ACI presents:
a series of masterclasses in Contact Improvisation with established canadian and american teachers.
| 4 evenings not to be missed! Monday to Thursday, Nov 26 to 29, 6:30 to 9:30 PM At UQAM Dance Department, 840 Cherrier street, Montreal - studio KS-1210 $45/series of 2 classes (D. Lepkoff only) |
width='300'height='361' alt="(JPG)" /> |
MOVING THE ENVIRONMENT - 2 masterclasses with Daniel Lepkoff
Monday & Tuesday, Nov 26 & 27.
The visible boundaries of our body are transparent to the force of gravity. The forces that we feel within our body, (compression or stretch) do not know the difference between what is us and what is our environment. We move ourselves by extending our architecture and expressing our force into the environment. The environment answers. We move it and it moves us.
We work with exercises designed to help us embody this physical fact in both solo and partner work. This duality offers an extended dimension to our awareness and understanding of what is happening as we navigate through space. These two classes are part of a larger study of the real time function of the mind and body that is the basis of a dance technique. The class work is physical, direct, and highly focused. Please come organized to work.
Because these classes are offered in the context of a Contact Improvisation focus I would be very happy if students read a recent writing of mine : “Contact Improvisation: A Question” . Go to: www.daniellepkoff.com
Bio :
width='150'height='246' alt="(JPG)" /> |
Daniel Lepkoff’s work looks at all of our movement as a finely tuned physical dialogue with the environment and explores the form and composition of these interactions. He played a central role in the development of Release Technique with Mary Fulkerson and Contact Improvisation with Steve Paxton since the early ’70’s. As a performer and teacher he is known for composing dances that arises from the process of living movement, a vision a living in the body in a physical dialogue with the natural environment. He is one of the founders of Movement Research in NYC. |
THE SPACES BETWEEN - a masterclass with Lani Nahele (Lisa Schmidt)
Wednesday, Nov 28.
In embryology, from our first moments of cellular divide, we were in "relationship", with placenta, with types of tissues forming organs and support structures. Embodying this base, we will explore front/back, in/out and the spaces between. We’ll explore distribution of weight, slack versus active muscles, the use of momentum, and transitions to the floor and flight. We will practice taking our three-dimensional selves fully through space and into relationship with others.
Bio:
width='300'height='321' alt="(JPG)" /> Crédits : Just Mannochia |
Lani Nahele (Lisa Schmidt), B.F.A. SUNY Purchase. Trisha Brown Dance Company 1985-1992. Practitioner of Body-Mind Centering, she spent many years in Europe and South America integrating BMC into exploratory site-specific performance work, and into her pedagogy for Contact Improvisation and Contemporary technique. In Germany, she created works with Frey Faust, Dieter Heitkamp and others, and a commissioned work for five women, "Spiral Out". In North America she continues collaborative performance. She runs Studio rEvolution; a space for movement and creative adventures, BodySoulMoving; her bodywork/movement education practice and LaniPants; dancepants/streetwear. She is the grateful mother of her son Willem. |
WILLINGLY UNKNOWN - a masterclass with Karen Kaeja
Thursday, Nov 29.
Willingly surrendering to the place in between to find the truth of our dance, we will demand of ourselves to live in the instance, focus with committed drive, and let our balance tip any which way. Open and ready, we will take that risk at a heightened volume to dance fully and seek the unknown. Where that dance can take us, quiet, playful or bold, is the journey that will lead us to a satisfying, surprising and meaningful dance.
Pleasure, challenge and connection will be combined with integrated ways to devise and encounter great dances. The workshop will advance from warming ourselves through head to spine to tail to our feet, finding ease in and out of the floor, to taking up space and being propelled by gravity and our partner. Momentum will assist us into aerial encounters with fluidity. Curiosity is a must!
Bio:
| With a developed approach to CI through technical skill and sensorial ease, Karen Kaeja has been practicing Contact Dance for 30 years. Having co-founded FIP - the Festival of Interactive Physics, she has been honoured to study with many of the gifted founders of Contact Dance. Co-Artistic Director of Kaeja d’Dance with Allen Kaeja, she celebrates a two-decade career in performance, choreography, outreach and dance on film. Karen’s awards include the 2012 CDA I Love Dance Community Award, the Moving Pictures Award and the Paul D. Fleck Fellowship for Innovation. Her nominations span the 2011 NOW Magazine Best Local Choreographer, 2009 Dora for Outstanding Performance, the American Choreography and Banff World Television Awards. She was also a finalist for the 2012 CDA I Love Dance Innovation Award. Karen is included in The Canadian, Who’s Who and Theatre Dance in Canada Encyclopedia’s. |
width='308'height='262' alt="(JPG)" /> Crédits : Jacklyn Rodrigues |
Creating for, teaching and mentoring professionals, general public and diverse communities, she is noted as “one of the country’s best dance artists” NOW Magazine. Teaching Contact Dance and Improvisation, Karen is on faculty at the School of Toronto Dance Theatre on her 23rd year and guest teaches at Ryerson University and George Brown College. She has been commissioned to create work and teach at festivals and performance series around the world. Karen can sometimes be found at the Toronto Contact Jam harnessing possibilities from a state of off balance. www.kaeja.org www.kaeja.org
Crédits : Zhenya Cerneacov