The Spaces Between

What lives and breathes in the spaces between moment and moment; what possibilities arise from these bridges of quiet?

* This course will take place on the video-conferencing platform ZOOM *

In this experimental poetry course, we will observe the spaces we carve around us, and the potential life force that exists within them. Writers will be guided to explore the spaces ‘between’ things, with a focus on lived moments and the abstract.

These spaces – perhaps understood as ‘negative space’ or mere containers for the actual events of our lives – will be our source of inspiration; such as the moment between choosing to open a door, or close it, between leaning in to kiss, and the kiss being received. If approached with enough curiosity and openness, these moments can become landscapes with their own vitality and form, rich with potential life and linguistic possibility.

Writers will also engage with the movement principles of The Hypha Method, now adapted for page: exploring the role of the ‘pause’ in our work, and the tension or release surrounding it. Form and field, what can be kindled in the transition? And language beyond language: challenging the limitations of words to capture the moment just before a door closes — in atmospheric, sensory, embodied ways.

Under the guidance of a range of thinkers – from poets playing beautifully with space (as well as loving the in-betweenness of things) such as Naomi Shihab Nye and Sheenah Blackhall, to Daniel N Stern (Psychoanalysis) and Isaac Newton (Optics) – we will give language to the quality and texture of these spaces in our lives, writing to understand, not only what they are in themselves, but also our relationship with them and how we are, both physically and emotionally, connected to their existence and form.

4 fortnightly Zoom sessions on Thursdays, 7–9pm (BST/GMT), starts 30 Oct 2025.

Concessions & Accessibility

To apply for a concession rate, please send relevant documentation showing your eligibility for one of our concessions to [email protected]. Conditions of eligibility are detailed here. If you have any questions or wish to be added to the waiting list of a sold-out course, please email [email protected].

What to Expect

Please check the left hand side of this page for information on how this course works in practice, under the heading ‘Course Style‘. If you’re unsure as to what any of the terms there mean, or if this course is a good fit for you, then please take a look at our What to Expect page which includes some further information on how our courses function.

Image Credit: @codingcow-lee

About Helen Calcutt View Profile

Helen Calcutt is a poet and choreographer working at the intersection of language and movement. She is artistic director of Beyond Words and the creator of The Hypha Method – a pioneering gestural language system for translating & articulating text within dance.

Helen’s poetry features in the Guardian, the Huffington Post, Poetry Ireland, Poetry Wales, Poetry London, Envoi, Wild Court, and many others. Somehow (Verve Poetry Press, 2020), was a PBS Winter Bulletin Pamphlet & Poetry School Book of the Year (2020). Anthology Eighty-Four (Verve Press, 2019), created in aid of the suicide prevention charity C.A.L.M. was a Saboteur Award shortlist & was a Poetry Wales Book of the Year, 2019. Her full-length collection Feeling All the Kills was published by Pavilion Poetry, April 2024.

Helen’s research into text-to-dance translation and the process of connection as communication within movement, has been supported by the Birmingham REP Theatre, One Dance U.K. and funded across 4 year’s creative enquiry by Arts Council England. She was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Letters by Loughborough University for her outstanding contribution to the arts, December 2023.

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