Kae Montgomery UK Workshops 2015

l-r Esme, Philippa, Maho, Kay, Kae, Rita, Melissa

Our lovely lady has gone, walked through the Queen’s Entrance at Heathrow airport and flown back home leaving us all sore and achy and needing more!




We’re all back home, telling the tale, exhilarated at the experience and spreading the word.

workshop participants

This Kae Montgomery weekend was Ashnah’s first co-hosting gig with Maho Beaumont and the event brought dancers from Germany, Switzerland, Japan, Poland, Morocco, Scotland and of course the UK.

Our thanks to Didcot’s Cornerstone and the Kolkota restaurant; both venues couldn’t do enough for us and we couldn’t have done it without them – thank you Emily, Ali and their respective teams.  Our thanks also to all our performers who helped us present an eclectic programme which culminated with Kae Montgomery’s solo - Melissa Hoare of Nirzari and Bellytricks, the amazing Sunny and special mention and thanks must go to the lovely Helen Sleiman who graciously stepped in at the last minute to replace Jaydee Copperfield who took ill. The concluding portion of Friday’s programme showcased a few of our international participants and that part of the show was just as inspiring and diverse – well done to all!

Sightseeing - we took in some sights in Oxford though I think the wet weather was too cold for us all and we quickly retreated to the warmth of a cafe!  We spent many happy hours over the next 6 days trying different places to eat and just chatting and having fun!!!

Now to the actual workshops where our dear slave driver had us all panting and out of breath within the first 40 minutes of the first workshop; in the names of conditioning and cardio, we were sent running 10 times each around both directions of the studio, were put through our paces attempting various types of crunches, walking backwards on our hands and feet with bums in the air, rolling around on the floor, and going through all manner of stretch exercises invoking cats, dogs, and snakes - I’m sure I should be grateful she didn’t ask us to stand on our heads ;o) and finally, after all that, we were deemed ready to turn our minds and bodies to dancing! Tweaks, tweaks and more tweaks, dancing with new partners – both days were tremendously useful.

Personally, alongside the dancing, I got to extend my circle of friends so basically, there’s no excuse to stay national; world here we come!