaces, sites of political or commercial power, public spaces, art galleries, art fairs and dance and performance festivals internationally.
performance
Collaborations and performance with other artists include: Dog Kennel Hill Project, Michael Klien, Rosemary Lee, Florence Peake, Carolyn Roy, Tino Sehgal, Darlene Stevens, Susanna Szperling, Patricia Woltmann, Margarita Zafrilla-Olayo. As a dancer with UK company Ricochet Dance Productions, I created new works with Jan Pusch and Wally Cardona, for national touring and Dance Umbrella Festival UK.
teaching
A certified teacher of Skinner Releasing Technique (SRT) since 2011, SRT is central to my teaching and creative practice with professional dancers, in conservatoires and universities, in communities and in arts-and-health. My teaching focuses on kinaesthetic awareness and creative somatic process to foster an economy of being, and articulacy of the embodied self. I aim to cultivate states of liveliness, freedom, power, passion and clarity in movement, through which to interact sensitively, creatively and spontaneously with our world.
I teach SRT, improvisation, choreography, somatic movement and critical theory in dance conservatoires and art schools in the UK and internationally. I currently teach on MA and MFA courses at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance; professional classes and workshops at Independent Dance, London; and guest-teach internationally.
New classes in central London May-June and Sept-Oct 2023 - in partnership with Intercultural Roots - arts for health and social change https://www.interculturalroots.org/product/skinner-releasing-technique-may-june-with-lizzy-le-quesne
writing and research
My writing and presenting on dance, art, embodiment and somatics appears within within both academic and journalistic contexts. Peer-reviewed writing includes chapters in the first book on SRT - Skinner Releasing Technique (Ed. Emslie, Triarchy Press 2020), in the book Attending To Movement: Somatics in a Wider Field (Ed. Garret-Brown, Whatley, Alexander, Triarchy Press 2015); and articles in the Journal of Dance and Somatic Practices (2018). My recent and current research are in SRT and the autonomic nervous system, and in somatic dance and new materialist political thinking.
education & training
Practice based PhD - Centre for Dance Research, Coventry University (M4C/AHRC Scholarship)
Trainee - ISMETA Somatic Dance Movement Naturotherapy - Moving Soma UK (Moving Soma Scholarship)
MA by Research - Centre for Dance Research, Coventry University (M4C/AHRC Scholarship)
SRT Teacher Certification - Skinner Releasing Institute
MFA Dance Studies - Laban Centre London
BA Visual Art and Dance - Brighton Polytechnic
Foundation Art - Shrewsbury College of Art
RAD Ballet - Hammond School of Dance, residential conservatoire
Extensive training and practice in somatic movement, embodied therapeutic practices and dance improvisation notably Skinner Releasing Technique; Authentic Movement; Body Mind Centring; Experiential Anatomy; Feldenkrais; Improvisation; Kundalini Yoga; Scaravelli yoga; embodied trauma therapies; Meditation.
Lived and worked for several years in Prague (British Council Artist in Residence at HAMU Prague Academy of Performing Arts and at Duncan Centre Conservatoire of Modern Dance). Currently based in London and working throughout Europe and beyond.