2008 SFDI Class Descriptions and Teacher Bios
Intensives
From Source to Substance
Refreshing connection to place and to the moving/dancing body through investigations with authentic movement and the neuro-endocrine systems, we expand the ways we create, sustain, and focus energy for performance.
Andrea Olsen, author of Body and Earth and Bodystories (with Caryn McHose) is professor of Dance and Associate in Environmental Studies at Middlebury College in Vermont. She has performed and taught internationally for over 25 years, including annual training programs at Pen Pynfarch, in Wales.
Dancing in Love
The Unspoken Force (our passion to move and be moved): Exploring eros through images and metaphor that arrive with us in our dancing, drawings, and songs to fire us up and propel us into motion with the world in mind. Generating solo material in community connects us with the heart of the moment and allows our experiments within embodied passion to be seen.
Mary Reich currently teaches improvisation and somatic movement in several institutes and is an expressive arts practitioner in San Diego. As a perpetual learner, she is trained in the Feldenkrais Method®, and in addition to holding an MFA in choreography, is also a graduate of the European Graduate School in Switzerland. She collaborates regularly with SomeBodiesMoving Company.
ZOOM
Contact Improvisation in Detail and Perspective: Through physical training; detailed listening practice; working solo, in duets and groups, in silence and with live music by Mike Vargas, we'll develop our ability to focus and enjoy our dancing, listening, and improvising at multiple levels of magnification.
Nancy Stark Smith danced in the first performances of Contact Improvisation in 1972 and has been central in its development as dancer, performer, teacher, writer/publisher, and organizer. She travels worldwide teaching and performing improvised dance work, often collaborating with musician Mike Vargas. She cofounded and edits/produces Contact Quarterly dance journal. Her new book, Caught Falling, with David Koteen, will be out in summer 2008.
Nancy will also be leading The Underscore - a talk and a practice: An introduction to the Underscore, a long jamming/contact/improvisation score that guides us through solo and group warmup, Contact Improvisation, large group improvisation, and back to rest and reflection. The Tuesday talk will give some background and outline the score's structure in detail, to be followed Thursday with the physical practice (for those attending the talk or already familiar with the U'score). Includes periods of silence and live music improvised/composed by Mike Vargas.
Mini-Somatic Intensive
Re-Education of the Body–Klein/Mahler Technique
A dance/movement technique that works from the premise that the requirements of movement in daily life and dance are basically the same. It provides the underpinnings to support all styles of dance technique and improvisation. The purpose of the work/class is to re-educate one's body with an interweaving of theory and practice on a physical and organic level. The result is clarity and sureness of movement, and a new level of understanding the innate intelligence of the body. A body of work, it is also a way for dancers to be treated, respected and to be seen as individuals. The main thrust of the work is for dancers to find their own essence, their own identity and integrity and take that into movement. We work at the level of the bone, not the traditional level of the muscles. In order to move most efficiently it is necessary to let go of the muscles that hold us back from moving and fix the body into a set and locked configuration. When the bones are aligned we become connected, powerful and strong. The body becomes efficient and alive.
Barbara Mahler has taught daily classes for 27 years plus, educating and teaching (with, and inspired by, Susan Klein) a generation of dancers. She is a widely-respected dance teacher and choreographer, very active in the development contemporary dance technique. Essentially self-taught, she brings to her classes the perspective, understanding and experience of working on her own movement re-education. Barbara was a Movement Research artist in residence for the 2000-01 season, is for the 2006-08 season, is an adjunct faculty at Hunter College, NYC, and is on the artist advisory board of BAX. She is a recent graduate from the MFA program at the University Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Barbara was originally inspired by pioneer dance kinesiologist Dorothy Vislocky. She also maintains a private practice in Zero Balancing and other healing modalities.
Other Classes
Butoh
Butoh dance is a formless style with no "rules," yet it takes great concentration, awareness, and strength. We will use traditional butoh exercises such as sustained movement and imaging. For inner awareness of direct mind/body connection, we will use the zen practice of sitting meditation and meditation in movement. You will leave this class with a heightened awareness of the unity of mind/body and also understand how the inner and outer worlds coincide.
Jyl Shinjo Brewer has danced Butoh for over 20 years. She trained in Japan with Kazuo Ohno, Min Tanaka, and Katsura Kan. She was a member of ‘Saltimbanques' as a dancer/choreographer touring throughout Asia. She started her own butoh company ‘Stillwater' and also performed and taught as a solo artist in Paris, Poland, Japan, and the US. She has trained full time in Zen at Sogenji Zen Monastery in Okayama, Japan for over 11 years.
