Discover the world of collaborative poetry improvisation in these three workshops with Robin Vaughan-Williams.

Poetry improvisation is about trusting in your voice, opening up to others, and seeing where it takes you. In these workshops the focus will be on collaborative improvisation—bouncing our voices off one another and developing threads that sometimes twist together and sometimes spin off in their own directions. We will be working as a whole group and also in pairs and threes—no one will be expected to improvise solo. 

We'll explore different improvisation techniques, such as working with music and prompts, using breathing and voice exercises, and ways of structuring an improvisation. There'll also be space to share observations on the experience, our compositions, and how we might develop them.

The workshops will involve some lying on the floor and moving around. We won't be seated at tables as in a conventional poetry workshop. There might be some writing, and improvisation can be used as a writing tool, but we will primarily be working with our voices.  

The workshops take place on Tuesdays 28 May, 18 June, and 2 July (6.30pm to 8pm). You are welcome to book just a single workshop, but if you can attend the series this will help you build trust with other participants and get used to the techniques we are using.

A couple of quotes from participants in past workshops:

•      'One of the collaborative pieces felt like being in a poem as it was being made. V powerful!' 
•      'It was really exciting to see a different approach to poetic collaboration.' 

If you may have some challenges with lying down or moving around, please let us know in advance so we can find ways to accommodate you. 

About the Facilitator

Robin Vaughan-Williams is a poet and producer and first started exploring poetry improvisation in 2008. He developed an improvised poetry performance with a group of emerging poets for Apples and Snakes in 2015 ('Grey Parrot Singing'), has collaborated with Quick Shifts dance improvisation collective in Leicester and Sheffield's jazz improvisors Charlie Collins and Derek Saw, and ran a poetry improv group in Nottingham with Mark Goodwin and Rich Goodson. 

You can listen to some of the poetry improv soundscapes he has put together on SoundCloud. 

Robin's publications include The Manager (Happenstance Press), numerous poems in magazines, and How to Fix a Human, a collaboration with artist Stéphanie Barbetta forthcoming from Sampson Low. He has a background in live literature, having run events like Spoken Word Antics in Sheffield and Word of Mouth in Nottingham, and organised a series of sound-poetry collage performances weaving together the voices and sounds of poets and musicians. 

@robinrvw on Instagram and X. 

What to bring

• Please bring yoga mats if you have them! 
• We also recommend an extra layer in case the floor feels cold. 

Venue

The workshops take place in the garden studio at RuptureXIBIT gallery in Hampton Wick (55 High St), just over the bridge from Kingston-upon-Thames. 

The gallery is 100 yards from Hampton Wick railway station (Waterloo to Richmond line) and a 6-minutes walk from Kingston Bridge. 

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