Cami Sayah

I am a dancer based in Glasgow, rooted in street and club dance cultures, and shaped by my mixed heritage. My practice has grown outwith the dancefloor, with performance, improv, voice and music, reaching into spaces I am still finding my way in.

I surprise myself with how I lean more and more into complexity and uncertainty. I don't know how wise that is, but if I don't make a mess I am not going to learn anything.

I like circling and I also like zig zagging, and noticing what is different when you come back to the start.

I am interested in the layers of listening: a sound, someone's voice, an image or impression, what someone is really trying to say or show me. Slowly finding a way to be with that while it's there.

Sometimes it's about letting it do its own thing and that can help me get out of my own way. That makes me think about mysticism, and those moments when live improv music and improv dancers come together, and control starts to dissipate.

As my practice has evolved I think much more about constellations, what it is to zoom out, seeing where I am in relation to others, and where others are together.

I have been teaching longer than I realise and I want to bring more intention to this, with attentiveness and receptivity as principles. It's about bringing people in, and into themselves, giving them enough structure to have confidence to move beyond that, and being there to encourage that enquiry.

In my sharing, I hope to contribute to something where ideas can develop and learning can find a life of its own.