2010 SFDI Class Descriptions

2010 SFDI Class Descriptions and Teacher Bios

5-Class Intensives

INEFFABLE INTANGIBLE SENSATIONAL / Miguel Gutierrez
I am currently looking at the intersections between neurology, cognitive philosophy, somatic practices and improvisation. I propose that dance is a mode of perceptual inquiry, rather than a non-verbal "language." With this in mind, this workshop will investigate sensation, non-rational action and movement explorations that trigger automatic, unprepared physical response.

Miguel Gutierrez is a dance and music artist whose works have been presented around the world. The 53rd State Press published WHEN YOU RISE UP, a collection of his performance writings. He has received two New York Dance and Performance "Bessie" Awards.

ADVANCED CONTACT IMPROVISATION: "WE HAVE IGNITION..." / K.J. Holmes
Skills, practices, investigations using raw physics, reflexive exchanges and sensorial responses with specificity of shaping momentum and interrupting established pathways. Explorations include precision in falling, rolling, jumping, catching, listening, following flow and resistance; transitions between horizontal and vertical alignments; subtlety of intention, touch, direction.

K.J. Holmes, based in Brooklyn, NY, has been exploring improvisation as process and performance since 1981. She teaches, choreographs and performs at festivals, universities and venues throughout the world. Influences include Contact Improvisation, Body-Mind Centering, Yoga, Authentic Movement, Ideokinesis, Alexander and Feldenkrais, Martial Dance, world vocal studies, contemporary dance and theatre.

THE CHOREOGRAPHIC MIND: MAKING YOUR BEST WORK / Susan Rethorst
Looking at: dance making as a form of thought; affect as method; the alchemy of sequence. Exercises are proposals in action, accessing intuition, cognition, perception, pleasure, reflection, humor. We make and show a lot and articulate what each person's work reveals of their interests and questions and ask "and now?"

A choreographer for 30-some years and internationally-renowned teacher for over 20, Susan Rethorst is known for work of subtlety and intelligence, as well as for teaching that liberates individuals into their own direction. She is close to finishing her first book, A Choreographic Mind.

4-Class Somatic Intensive

BODYMIND DANCING© / Martha Eddy
CLASS IS FULL!
Improvisation with deep awareness guided by Dynamic Embodiment©, an elegant weave of the experiential anatomy and developmental movement of BodyMind Centering® and the dynamic alignment work of Laban/Bartenieff. Imbue "real" meaning to technical prowess; allow the sacred to emerge. Through self-attunement experience the thoughts and feelings that arise from a keen body-mind connection. Balance exertion/ recuperation, internal/external, mobility/stability, function and expression.

Martha Eddy, RSMT, CMA, EdD, founder of Dynamic Embodiment SMTT of Moving On Center (linked with SUNY-Empire State College, SBGI and IUPS.edu), is a sought-after dance somatics expert. Martha's dance system, BodyMind Dancing, draws on her neuro-developmental movement therapy work with Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen and Irmgard Bartenieff beginning in 1977.

Beginning Contact Improvisation Mini-Intensive

CONTACT FUNDAMENTALS / Vitali Kononov
Explore and deepen your CI skills by re-discovering effortless movement pathways and weight sharing. Re-visit natural patterns of rolling, sliding, surfing, walking, falling up and down. Using experiential anatomy to help us understand principles of strength and ease, discovering support, we will learn to open up possibilities of our Contact dance.

Vitali Kononov is a movement artist, bodyworker and somatic movement educator, working with improvisation as a performance discipline, therapeutic tool and contemplative practice. He was born in Russia and moved to the USA in 2001. He has been a faculty member of Moving On Center School since 2002, and ADF (2003-04). He teaches and has a private bodywork practice in Berkeley, CA.

Other Classes

FLUID MOVEMENT / Martha Eddy
Recuperative movement experiences based on the rhythms of the circulating fluids. Move quietly to music to lubricate joints, nourish muscles, deepen relaxation, balance the brain and nerves, and restore overall fluidity. We will investigate the slower restorative fluids to fine-tune alignment, elongate muscles, and rejuvenate the whole self. Bring your favorite small ball(s) to use in various healing combinations.

Martha Eddy, RSMT, CMA, EdD, founder of Dynamic Embodiment SMTT of Moving On Center (linked with SUNY-Empire State College, SBGI and IUPS.edu), is a sought-after dance somatics expert. Martha's dance system, BodyMind Dancing, draws on her neuro-developmental movement therapy work with Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen and Irmgard Bartenieff beginning in 1977.