Contact Improvisation in Performance
What instantaneous choreographic tools can we add to a contact duet intended for performance without compromising the listening required for effective and safe contact improvisation? In this class we will investigate how an outward gaze, altered timing, and choices to travel in space can add to the performative quality of contact improvisation.
W. Scott Davis is a Seattle-based artist with an eclectic background in dance improvisation, contact improvisation, and physical theater. From 2000 to 2007 he toured and taught nationally and internationally with KT Niehoff's Lingo dancetheater. Davis has also collaborated extensively with Amii LeGendre and Cyrus Khambatta and is influenced by the work of Karl Frost, Alia Swersky, and Christian Swenson. He co-founded Loon Soup Theater Troupe in the 1990's and is on faculty at the Northwest School and the Sitka Arts Camp.
Dangle, Tassel, Trick, Test
Dangle your legs above your head. Tassel your torso along the floor. Trick yourself into flight, test falling. Investigate inversion inside and around partnering. Duet and solo scores are built to engage, excite and fatten your curiosity.
Bianca Cabrera grew up while dancing in Seattle for the past seven years. Her dance practice is her family practice is her peace practice is her personal revolution. She lives inside the beast that is Lingo Dancetheater.
Play
In this class we'll engage and develop strategies for accessing perceptual agility and creative fluidity in solo and group improvisations, unleashing clarity, courage and voracious joy in our dancing together.
Throughout their over forty years of collective dance experience Anna and John Dixon have focused their research on the effortless tension between silence and activity and the inevitability of play.
When Your Partner is a Trapeze
How does an improv duet transform when your partner is a trapeze? We will play with elements of contact improv, Skinner Releasing Technique, and basic aerial skills on low-flying trapezes to create a variety of dances that might take one from rolling on the floor to soaring thru the air.
Nathan Dryden is an independent choreographer, teacher, performer, aerialist, and certified Skinner Releasing Technique instructor serving on faculty at the annual SRT summer intensives. He currently calls Seattle home, while spending much of the year teaching and performing around the globe. He wishes he had time for a puppy....
Technique as Inquiry
Informed by the idea that technique is a mode of ongoing inquiry, this class explores vigorous floor movement, off-balance heroics, the flight of momentum and the inherent intelligence of weight while employing improvisation and partnering as ways to warm-up and help make accessible choreographed movement sequences.
Sarah Gamblin initiates collaborative projects involving the intersection of choreography, performance and improvisation. Her work has been produced at the Bates Dance Festival, Performatica Festival of Movement Arts in Puebla, Mexico, the Forth Worth Dance Festival and the Out of the Loop Festival in Dallas, Texas. Gamblin teaches at Texas Woman's University.
Settling to Rest....Still Bodywork
How can a discipline to simplicity create deep rest? How can subtle touch provide help settle one's body? We establish a grounded presence to begin. with a touch and presence that comes from the fluid body, we listen for rest to arise. We'll use simple tools for a bodywork based in dynamic stillness.
Mary Ganzon is a dancer, teacher, and bodyworker currently living in Portland. She grounded movement studies and performance work over 25 years ago deep in the heart of Texas. There she was introduced to contact improvisation with Nancy Stark Smith in a dharma center. Mary is presently training in biodynamic cranial/sacral therapy.
Moving with Clarity and Ease
This technique class will explore dynamic alignment, muscle efficiency, spatial clarity, movement initiation, and successional movement. We will touch upon these concepts through image-driven improvisations, warm-up exercises both on the floor and standing, and extended movement phrases.
Mark Haim has taught and made work for schools and companies in the U.S., Japan, Korea, Singapore, Russia, Portugal, Germany, Netherlands, Belgium, Italy, Latvia, Poland, Chile, and Argentina. Faculty at the ADF since 1993. Senior Artist in Residence at the University of Washington since 2002.
The Subtle Feeling Level of Your Work (2 classes)
Simple structures on warming up our bodies, tuning our senses then experimenting with Logomotion, an improvisational dance/narrative form wherein movement and words spring spontaneously from a common source (developed by Simone Forti). Forti quotes: "It's been a way for me to know what's on my mind. What's on my mind before I think it through, while it's still a wild feeling in my bones."
Nora Hajos: Starts studying dance in 1968 Hungary; dances improvisation since 1986; in depth studies with Steve Paxton, Lisa Nelson, Amy and Arny Mindell; toured and performed duet Logomotion with Simone Forti in Europe; in 2008, in residency work with Lisa Nelson, Steve Paxton and others... her company The Ship sails to London.
Feldenkrais® & Performance
Does your normally-graceful dancing go haywire when you get on stage? Explore how this system of neuromuscular repatterning can increase your awareness of your performance habits & provide tools for staying cool under the spotlight.
