ALENA BOUDA CHLÁDKOVÁ

I have been freelance since 2012, focusing purely on dance, dance movement therapy and organizing art and education seminars. I work with people all the time, so it is important for me to always have something to offer, which means to develop continually. In order to get new inspiration in recent years, I mostly travel to Spain and France every year to attend African dance courses led by African teachers as well as other dance and therapeutic seminars. Since February 2020 I have been in long-term therapeutic trainee of Developmental Transformations in Prague.

I also lead classes of therapeutic dance and dance movement therapy in one year lasting trainee "Creative therapeutic dance". Since 2014 I have worked with kids groups by dancing, dance movement therapy, yoga and social circus. I teach regular classe in two privat schools in Brno, cooperated with parents with kids with Down syndrome and some institutions for abandoned kids.

In 2014 I completed a 4-year training course in dance movement therapy in Prague. That is why I love to combine dance and movement with therapeutic aspects rather than simply focus on the dance form.

I graduated as a social worker. For several years I worked with alcohol and drug addicts, abused children, young orphans and victims of domestic violence. This period was an enormous life experience for me and I am extremely grateful for it.

I did classical ballet from childhood, which was followed by several years of modern dance. After a small pause during the high school, I started dancing again, when I came to study in Brno and visited the course of african dance. It was love at first move. From 2008 to 2014 I was a part of Tubabu band as a dancer and drummer. I have done African dance courses in Brno since 2008 and organized weekend workshops in several cities in the Czech Republic. I also gave workshops in Slovakia, Spain and Portugal.

I visited West Africa 5 times between 2006 and 2018, namely Guinea, Senegal, Gambia and Sierra Leone, where I attended several workshops and private lessons taught by local dancers. I spent almost a year in Africa altogether and I also took part in local development aid projects focusing on education, agriculture and health.

I have experience in other dance styles, too: contemporary dance, contact improvisation, butoh, jazz dance, pole dance, belly dance... and I still do some of them from time to time today. In 2014 I spent a month in Cuba where I learnt an Afro-Cuban dance called Yoruba. I also draw a lot of inspiration from yoga, which I have practiced regularly for several years.