studies projects archives
12/3/07
Movement Research FALL Festival 2007 Studies Project
Judson Church Meeting Hall
Led by Margaret Paek on improvisational practices and investigations.
11/20/07
STUDIES PROJECT
A Discussion in the Round: Comparing Dancemaking in Ireland and the U.S.
Panelists: Niamh Condron, Vallejo Gantner, Jodi Melnick, Laura Murphy, Sara Rudner, John Scott, Laurie Uprichard, and others TBA
Dance Theater Workshop Lobby
As part of the MRX/Movement Research Exchange in partnership with Dance Ireland and Culture Ireland, Irish and American artists and administrators will come together for a public conversation about the comparative life of dance making in Ireland and the U.S. It is recognized that these two cultures continue to influence each other in philosophical and practical terms. Invited panelists will discuss their own personal working histories as well as their take on aesthetic dialogues happening between and within the U.S. and Ireland.
11/8/07
PAF: Introduction and Working Practices
DTW 3rd floor studio
Jan Ritsema, initiator of PAF (PerformingArtsForum, www.pa-f.net), introduces this residency space by and for artists, a free zone for self-organization and self-education located in St. Erme, France. He will also lead a broader discussion on contemporary performance working practices. Moderated by DD Dorvillier.
6/3/07
Studies Project: Exchange with the Dance Scene in Denmark
a conversation with Sara Gebran (Copenhagen), Mute Comp (Copenhagen), Ishmael Houston-Jones, Iréne Hultman, and Wally Cardona.
Danspace Project at St. Mark’s Church-Parish Hall, 131 E. 10th Street
FREE
As part of MRX/Movement Research Exchange, Danish and American artists will come together for a public round-table discussion about opportunities and challenges of the dance scene in Denmark, aesthetics, funding, and training, as well as possibilities for cultural and artistic exchange. Sara Gebran performs at Movement Research at the Judson Church on June 4 at and Mute Comp performs at Danspace’s Draftwork on June 2.
12/17/06
Performance Journal #30: Magazine
Dance Theater Workshop Lobby
FREE
Movement Research and the Performance Journal #30 Editorial Team invite all interested parties to a Studies Project, during which we will engage in a dialogue with regard to the writings of Journal #30. It is our hope that the discussions surrounding Journal #30 will galvanize debate, expand the range and depth of these conversations, and suggest possible topics for future journals.
10/16/06
Seen: SAN FRANCISCO
FREE
Movement Research at the Judson Church>
Choreographers from the Bay Area (the second largest dance community in the country) Mary Armentrout, Alma Esperanza- Cunningham, Navarrete x Kajiyama Dance Theater, and Scott Wells bring their work and artistic process to the stage of MR at the Judson Church. Experimentation, contact improvisation, dance-theater, the influence of ballet, and Bay Area politics invite a different history and thus a parallel but “alternative” critical dialogue when seen from a west coast perspective. The performance will be followed by a post-performance discussion with the artists about their work and the dance scene in San Francisco,. Co-curated by Mary Armentrout and Trajal Harrell.
6/22/05
I've Fallen Down and I Can't Get Up: AIDS Discourse in 2006
Dance Theater Workshop
Free
Co-presented with Dance Theater Workshop
Moderator: Stephen Greco (Editor-at-Large, Trace Magazine)
Panelists to include: David Román (Author, Performance in America: Contemporary U.S. Culture and the Performing Arts), Sarah Schulman (author and playwright) and Neil Greenberg (choreographer).Why, SINCE AIDS IS STILL alive and KICKING, IS THE CONDITION/SYNDROME/DISEASE so rarely addressed? What has dampened the spirit of activism in our culture— AND IN OUR ART? Using the revival of Neil Greenberg’s Not-About-AIDS-Dance [AT DANCE THEATER WORKSHOP] as instigation, panelists will discuss the state of discourse and activism around HIV/AIDS by artists in this 25th anniversary-year of AIDS. Moderator Stephen Greco (Editor-at-Large, Trace Magazine) and panelists David Román (Author, Performance in America: Contemporary U.S. Culture and the Performing Arts) and Sarah Schulman (author and playwright) join Greenberg for a free discussion immediately following the performance. (The performance is at 7:30; Call DTW's box office at 212-924-0077 to purchase tickets to the show.)
4/3/05
The Dancing of Politics
Brecht Forum at 451 West Street
Free
Ishmael Houston-Jones, Andrea Liu, Clarinda Mac Low, HanaKyle Moranz, Jill Sigman, Lise Serrell and Arturo VidichDuring the MR Festival 2005: Open Source, Ishmael Houston-Jones led a workshop called “The Dancing of Politics,” to address his concern that "...few works that he sees these days have anything to do with the world beyond that of the choreographers creating them. It would seem that in these times of war and terror and the eroding of personal liberties, some work would address these issues no matter how obliquely…” This studies project, conceived and presented by a working group of performers that has evolved from this workshop, will address the following questions: What is it to make socially relevant art? How do we go forward trying to do that? How do performance and moral conviction intersect? Both performances and open discussion will take place.
