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select a month sept 06 oct 06 nov 06 dec 06 jan 07 feb 07 mar 07 apr 07 may 07 jun 07 april 2007 april classes Stacy Spence April 2 - 27 MON WED FRI 10am-12pm Movement Research at Eden's Expressway This technique class begins with approaching the body with simple, straightforward exercises that allow us to discover and notice the use of clear alignment, clarity of initiation, direction of energy and use of weight and momentum to help find an ease in the moving body. Levi Gonzalez April 10 - 19 TUES THURS 10am - 12pm Danspace Project Inhabiting Forms: Tools for Performers This class will be an investigation in locating presence within choreographic and/or performative forms. Class will begin with imagery and gentle preparation culled from various bodywork modalities to find softness, ease and alertness in the body. From there we will investigate choreographic structures, improvisations and performance constructs, finding various ways to engage with the material with honesty, precision and absorption. We will dance with and for one another in an effort to further our own personal research on the meaning of performing dance.  ongoing classes Juliette Mapp March 17, April 21, May 19, June 2, June 16 SAT   4:30 – 7:30 pm $20 per class Movement Research at Eden's Expressway Using the luxury of three hours of dancing together, we will take the time to investigate different states of awareness. Each class will be three-fold, beginning with a guided improvisation to inspire the imagination to expand into the unique life of different parts of the body, followed by dancing within technical forms to support our range and work as dancers, and concluding with a phrase that integrates concepts of weight, lightness, initiation and intention. The technical forms and phrase will be specifically structured to build our knowledge of individual physical patterns that may be blocking us from deepening the use of our selves as artists. In the process of learning a phrase, we can observe how we retain “set” material. The merging of the unconscious life of movement through improvisation and conscious attention to the physical imagination is part of the energizing practice we will explore in each class. Systems and Developments of Dance Improvisation: an ongoing investigation taught by Daria Fain, K.J. Holmes or Jennifer Monson. January 6 – June 30 SAT 11am – 1pm April 7 - K.J. Holmes April 14 - Daria Fain April 21 - Daria Fain April 28 - K.J. Holmes Movement Research at Eden's Expressway In these classes, students will explore somatic approaches to fine-tuning the body as an instrument and source for dance improvisations based on the eclectic and extensive experience of the three teachers. Investigations will vary each week depending on the teacher and may include: awareness and perceptual play; time and spatial elements of instant composition; experiential anatomy through Body-Mind Centering® and the Alexander Technique™; and skills and practices of Contact Improvisation, martial arts forms and Chi Kung. All three teachers share interests in empowering the individual in relationship to self, others and the environment and in discovering new challenges and risks within movement and performance. Barbara Mahler January 2 – July 19 TUE THU 10am – 12pm Movement Research at Eden's Expressway The purpose of this class is to re-educate the dancer’s body, interweaving theory and practice on a physical and organic level. From this comes the potential for students to discover a range of intelligence in their dancing, as well as to help them discover and develop their own choreographic vision. Initially inspired by the work of pioneer kinesiologist Dorothy Vislcoky, and then continuing for upwards of 20 years with Susan Klein, Barbara Mahler has learned to see, feel and teach each person/body individually to help their body function at its highest level of efficiency and function. Daria Fain March 5 - May 30 MON WED 10am – 12pm Body Language, 241 Bedford Avenue #7 (bet N 3rd & 4th), Brooklyn The Affect of Perception on Performance: An ongoing experiment in creating means to apprehend language as performers This forum is addressed to participants in the performing arts who are interested in experiential and theoretical research in perception. It proposes a mind/body practice based on movement and internal “activation” of energy using Chinese energetics as a basic principal to develop sensory perception. By heightening sensory perception, the experience of one’s activity becomes multidimensional. The sessions will offer open improvisational situations and structures that integrate the senses, organs, body systems, emotions and directions in space. This work will immerse the student in an intra/extra-corporeal journey. Contact Improvisation K.J. Holmes teaches for the month of April. February 7 – July 25 WED 6:45 – 9:10pm Cathy Weis Studio Contact Improvisation is a partnering dance form. Skills such as rolling, releasing, giving and supporting weight, expanding range of spatial concentration, lifting, catching and falling help one move with and through gravity, share weight in motion and use momentum and flow in physical contact. These weekly classes, open to adults of all levels of movement experience, are informed variously by the individual teaching artists. workshops Yvonne Meier Beginning Level: April 17 & 24, May 1, 8 & 15   TUES   6 – 8pm Intermediate Level: May 22 & 29, June 5   TUES   6 – 8pm Students must take the Beginning level classes first in order to participate in the Intermediate level. Eden’s Expressway   Beginning Level $75, Intermediate Level $45, Both levels $110 Releasing Through specially designed images, we will enable ourselves to let go of hidden tensions and realign with the natural forces of gravity and counter balance. Through the releasing process, we will learn how to move with more freedom and economy. Spontaneous movement explorations will allow us to creatively integrate these changes in our bodies. The experience of seeing into our bodies will give us a wonderful tool for improvisational dance. The Intermediate level classes are a clear continuation of the Beginning level classes. In order to deepen the releasing process, new imagery will be given and old images will grow in complexity.