DANCE MAKING: PHYSICALITY AND CONTENT / Bebe Miller
This workshop aims at creating physicality to locate ourselves in our current times along with its reverse: finding context inside of our physicality. We'll consider how we listen to the weight of a gesture, how we qualify our actions mindful of our context, and how we expand into our technical range.

Bebe Miller's interest in finding a physical language for the human condition is a connecting thread through her work. Her choreography has received four "Bessie" Awards and been commissioned and performed internationally through Bebe Miller Company since 1985. Currently residing in Columbus, OH and Seattle, she is a Professor in Dance at The Ohio State University.

MORPHING THE FLUID BODY / Cathie Caraker
A laboratory on morphing through the fluids systems from a Body-Mind Centering perspective. Approaching the bodymind as a fluid community of cells which is constantly reinventing itself, we explore how, as improvisors, we can transform our attention, touch, tone, density and perceptions of gravity, space and time to expand and renew our dancing.

TOUCH IMAGE-ING / Cathie Caraker
How do we image-ine touch? Playing with specific touch images as a kinesthetic source for dancing, we'll explore the interface between imagination, sensation and composition. We'll go beyond our habitual perceptions of touch and movement response to find new qualities in our dancing that surprise and delight.

Cathie Caraker is an international dance artist and teacher whose work investigates the experiential anatomy of the body and its innate states of movement and mind. Her performance work and her teaching of Body-Mind Centering and improvisation have been presented at dance institutes and festivals across the US, Europe and South America. She was recently artist-in-residence at CounterPULSE in San Francisco, where she premiered a new work in collaboration with Katarina Eriksson.

THE PASSIVE SEQUENCING WORK: A RELEASE APPROACH TO CONTACT IMPROVISATION / Karl Frost
We free ourselves from unwarranted fear responses in the body, cultivating thereby a more fine physical awareness of ourselves and our environment, creating greater capacity for choice and art-making in contact, as well as the potential for soft power and articulate mobility.

THE POETICS OF HUMAN CONTACT / Karl Frost
What is our sense of meaning in physical interaction: in physics or in the play of sensation, emotion, experienced image? We explore holding onto specific themes in the dance in a sense of collaborative art-making, experienced visually in the space, but rooted in the proprioceptive.

Karl Frost, director of Body Research, has been exploring the art of the living human body through dance, theater, martial arts and Contact Improvisation since the 1980s. He considers Life an art project and theater an extension of life. He is currently pursuing degrees in Choreography and Ecology at UC Davis.

DANCING ENERGY SYSTEMS / Louis Gervais
When we look beyond our physical bodies, we see ourselves as interconnected energy centers or chakras. Through improvisation, visualization and metaphor, we can create powerful personal relationships with the invisible, ever-changing energetic self and begin to sense the different qualities and expressions of energy radiating from our bodies.

Louis Gervais (MFA) is a solo artist, community creator and somatic inventor. Louis has performed with Compagnie Marie Chouinard and the Lar Lubovitch Dance Company among many other professional dance companies. Louis' somatic work combines improvisation with transcendent dance practices and Eastern philosophy within a somatic framework.

CONTACT IMPROVISAION: TUTU TABOO / Michal Lahav
We will pay attention to how the body creases and folds, noticing the potential energy waiting at the depths of the creases. We'll work with the less-explored locations across the body. Tuning into our open and receptive body and from there find surprising lifts and locomotions.

Michal Lahav began her love affair with contact improvisation in 1998. Since then she has explored it across the globe, in national parks, her living room, and perhaps yours, too. Michal integrates studies of neuroscience, yoga and dance with a curiosity for movement, human behavior and a great lust for everyday life.

RECIPROCAL INHIBITION / Rachael Lincoln
An athletic technique class to explore what muscles we need to use, when we need to use them, and what happens when we use them less. In this release-based class we will investigate weight, momentum and sequential articulation. Class will likely include: floor puzzles, phrase work, big moving, small details, being upside-down, rocking out, improvising.

TWO / Rachael Lincoln
We'll work improvisationally in duets, dancing with, performing for, and witnessing each other in order to identify and encourage the particular physical language of each partnership. We will try on several idioms and then focus on excavating the details within one partnership to create and eventually set or score a phrase, working towards finding specificity in each mini-duet sequence.