Lila Hurwitz has been teaching since 1987, including one of Seattle's longest-running weekly Feldenkrais® classes, and likes to think she introduced Portland, OR, to Authentic Movement. She's performed with Karen Nelson, Stephanie Skura, Bebe Miller, Ann Carlson, Crispin Spaeth, Nina Martin, Mary Oslund, Linda K. Johnson & others. www.feldenkraisteachersinseattle.com.
On The Cusp: Improvising, Setting, Un-setting
The workshop explores the notion of discovering, shedding and expanding personal patterns, relating them to partners and groups on the cusp between improvising and setting.
Jürg Koch (MA LCDS London, Faculty UW Seattle). Working with CandoCo integrating disabled and non-disabled performers and dancing in contemporary repertory including works by Bill T Jones, Javier de Frutos and Fin Walker informs Jürg's artistic and pedagogic outlook. His choreography spans from solo repertoire (Printer's Tray) to community ensembles and collaborations with new media artists.
Experiential Technique
Move through specifically designed images, guided improvisation and simple, fun full-bodied phrases to find intrinsic strength, ease and greater freedom of expression. Releasing habitual tension we will realign ourselves with the natural counter forces working both inside and around the body, and increase our awareness of the floor and space as ultimate, reliable dance partners.
Tonya Lockyer has taught improvisation, technique and creative process at numerous festivals and universities including Bates Dance Festival, American Dance Festival, University of Maryland, University of Washington, Cornish College and in Canada, Mexico, Turkey, Poland and Russia. Her work in performance has been awarded numerous awards and has been presented in Europe, Russia, and the U.S. Influences include her work with Lisa Nelson, Paula Josa-Jones, Merce Cunningham, Skinner Releasing, developmental movement, theater and years of full-throttle dancing.
Skinner Releasing Technique
In this class we can experience moving from our deepest selves. Guided poetic imagery and music taps into the imagination triggering spontaneous movement. Hands on tactile studies allow for a letting go of holding patterns and hidden tension. Discover: alignment as nature intended, freedom, and energy, a feeling of integration.
Mary-Clare McKenna is based in NY and creates interdisciplinary performance work. As a collaborator and performer she has worked with Janet Aisawa (NY), Lee Nagrin (NY) and Gaby Agis (UK). She teaches internationally and has taught extensively in colleges, universities and artistic communities. She is a certified Skinner Releasing teacher.
Comfort and Ease in Contact Improvising (2 classes)
First, commit to being connected. Second, explore spectrums of possibility. That is all.
Carolyn Stuart: Avidly researching/teaching/performing the art of contact improvising since 1984. Currently fascinated with distilling the form to it's simplest terms and applying it as a paradigm to live by.
Following Through Falling
This Contact Improvisation-based class will look at the art and joy of following through, riding gravity's rollercoaster, falling into curiosity, and honing the listening integral to partner and solo dancing.
Aaron Swartzman is a professional dancer, Capoiera Angola treineu and father. He believes in the richness and practice of discovering spontaneous beauty and weaving it into transformation. As such, he is invested in improvisation as a life practice.
Permeability
Combining Improvised Music with Improvised Dance (open to dancers and musicians): Permeability is doing a little less and listening more. The idea is to offer something specific, without making it so solid that it can't be interrupted or modified by input from others. We'll establish some topics and details to keep track of and pose some questions. Then we'll improvise together, with discussions in between.
Mike Vargas began playing music in 1959. He started specializing in music for dance in 1978. He works internationally as a freelance composer, performing, teaching, recording, and improvising. He's been working with Nancy Stark Smith since 1998. He has released 6 CDs and he teaches dancers about music at Smith College.
The Bodyversity
Explore the essential contributions of somatic and improvisation practices to the "The Great Turning" of humanity towards a just and sustainable culture, creating links with the world outside the studio. We will weave together a diversity of modalities, from permaculture to physical theater, ecopsychology and release work.
NalaWalla is a transdisciplinary teacher and performer dedicated to crosspollination of the bodybased and participatory arts with ecology and sustainability. From an off-grid homestead, Nala facilitates the Bcollective--an umbrella organization seeking to distribute somatic tools to the folk for commonsense use in community-building. www.bcollective.org.
Roll/Pivot/Slide (3 classes)
We will examine the point of contact and the three ways it can travel. By consciously dissecting what happens at the point, we increase our awareness of what is happening. After rolling, pivoting and sliding have been established, they can be blended, creating new pathways and possibilities within our dance.
Andrew Wass dropped biochemistry for dance, studying C.I. for the past 12 years. Influential teachers have been Ray Chung, Nina Martin and Scott Wells His performance/video work has been shown in Rio, Berlin, Marfa, L.A., Seattle, and San Francisco. www.andrewwass.com.