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.

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Intro to Lighting for Dance

Instructor: Pilar I. Davis, Production Manager, RDT

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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.

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Screendance Workshop

Instructor: Kym McDaniel, guest artist

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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!

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Gaga and Repertory

Instructor: Noa Zuk, guest artist

The sessions will include a 1 hour and fifteen minutes daily Gaga class and after that a 1.5 hours of practicing and receiving tools to access and excess our sense of totality in the dance experience.

 

Gaga 

Gaga classes, the movement language developed by Ohad Naharin, are based on a deep activation of the body and physical sensations. Gaga is a multisensory, physically challenging experience offering a workout that develops flexibility, stamina, agility, coordination, and efficiency of movement.

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Repertory classes

In these repertory classes Noa Zuk will explore with the students a range of physical sensibilities by engaging with movement material from various choreographies Noa Zuk has created over the years.

We will deepen our understanding of the material by turning up the volume of our sensations, practicing our attention to details and finding ways to better our ability to connect to the needs of each physical moment.

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Stage Combat Workshop
Instructor: Chris DuVal, guest artist

Students will explore the fundamentals of the most frequently used techniques of theatrical combat used on stage, and in film and television productions.  Both unarmed and armed techniques will be taught and developed, using the standards as set by the Society of American Fight Directors.  Students will have the opportunity to engage in how to safely perform the illusions of staged violence – from barroom brawls, to slaps, punches, and kicks - to the basic theatrical techniques of swordplay and knife work.  The class will incorporate the use of training props – nerf swords as well as safe theatrical weapons – to explore the basic principles of this unique choreographic art form.

 

Moving into Skill: Ballet as a Humane Activity.
Instructor: Luc Vanier, guest artist

Ballet is getting further and further away from our general humane reality. The class will help all movers consider how they make decisions about shapes, lines of connectivity and overall integration inside a traditional ballet context. The work will be grounded in the Alexander Technique, the Framework for Integration and mindfulness meditation.

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Reverie | Of Body Experience
Instructor: John Allen, guest artist

A movement experience that is created in community. All levels. No levels. It’s an experience that is designed to accommodate all regardless of background, physical ability or movement preference. The experience becomes exactly what is needed/desired by all for we create it in the moment with all voices and energies integrated. And though there is a structure of connecting through physical contact, all are invited to move and connect according to their own impulses, intuitions and boundaries. There will also be time at the beginning and end of the experience to connect and share in conversation. A physical practice of existing as Self in community.

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Conditioning, Somatics, & Dancing     
Instructors: Pamela Geber-Handman & Tom Welsh, guest artist

Begin your day with a progressive warm-up and a series of themed conditioning patterns   drawing from Pilates mat-work, Yoga, Bartenieff Fundamentals, and Irene Dowd’s anatomical cueing and movement sequences. Themes may include: how are my feet doing?, and my knees?, balancing mobility AND stability at the hips, pelvis and low back, dynamic core support with breathing, and balancing mobility AND stability at the shoulders, scapulae and upper back.  Each class will culminate with a dance sequence that focuses on the day’s theme. Join us to start your day of dancing with enhanced awareness.

 

Yoga and Myofascial Release

Instructor: Lauren Curley, guest artist 

This class will incorporate principles of Baptiste yoga, Pilates, and functional movement exercises designed to lengthen, release, and restore the body. We will begin with an adaptable yoga flow to incorporate movement-based breathwork, adding on sequences that focus specifically on injury prevention for dancers. We will finish the class with myofascial release exercises designed to rejuvenate the body and aid in muscle recovery.
Please come in comfortable clothing with plenty of layers to keep the body warm. A yoga mat, yoga block, and ball (tennis or lacrosse) will be required for this class.

 

Improvisation and Play

Instructor: Eileen Rojas, guest artist

Description: An exploration of how the practice of playing and creating in the moment can help anchor our nervous system and keep us in the present moment.

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Physical Dramaturgies: Creating Character

Instructor: Alexandra Harbold, guest artist

 

Through theatre techniques and movement exercises, workshop participants will build a toolkit of physical approaches for creating and embodying a character.

 

Based on participant interest, the workshop could also explore language in performance: how character guides and frees the performer to make more specific, active choices with text.

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Company Repertory: Repertory Dance Theatre
Instructors: Lynne Larson and Nick Cendese

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Learn excerpts from various pieces that are part of RDT’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 RDT’s Artistic Associates 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. Excerpts from Works by Zvi Gotheiner, Molissa Fenley and Susan Hadley and Jo Stromgren will be taught.

Small Group Cross Training for Dance
Instructors: Tom Welsh, Pamela Geber Handman & Allison Shir, guest artists

Dancers must learn to manage a variety of complex and subtle movement challenges
as they prepare for a career in dance. Recent research in the dance sciences is
revealing that dancers can make rapid changes in their capabilities with targeted
practice in small, intensive training groups. This class will allow dancers to receive an
abundance of individual attention from a cohort of instructors using specialized training
approaches (e.g., Pilates Reformer, sequences from the GYROTONIC® Method and
other Somatic supports). Each dancer will leave the workshop with a personalized home
program tailored to their individual needs. Participation will be limited to 9 dancers and
an additional $50 fee will be required to make the intensive instruction feasible.

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FINDING (HEART): Practices in Improvisation 
Instructor: Molly Heller, guest artist 
 

This class will access improvisation as a practice in self-expression, social and communal engagement, and partnering with space. FINDING is a moveable exchange where leadership and creative autonomy are distributed. We will practice non-hierarchy within class as we lean into:  
 

Impossibilities: Paradox in the body and within location (such as: precariousness and stability, buoyancy and density, ease and resistance, containment and expansion) 
 

Expressivity: Capacity for the whole body to animate, punctuate, and communicate  
 

The idioms, sensations, and physical spaces of the heart 
Cultivating connection 
Magnification, bursting BIGness 
 

…curating our beginnings 
beginnings that curate… 
 

Imagination. Curiosity. Potential.
 

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