classes and workshops
>general info dowload the Fall 2006 Calendar brochure (pdf)>
november 2006
november classes
Jeremy Nelson
October 16 – November 10 M W F 10 am – 12 pm
Movement Research at Eden’s Expressway
Contemporary Technique
The classes are influenced by Nelson’s 20 years of continuing study in the work of Barbara Mahler and Susan Klein, and by more recent studies in Alexander Technique™, Contact Improvisation and Body-Mind Centering®. The focus of the class is to integrate this investigation and alignment work into a more formally structured dance technique class. We will begin with a warm-up which focuses on our skeletal structure to access the deep supporting muscles of the body, allowing mobility and suppleness in the superficial muscles and emphasizing the connection to and use of the floor. The class builds from simple exercises to phrases of movement that involve moving boldly, covering lots of space, taking chances off balance and finding a strength, specificity and ease in our dancing.Jeanine Durning
November 7 – 21 T TH 10am – 12pm
Danspace Project
(no class November 23)
Class is designed to increase the functional knowledge of our bodies through intent and awareness so that we may move with more specificity, focus, multiplicity and possibility. Particular attention is paid to the initiations of movement as a means of directing, sequencing, locomoting and surprising our bodies through space. Improvisational explorations and etudes based on simple, functional approaches to movement will be incorporated. Attention to detail will be explored through set material as the individual comes into his/her own way of seeing, translating and experiencing movement. Through phrase material, extending the boundaries of perceived technique will be explored through a balance of physicality, intention, expression, interpretation and necessary questioning.
Jennifer Monson
November 13 – December 8 M W F 10am – 12pm
Movement Research at Eden’s Expressway
Morning Dancing
In this class we will warm up our individual approaches to improvisation as a performance form through various processes influenced by Skinner Releasing Technique™ and Authentic Movement™. We will isolate improvisational activities such as making transitions, creating locations, sustaining energetic states, and other compositional strategies to bring a deeper understanding to our own personal and intrinsic improvisational logic. We will create scores that access our deeper layers of consciousness and challenge our assumptions about how we dance, uncovering both raw and sophisticated compositional patterns. I am curious about how meanings get affixed to particular moments in performance both willfully and not and in our agency to reclaim and reenergize meanings and mistakes in the act of performance. We will dance for each other a lot.
november workshop
Sam Kim
Selected Sundays 10am – 1pm
October 22 & 29; November 26; December 3, 10 & 17; January 14, 21 & 28
$20 per class; Sign-up is first-come, first-served (limited to 5 choreographers per session) starting at 9:30am on the day of the workshop; no advanced registration required).
DTW David R. White Studio, 3rd Fl
Real Feedback
Real Feedback provides the much-needed platform for small groups of choreographers to get together, show work and get substantive feedback. Our goal is to use language as a vital tool to get at the essential nature of what we see – elevating our dances and the choreographic process. Expect dynamic feedback that addresses the fundamental tenets of your work and learn how we derive meaning from them. By sharpening your critical skills in Real Feedback, fall into deeper conversation with the choreographic form and use your freshened awareness to help you create dances that truly match your vision.
ongoing classes
Contact Improvisation
Jen Abrams teaches for the month of November.
September 6 – January 31 W 6:45 – 9:10pm
(no class Nov 22 and no class Dec 27)
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 people of all levels of movement experience, are informed variously by the individual teaching artists.Barbara Mahler
September 5 – December 21 T TH 10am – 12pm
Movement Research at Eden’s Expressway
(no class Nov 23)
January 2 – 30 T TH 10am – 12pm
Danspace Project
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.Merceditas Mañago Alexander
September 5 – December 22 T F 6 – 8pm
Movement Research at Eden’s Expressway
We will be constantly investigating weight shifting, energy intent and pathways, initiations and the sequence of events that happen, eye focus, and pelvic and leg support in relation to the torso and arms. I hope awareness from these places will help us better understand how these affect the performance quality of our movements.K.J. Holmes
September 16 – December 16 SAT 11am – 1pm
(no class Nov 25)
Movement Research at Eden’s Expressway
The Athletics of Intimacy, Improvisations
Classes combine skills and practices of Contact Improvisation, applications of Body-Mind Centering® and tutoring of somatic improvisational approaches in solo, duet (strong emphasis on partnering) and ensemble dancing. I am interested in the very physical, the very sensorial and the very imaginative, and in discovering new challenges and risks within our movement.
Juliette Mapp
September 16, October 14, November 18 SAT 4:30 - 7:30pm
$20 per class (drop-in only; pre-registration not available)
Movement Research at Eden's Expressway
This three-hour class will work in depth on developing awareness so that we may move with more specificity, focus, multiplicity and possibility. Particular attention is paid to the initiations of movement as a means of directing, sequencing, locomoting and surprising our bodies through space. Improvisational explorations and etudes based on simple, functional approaches to movement will be incorporated. Attention to detail will be explored through set material as the individual comes into his/her own way of seeing, translating and experiencing movement. Through phase material, extending the boundaries of perceived technique will be explored through a balance of physicality, intention, expression, interpretation and necessary questioning.
Daria Fain
November 28 – December 21 T TH 10am – 12pm
The Affect of Perception on Performance: An ongoing experiment in creating means to apprehend language as performers
Body Language, 241 Bedford Avenue, between N. 3rd & 4th in Williamsburg. Take the L train to Bedford Ave.