2023 SCHEDULE
CLASS DESCRIPTIONS
Nikolais/Louis Technique
Instructor: Alberto Del Saz, Artistic Director of The Nikolais/Louis Foundation for Dance
Description coming soon.
*RDT Technique Class
A Modern/Contemporary Technique class focused on technical tools of the dance genre, taught by RDT Company Dancers, Daniel Do and Jonathan Kim. This technique class will focus more on the contemporary aspects of Modern Dance, phrase work and movement invention.
Creative Processes – The Invitation to Recognize Voice and Agency
Instructor: jo Blake, guest artist
Being vulnerable and finding confidence in continually inhabiting shaky ground in the transformative; a willingness and receptivity to trying new things is the focus of the course rooted in the creative process. The week invites individuals to explore the power of voice and agency while dismantling barriers that do not serve the creative process. The classroom is a lab where we delve into a deep relationship with our moving bodies utilizing improvisation, personal exploration, peer reflection, and class discussion. The objective is not to create a comfort zone, but rather to work towards stripping away the known to become more intimate with the unknown.
Screendance Workshop
Instructor: Kym McDaniel, guest artist
In this collaborative dance filmmaking workshop, participants will learn how to use the camera to highlight choreography, performance, and the body in motion. Dancers will film, choreograph, collaborate, edit, perform, and showcase several different screendances produced throughout the workshop week. Workshop topics include the choreographic one-take, editing for movement, cinematography for dance, creating rhythmic soundscores, finding connections between dance, poetry, and video, and exploring a variety of filmmaking techniques and perspectives. Dancers will work independently and collaboratively in groups to create short screendance projects. The workshop week will culminate in a final curated screening of screendances produced throughout the week! No previous filmmaking experience is necessary, all are welcome and will be able to participate!
*Embraced for Being - Somatic Practice
Instructors: Lehua Estrada, Notasha Washington, and Eileen Rojas
As a community we will move through ways we can repair and revitalize the dance field toward inclusive practices and spaces of belonging. This session will be a dedicated community experience to embody change, challenge and compassion. Participants will be engaging in dance, somatic movement, reflection and discussion.
*Technique with Natosha Washington
This class will feature Rhythm Analysis: Rhythms, Steppin’, partnering and music for dancers, musicians, teachers and non-dancers.
*Contemporary Technique
Instructor: Daniel Charon, Artistic Director, Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company
The goal of this contemporary technique class is to cultivate individual expression within choreographed material in an effort to develop a unique dancing voice. This class encourages a versatile approach to movement which prepares a dancer to adapt quickly to the various styles and approaches. Movements range from simple and pure mappings of the body’s pathways to physically charged, technically demanding phrase work. The class encourages alignment, clarity of intention, and line and addresses specificity of timing, musicality and attuned rhythmical prowess. Stylistically, this class is influenced by Daniel’s work with the Limón Company and Doug Varone and Dancers.
*Movement, Metaphor, and Polarity Workshop through Laban Movement Analysis
Instructor: Sarah Donohue, guest artist
This movement workshop integrates principles of Laban Movement Analysis with the creative process to reveal meaning through metaphor and investigate movement polarities. Students will approach choreography through Shape Qualities and explore how changing the form of the body is inherently personal and meaningful. After clarifying short choreographic studies with Laban’s Effort principles, students will embody the psychological aspects of Effort theory to explore metaphor, meaning, and polarities.
*Contemporary Dance through a Classical Lens
Instructor: Adrian Fry, guest artist, ArtÉmotion/Ballet West
This movement-oriented ballet class includes a strong focus on dancing contemporary repertoire. Using ballet as a foundation, this class focuses on how to bring a classical sensibility and individual perspective with us into contemporary dancing. Each day will begin with an abridged ballet class which will include a barre and selected floor combinations. The later portion of class will be devoted to dancing various repertory––the first week focusing on learning contemporary dances from the Ballet West repertory, the second week learning and developing original material. The class will culminate with an optional informal performance at the final workshop showing.
*Embodied Awareness and Improvisation
Instructor: Lehua Estrada, guest artist
Renew your movement vocabulary and harness an empowered sense of self through a somatic and improvisational movement journey that cultivates awareness, self-compassion, acceptance, kinesthetic empathy, connection, and community. Rituals of introduction in the vein of communal play and witnessing are used to practice voluntary vulnerability, promote trust, and collectively cultivate our class community. Utilizing Feldenkrais® based floor explorations in tandem with reflective writing, improvisation, and unique movement phrases, each individual is given the opportunity to listen to and align their body, mind, and spirit, access their artistry, and celebrate their embodied truth.
Partnering
Instructors: Daniel Charon and Natalie Desch, guest artist
The idea behind this class is that everyone experiences multiple aspects of partnering. This could mean being supported and supporting, being lifted and lifting, as well as sharing the space with others. This class will investigate partnering by establishing an environment of awareness and trust. Improvisation, games, and studies will be used to help define and explore fundamental elements such as weight-share, lifting, and tactile connections. The class will apply these concepts to dance ideas created by the students, the teachers, or by dancing excerpts from existing repertory.
Intro to Lighting for Dance
Instructor: Pilar I. Davis, Production Manager, RDT
Participants will learn about the 5-controllable qualities of light, revelation of form, basic color theory, cue structure and narrative as it can apply to dance, modern dance, and experimental performance work. Using the practical experience of the Black Box theatre, participants will be able to see, create and experiment with lighting ideas and concepts in real time with other workshop participants with supervision from course instructor. This course is intended to be highly collaborative and participatory.
*Company Repertory
Instructors: Current and/or Alumni Company Dancers
Week 1: Repertory Dance Theatre
Week 2: Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company
Learn excerpts from various pieces that are part of the company’s repertory. This experience will encourage the development of skills such as: the art of learning material in an efficient and specific manner, the ability to adapt to different styles, and how to cooperate with fellow dancers. Participants will work closely with current and former dancers to gain insight into these works and will be able to delve into the technical aspects and performance skills associated with each piece.