Workshop Descriptions
Two intensive streams occurring simultaneously
Stream 1 – COEXISTING FORMS
with Nancy Stark Smith (dance) and Mike Vargas (music)
Furthering our research into performable structured improvisation, we’ll work with three independent but interconnected forms—contact improvisation, live improvised music, and a movement practice called “come as you are.” The simultaneous overlay of these three “coexisting forms” will organize our performance at the end of the workshop.
Each form will be examined individually. We’ll refresh and refine our practice of contact improvisation through essential skills and extended periods of dancing. Detailed listening practice will strengthen our perception of sound and music. We will also experiment with “come as you are,” a movement structure that invites precise and unadorned embodiment of changing states. Then, combining the forms, we’ll use Mike’s “86 aspects of composition” to focus and evaluate our improvisations.
We’ll investigate coexistence on three levels—between individual dancers, between movement forms, and between the dance and the music. Alone, in and out of contact, in silence and with live music, we’ll study changes of state, natural composition, presence, and relationship, developing more conscious and varied relationships between what we hear and see and how we move. Come prepared to dance, listen, watch, talk, and dance some more!
Dovercourt House Penthouse – 3rd floor
5 days from May 17-21, 2006
$350 CAD – Classes run Wed to Sunday 10-4:30
Evening jams and discussion Wed to Sunday
Jam: Saturday eve @5-6
Performance: Sunday evening @5-6:30
this is a performance stream
Stream 2 – Improvisation Toward Performance
This workshop is for those interested in Improvisation as a performance art and who intend to include improvisation in future performance work. Participants need a moderate to high level of improvisational skill and a strong curiosity about turning this skill into a sophisticated and integral performance ability. All participants work towards a final performance.
Dovehouse Dance Ballroom – 2nd floor
3 days from May 19-21, 2006
$215 CAD – Classes run 10-4:30
Evening jams and discussion Wed to Sunday
Jam: Saturday eve @5-6
Performance: Sunday evening @5-6:30
this is a performance stream