WORKSHOP DESCRIPTIONS
iDfest 2010
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See Feel Do: The Human Instruments of Composition
5-day Intensive with Charlie Morrissey
All Skill Levels – Jan. 5-9, 10am-12pm
This workshop explores how and with what, we make sense of movement as we compose ourselves to move in real time. We will take routes into improvisation, which explore feeling and seeing as physical processes generated in the body. The work will be very much about listening, and about exploring and expanding our experience of moving – noticing how it’s generated and what gives us reason and stimulus to act. We will track the desires and decisions that we move on and the ones we don’t as we take a ride on our imaginations. The work will be very much routed in the body. Anatomical imagery, work with the senses and specific exercises designed to immerse us in our own physicality will offer doorways into movement. We will work solo and with a partner or partners to deepen our attention to our physical experience and to expand our three-dimensional and multi-directional awareness. The workshop will be very physical, playful and approached with a sense of curiosity and adventure. And there will be lots of dancing!
Teaching Improvisation
Teacher Workshop with Charlie Morrissey and Friends
All Skill Levels – Jan. 5, 1-3pm
This workshop explores Charlie Morrissey’s personal approach and methodology to teaching Improvisational Dance and Contact Improv. Mr. Morrissey will facilitate this sharing session with a focus on developing teaching skills and will be joined by other festival instructors and local teachers for a wealth in knowledge and insights for all levels of experience.
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The Ultimate Discipline of Improvisation: Argentine Tango Men’s Club
Extended Workshop with Stefan Fabry
Intermediate/Advanced Skill Level – Jan. 5, 6:00-10:30pm
In this male-focused workshop we'll approach the most complex and hardest to access of all improvisation forms: Argentine Tango.
In Buenos Aires, in the early part of last century up into the 1940s, men were practicing Tango with other men. Only when they were really good at this improvisation form were they allowed to dance with women. The stakes were high, due to an imbalanced ratio of men to women, and a lot depended on achieving a high degree of skillfulness. We'll find out in this workshop how and why this most complex improvisation form works and how it can enrich other movement-improvisation forms.
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Creative Process
3-day Intensive with Rudy Perez and Ensemble
All Skill Levels – Jan. 6-8, 1-3pm
Workshops will reveal Mr. Perez’s creative process to the student. This includes dance technique, structured improvisation, and elements of performance with movements both large and excruciatingly small in order to accentuate the whole of the body. Choreographic challenges incorporate the dancers use of space, focus, energy and quality of movement. This is an incredible practice in breaking out of the classroom setting and enjoying the stamina and expression of performance.
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Dance Collaboration Workshop with Charlie Morrissey
Intermediate Advanced Level Dancers May Apply – Jan. 6, 6:00-10:30pm
This Workshop to Performance will focus on developing the work Charlie will be exploring in his 5-day Intensive: See Feel Do. Participants in this workshop are strongly encouraged to apply for this collaboration as well as any interested performer looking to apply improvisational techniques to dance. Participants will work quickly to establish rapport with a professional group of performers that will be selected by Mr. Morrissey and then tech and perform the work at the Friday night (h)improv Collaboration Performance. Participants for this workshop must also be available for Friday Jan. 8, 2010 between 3-7pm and for the 830pm performance. To apply for this Collaboration Workshop please include with your registration: your bio, CV or resume, and any videos, recordings, or work samples you may have posted online.
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Music & Dance Collaboration Workshop with Jones Welsh and Will Salmon
Intermediate Advanced Level Musicians and Dancers May Apply - Jan. 7, 6:00-10:30pm
This Workshop to Performance will focus on the dialogue created between a musician and dancer. With engaged listening, the performers can have a lively, moment-to-moment interaction across artistic mediums that is fluid, surprising, and satisfying. Participants will work quickly to establish rapport with a professional group of musicians and dancers that Jones and Will have gathered, then tech and perform the work at the Friday night (h)improv Collaboration Performance. Participants for this workshop must also be available for Friday Jan. 8, 2010 between 3-7pm and for the 830pm performance. To apply for this Collaboration Workshop please include: with your registration your bio, CV or resume, and any videos, recordings, or work samples you may have posted online.
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Partner Acrobatics and Silliness
Workshop with The Platt Brothers
All Skill Levels - Jan. 8, 6-8pm
The Platt Brothers join us from San Diego for a workshop of acrobatics, mime, and general silliness. The Platt Brothers unique style blends dance, acrobatics, comedy, theater, and anything else which might be lying around to create 'stream of consciousness' entertainment. This workshop will focus on teaching new skills, as well as honing existing skill sets in new and unique ways. Cy, Boone, and Cheetah are all well trained and experienced instructors of gymnastics, dance, and running-amok. Prepare for fun.
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Sense and Structure
Workshop with Rajendra Serber and Zack Bernstein
All Skill Levels – Jan. 9, 1-3pm
What happens to our dance when we invite witnesses to view it? In this class we will practice using the tools of dance improvisation in the situation of being seen. The goal of this class is to practice bridging inspiration from our inner life with the world around us. We will start with sensory exercises to prepare our bodies and minds to work within improvisational structures -- Being present and make choices in the moment. Then we will explore keeping this sensitivity as we expand to group scores that emphasize a focus on our relation to each other in space and time.
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Fly Together
Workshop with Sebastian Grubb and Andrew Ward
Intermediate/Advanced Skill Levels – Jan. 9, 6-8pm
This class will focus on acrobatic partnering as applied to contemporary dance and Contact Improvisation. Through practice, the participants can utilize more opportunities for sustained flight and softer falling, utilizing each other as springboards and safety nets.
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The Point of Contact
Workshop with Rajendra Serber
Intermediate/Advanced Skill Level – Jan. 10, 10am-12pm
In this class we will practice Contact Improvisation in order to find a sublime union of two people improvising together in dance. By committing to the point of contact we can let a dance unfold that is beyond the choreography of one mind; The dance can be an expression of the essence of human relationship. We will start with the simplest score possible, moving at the point of contact, then proceed to refine our duets though direct feedback, witnessing and becoming conscious of habits.