Executive Director Tony Lankester announces details of the programme at Riverside Studios for the New Year, which includes wellness activities, creative workshops, three theatre productions and an art exhibition.
Try January wellness events, art exhibition and creative workshops.
To get the new year started, Riverside is offering a new variety of wellness activities, creative workshops and an art exhibition.
Every Monday of the month from 6 January, seasoned and beginner guitar players will be able to enjoy Rock Up Guitar Club. Each group will run for an initial four weeks, there will be a beginner’s group and an intermediate group, ensuring lessons are tailored to every level. Sessions will be led by professional guitarist Leo Appleyard, a world-class musician and educator with a wealth of experience. Those over 50 keen to realise their La La Land dream, or simply learn ballroom dancing, will be able to try Ballroom dance classes from Saturday 11 January. The workshop provides the chance to learn timeless styles like the waltz, tango, and cha-cha under the expert guidance of DanceWest’s professional instructors.
Ex-professional dancer Lisa Willner will be teaching short line dance routines that everyone can do in her workshop Line Dancing from Tuesday 14 January. Lisa lived in the Far East for nine years where she taught Aerobics, Hour Of Power and choreographed “Stepping Out” for ACT in Hong Kong. She recently choreographed and danced in “The Working Girls of Soho,” at The Phoenix Arts club and The Kings Head Theatre in Islington.
These new wellness classes come to complete current classes, including: Bollywood Dance class, Balletcise, Pilates with Athena, Dancercise with Anna Wicks, Not-For-Profit Yoga, Sound Bath, Still life workshop (painting classes) and Sculpting workshop. These will also be part of try January.
Enhancing the Try January offer at Riverside, Psychonaut Theatre launches their Sessions By Makers For Makers, which feature many creative workshops, including; The Dance of the Actor: Building Stage Presence on January 12, focusing on developing stage presence, precision, and the ability to connect with others; Exploring the Boundaries of Art in Performance on January 19, aiming to conceptually understand contemporary performance art while expanding your practical creative toolkit; The Artist as Producer on January 25, a workshop made for artists of any discipline and level, who want to develop their artistic brand and identity; Playwrighting: Developing Ideas for Stage on February 2, aiming to give practical tools to assist you in nurturing your ideas from inception to stage.
Other workshops at Riverside include Introduction to Performance Arts on January 26 and Introduction to Clown on January 19, both led by clown Athena Amoret.
In addition to all the exciting events kicking off 2025, Riverside will also be hosting Urban Canvas, an exciting exhibition featuring a diverse collection of works from emerging young artists aged 19-26. This vibrant showcase highlights the innovative and dynamic talent of the next generation, offering a unique glimpse into contemporary art through a variety of mediums, including tattoo work, bronze sculpture, and mosaic.
This immersive experience will be accessible 13 January 2025 – 24 February 2025, with a private view /opening night on Thursday 23 January 2025.
Theatre
Riverside will also be host to exciting new theatre shows this January. As previously announced, Phizzical Productions presents Shahid Iqbal Khan’s Olivier nominated play, 10 Nights, from Wednesday 8 January – Sunday 26 January 2025. “Slow-burning, smartly written” (The Stage), the story follows Yasser as he embarks on his spiritual journey when he decides to take part in itikaf. Performed in English with some Urdu and Arabic references, 10 Nights was developed through the Write To Play programme by Graeae Theatre Company and was originally co-produced by Graeae and Tamasha, in association with the Bush Theatre in 2021.
Following a sold-out rehearsed reading at the Alma Theatre Bristol, Small Beer Theatre Company brings Madison Cole’s Inferna to Riverside Studios for its world premiere. Inspired by true events, the story explores themes of autonomy and perseverance and follows a 15-year-old girl who becomes pregnant and is forced by her hyper-religious mother to carry out a pregnancy she has no say in a church-run maternity asylum. The show will play at the Studio 3 from Tuesday January 28 – Saturday 1 February with a press night on 29 January. Please note that this play contains heavy and graphic content surrounding pregnancy and bodily autonomy that some viewers may find disturbing. Viewer discretion is advised.
Another previously announced New Year treat includes Sex Education’s Asa Butterfield’s stage debut in Barney Norris’s previously announced Second Best, running for four weeks only from 24 January 2025. Based on David Foenkinos’ best-selling novel of the same name, “An exquisitely bittersweet comedy of life’s missed opportunities“, (Jonathan Coe), this playful yet poignant new comedy follows Martin, who narrowly missed out on the role of Harry Potter as a child, as he is about to become a father, prompting him to reflect on that pivotal moment of his life and ask himself what his life might have been in another world.
Further information and booking links can be found here.