Rachael Lincoln makes, performs, and teaches dance. She is particularly interested in collaboration, improvising set material, and the indeterminate relationships between movement, sound, images and meaning. She has performed her work and taught in venues including Sophiensaele Theater (Berlin), Theater Artaud (SF), The Bytom Dance Festival (Poland) and the Indonesian Dance Festival. In addition to her own work, Rachael has danced with The Joe Goode Performance Group and Project Bandaloop. She currently teaches at UCLA and co-directs Lean-to-Productions with collaborator Leslie Seiters.

READYMADE DANCING: SPONTANEOUS CHOREOGRAPHY IN PERFORMANCE / Nina Martin
In the moment of spontaneous dancemaking we cannot consciously direct all our choices. All choices are conditioned by prior experiences. Engagement in the conscious study of how we perceive dance, enables us to better create it. We practice dancing preconscious choices using Martin's Rewire: Dancing States and Ensemble Thinking.

Nina Martin was a founding member of Channel Z, New York Dance Intensive, and Lower Left. Currently, she carves out a dance destination in Marfa, TX and theorizes the practice and performance of spontaneous dance as PhD student at Texas Woman's University. She is also on faculty at Texas Christian University.

PHYSICAL INVESTIGATION / KT Niehoff
The correlation between directional energy and range of motion, rebound, momentum and torque. Performance investigation: balancing the inner, biological dialogue with external awareness. Holistic investigation: contextualizing the political and personal meaning behind why we move, to find a deeper resonance when we move. Spiritual investigation: dance class as church.

KT Niehoff's main project is Lingo, which she has directed since 1998. She founded Velocity Dance Center in 1996 and has performed and taught throughout the U.S. and a bit in Europe. Lately, she has tipped off the stage and into the street, museums and other odd locales to deepen her investigation between watcher and doer.

BUTOH: VESSEL FOR EMBODIMENT / Haruko Nishimura
Embodiment of imagery, exploration of sensory experience, guided improvisation and performance, we push ourselves to the edge of possibility seeking extreme qualities of movement and playful theatricality. Lead by music, working in groups and in solo, through rigorous physical training, we become a vessel honing our ability to "be moved" by the image rather than moving of our own will.

Haruko Nishimura directs Degenerate Art Ensemble. Her teachings draw from her experience as a performer and experimental musician as well as extensive studies in Butoh. She has performed at REDCAT (L.A.), Yerba Buena Center for the Arts with SF-based company Inkboat, Rudolstadt Festival (Germany), Festival Alternativa (Prague), John Zorn's The Stone (NY) and New Museum (NY).

HUMAN JAZZ / Christian Swenson
Let's see if we can have the body and voice say the same thing. What's the difference between making sounds and making music? What can we learn from behaving like music? Do you have music inside you trying to get out? Why is singing so scary? We'll lend our attention to pulse and tone and seek their physical/visual equivalents. Sourcing from walking and casual singing and into heightened states of "dansing" and acting like music.

Christian Swenson is based in Seattle. Originally trained as a dancer/mime/singer, for the last 30 years he's pioneered an improvised form for the body-voice, "Human Jazz," an art form/play form/mystical practice. A specialist in the "art of bewilderment," he is more at home when barefoot, off the trail, beyond words. When not touring his solo show he teaches Improvisation and Acting/Movement at Seattle University. His work has been seen throughout North America, Europe and Asia.

CONTEMPLATIVE DANCE PRACTICE / Alia Swersky
Contemplative Dance Practice (CDP) was developed by Barbara Dilley of Naropa University. CDP is a three-part form consisting of sitting meditation, personal warm-up and open movement space. This practice allows for deep connection to the language of your own body, offers an opportunity to witness, and a rich open space of improvisational play.

Alia Swersky is a movement artist, improviser, performer and teacher. She creates work and collaborates with many Seattle artists, taught at University Prep for six years, is an adjunct faculty member at Cornish College of the Arts, teaches yoga and is a Co-Artistic Director of Dance Art Group.

WEAVING THE STRANDS / UMAMI Performance (Aiko Kinoshita & Aaron Swartzman)
Using simple tools to find and refine personal impulses while coming in and out of contact, we will look for ways that solo and duet can enhance each other and develop strategies to increase the probability that following our individual curiosities will lead to deep connection rather than disconnect and confusion.

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 towards ongoing artistic transformation. He is invested in cultivating improvisation as a sustainable life practice and sharing the fruits of his research with others.

Aiko Kinoshita creates and performs through UMAMI Performance and her company, acornDance. She teaches at Open Flight Studio and Velocity Dance Center. Her work has been presented nationally and in Japan, Korea and Canada and she has taught at universities and institutions nationally. www.acorndance.org