Module 1 with Peter Sciscioli (USA)
Voice as Movement
March 6th – 10th, 2023 – 10:00 – 14:00
These sessions will begin with a movement warm-up, tuning in to how we breathe and how breath can move through the body as an opener, an expressive tool, and as a starting point for making any sound. From there, I’ll guide us through a practice of moving vocal/physical vibration into different parts of our bodies to discover and open resonance in some of its myriad forms. Shaping and sculpting our breath and sound with the throat/tongue/teeth/lips, we’ll look to access greater ease in speaking with our whole bodies. We’ll also approach singing while moving as a way to expand resonance.
My aspiration is to uncover the benefits of this practice in and of itself, and as a potentially potent tool for expressing ourselves more fully in the world. Voice as Movement is informed by years of study and engagement in voice, music, movement, and energy work, framed by my early training in Western European classical violin and opera, sports and American Musical Theater, and later in contemporary dance, global theater traditions, Experimental Vocal Techniques, and Qi-gong. Exercises and approaches gleaned from working with Meredith Monk & Vocal Ensemble (extended vocal techniques), Jane Comfort (text and movement), and Daria Faïn (Qi-gong and locating sound within the body) will also be referenced and incorporated.
Module 2 with Zornitsa Stoyanova (USA/BUL)
Composing in space, time, and the imaginary – working with language, dance, and emergent meaning.
March 13th – 17th, 2023 – 10:00 – 14:00
Over the span of the 5 days, we will work on tuning into our sensorium and practicing juggling all that we are here and now. Zornitsa will propose different compositional modes and space perceptions as well as scores working with timing, dynamics, and the imaginary. In the last two days, we will open up the body toward sound and language, decomposing words, creating new meanings, and working through different ways to communicate. In this module, Zornitsa proposed that meaning needs not be completely understood in sentences and words in order to resonate. We will explore nuance, tone, sound, and decomposing of language.
Module 3 with Paolo Cingolani (ITA)
Movement and Voice Compositions
April 23rd – 27th, 2023 – 10:00 – 14:00 (note Sunday to Thursday)
Instant Composition is a method to create movements, sounds and words in an intuitive and spontaneous way. During the workshop we will work from the physicality of the body to the meaning of the words. Sounds, pre-verbal text, logics of grammar, cohabitation of movements, and voice will be some of the areas of study touched on during the week. The method proposed aims first of all on increasing trust in one’s own intuition and spontaneity, and then on the creative aspect of the action. Through the participation of the body and the observation of the mind, the students will learn to create dances and poetry in the flow of the present moment. Participants will be guided in the workshop through a progressive approach that starts from the simplicity of the individual act, to reach the complexity and richness of instantaneous group composition.
Module 4 with Megan Bridge (USA)
Expanding perceptions – tools for composing with our attentions and working with, along and against music.
May 1st – May 5th, 2023 10:00 – 14:00
This is an invitation into the moment, into mindfulness, and into acute physical awareness. This class approaches improvisational dance as a practice of expanding perception. Using breath, stillness, and quiet in the warmup, we will begin to allow a multitude of signals into our experience with each passing moment. Picking up communication, we will move and dance in deep physical resonance with the space, with sound, and with each other. We will work with shifting all of our different attentions through physicality and working with the presence of music. We will progress to performing for each other in partners and small groups.
Participants should be comfortable with partnering up for massage and touch exercises and coming into light contact with other dancers.
Module 5 with Stephen Batts (Northern Ireland)
Poetic Movement – working with the wisdom of the body on stage.
May 15th – 19th, 2023 10:00 – 17:00
We will explore, in rigorous, detailed, practical, and conceptual ways, a wide range of “parameters” of dancing and we will continuously and consistently allow what we discover and learn to fall back into our intuitive compositional processes as individuals and in groups. The analytic material is there to enliven and enrich the dancing not to explain it. It is there to help us to compose irresistible, profound proposals and invitations in poetic movement. The practice will be deeply improvisational, compositional, and playful. I can say from experience that it will almost certainly be both demanding and fun for everyone.
The fundamental area of exploration will be: Presence. Time. Space. These never exist separately but we’ll bring each of them into the foreground in various ways through exploring:
- Zero Level Zero State – the movement that happens when we do nothing and go nowhere.
- Phrasing/Rhythm/Pulse/Meter
- Tonus/Effort/Tension/Intention
- Vertical Space
- Proximity
- Addressing Levels (who are you performing for?)
- Spatial dispositions (Architectural. Social. Weather System)
- Directive and Adaptive phases of movement
- The Trunk as Centre of watchers Interest/Planes of movement/Complexity
The workshop will have a developing structure with each theme going into the mix of the dance as a whole rather than being separated from it.
The intention is to have a lot of pleasure in learning from watching each other dance as well as dancing. I want the workshop to leave many ideas, questions, and seeds of thought, attention, and practice that will continue to enrich each participant’s practice into the future.
We will use a wide variety of music to accompany and support the classes.
Module 6 with Zornitsa Stoyanova (USA/BUL)
All We ARE – modes of being on stage, while practicing brutal honesty – a way to devise meaning for the stage
June 12th – 16th, 2023 10:00 – 17:00
Coming Soon
