JONATHAN BURROWS & MATTEO FARGION WORKSHOP
Wainsgate Chapel, Hebden Bridge, HX7 8SU
Saturday 18th April 2026
“They’re nerdy, they’re funny, they’re euphoric; they carry out their score with the unpretentious, effortful efficiency of Dad getting the canoe to stay on top of the car. It seems a particularly English humor – small, quick, self-deprecating, though essentially unembarrassed – and it is a welcome companion to the seriousness of formal investigation. It is rare to find a post-modern sensibility as effervescent and as homely as Burrows’ and Fargion’s… at that kind of thing, they are simply the best.”
The Berliner
This then that
Composer Matteo Fargion and choreographer Jonathan Burrows share a 3-day workshop looking at questions of how to balance the many and overlapping elements at play in the making of a performance, including concept, context, image, form, dramaturgy, materials and daily practice.
The workshop will be a mixture of practical work and discussion, with the aim of allowing each person to re-examine how they approach their own work.
The mornings will be facilitated by Fargion with a focus on composition, andBurrows will lead the afternoon concentrating more on dramaturgy and performance.
The workshop is open to anybody interested in performance: no specific skills needed.
Choreographer Jonathan Burrows and composer Matteo Fargion have been collaborating for over 35 years, creating an internationally acclaimed body of duet work including Both Sitting Duet (2002), The Quiet Dance (2005), Speaking Dance (2006), Cheap Lecture and The Cow Piece (2009), Body Not Fit For Purpose (2014), Rewriting (2021) and The Unison Piece (2025).
Fargion has also written music for many other performance makers including Helga Arnalds, Claire Croizé, Siobhan Davies, Mette Edvardsen, Karl Jay-Lewin and Andrea Spreafico.
Burrows is a widely celebrated choreographer, performer and writer - the author of A Choreographer’s Handbook (Routledge, 2010/2025) and Writing Dance (Varamo Press, 2022), and is currently Associate Professor at the Centre for Dance Research Coventry University.
The Berliner
This then that
Composer Matteo Fargion and choreographer Jonathan Burrows share a 3-day workshop looking at questions of how to balance the many and overlapping elements at play in the making of a performance, including concept, context, image, form, dramaturgy, materials and daily practice.
The workshop will be a mixture of practical work and discussion, with the aim of allowing each person to re-examine how they approach their own work.
The mornings will be facilitated by Fargion with a focus on composition, andBurrows will lead the afternoon concentrating more on dramaturgy and performance.
The workshop is open to anybody interested in performance: no specific skills needed.
Choreographer Jonathan Burrows and composer Matteo Fargion have been collaborating for over 35 years, creating an internationally acclaimed body of duet work including Both Sitting Duet (2002), The Quiet Dance (2005), Speaking Dance (2006), Cheap Lecture and The Cow Piece (2009), Body Not Fit For Purpose (2014), Rewriting (2021) and The Unison Piece (2025).
Fargion has also written music for many other performance makers including Helga Arnalds, Claire Croizé, Siobhan Davies, Mette Edvardsen, Karl Jay-Lewin and Andrea Spreafico.
Burrows is a widely celebrated choreographer, performer and writer - the author of A Choreographer’s Handbook (Routledge, 2010/2025) and Writing Dance (Varamo Press, 2022), and is currently Associate Professor at the Centre for Dance Research Coventry University.