3/1/06
Contemporary Dance in France and the US: Differences and Similarities in Aesthetics and Structures, a conversation with Barbara Bryan, John Jasperse, Tere O'Connor, Laurent Pichaud, and Martine Pisani
Moderator: Trajal Harrell
Joyce Soho
FreeIn conjunction with the premiere of French choreographer Martine Pisani's Sans at Joyce Soho on March 2-5, 2006 (co-presented by Danspace Project and The Joyce Theater), Movement Research, in collaboration, invites a public conversation about the comparative life of dance making in France and the U.S. With a formidable history of dance exchange, these two cultures continue to influence each other in philosophical and practical terms. Moderated by Trajal Harrell, panelists will discuss their own personal working histories as well as their take on aesthetic dialogues happening between and within the U.S. and France. Alongside these ideas, information about institutional support and structures in France will be discussed.
12/12/05
Outdoor Forms
7 - 9 pm, CAVE. Free
NYC’s Jennifer Monson and choreographer/cultural activist Pearl Ubungen will discuss the unique relationship between forms and outdoor performance, and how work is redefined through this practice. The Project will draw from the artists’ history of experience, as well as their specific projects in the Festival. This Studies Project took place as part of the MR Festival 2005: Open Source.
Moderator: Alejandra Martorell
12/11/05
Open Source
7 - 9 pm, The Tank. Free
The co-curators will discuss the ideas and practices that underlie the Festival, “open source,” and its making. The intent of this meeting is to provoke a public conversation around the construction and results of this project, facilitated by the lens of Harrell’s insight. This Studies Project took place as part of the MR Festival 2005: Open Source.
Panelists: DD Dorvillier, Margit Galanter, koosil-ja, & Michelle Nagai.
Moderator: Trajal Harrell
12/5/2005
On Love
7 - 9pm, The Tank. Free
Kathe Izzo, Love Artist, and Heidi Dorrow of the Love Everybody Movement, in dialogue around the topic of their medium, love itself. With a focus on performance making as an act of love, they ask, "What is love?"and "Does this love distinguish between art and life?"
This Studies Project took place as part of the MR Festival 2005: Open Source.6/13/2005
Improvisation is Dead; Long Live Improvisation
7pm
hosted by Danspace Project at St. Mark's Church, Parish Hall
10th Street and 2nd Avenue
Movement Research and the Performance Journal #29 Editorial Team invite all interested parties to a Studies Project, during which we will engage in a dialogue with regard to the writings of Journal #29. It is our hope that the discussions surrounding Journal #29 will galvanize debate, suggest possible topics for future journals, and expand the range and depth of these conversations. Your participation is vital to the perpetuation of a truly substantive exchange within our community.
Moderator: Clarinda MacLow
4/30 and 5/1/2005
MRX Studies Project: Contemporary Indonesian Dance
Using principles from traditional Javanese dance to create new choreography, a workshop and panel discussion with Pamardi Tjiptopradonggo.
Workshop: $30 Saturday, April 30, 2– 5pm at Eden’s Expressway 537 Broadway, 4th Fl.
Panel Discussion: Free to the Public, Included video screenings of contemporary Indonesian work, Sunday, May 1, 1 – 3pm at Dance Theater Workshop
4/11/2005
Studies Project in Search of a Title
7:30 - 9:30pm
Dance Theater Workshop Cafe Lobby
This studies project invites a look at particular dance works made in the recent past featuring all-female casts. In contrast to the heroic female work of early modern dance, how do these artists contextualize their art? Is the term “Grrl work” relevant to describing any common attitudes about a choreographic practice in this particular moment in time? Join the artists and special invited guests for a stimulating thought-provoking discussion in which we attempt to discuss the above without falling into the linguistic and verbal abyss of oversimplifying, overdefining, boring people to death, or worse repeating the dominant hegemonic power structure. It remains to be seen and talked about. Organized by: Trajal Harrell.
Participating artists:
Luciana Achugar (A Super Natural Return to Love)
Jennifer Allen (Goodbye to Old Things; Lady M)
Yanira Castro (Beacon; Cartography)
Daria Fain (Every Atom of My Body is a Vibrascope)
Anne Gadwa (Jaded Hokey Love Dance, The Monster Baby Project)
Sally Silvers (DREAMSDOCOMETRUE)
Christalyn Wright (The $Ho$ Show; Dreamscape: Where Womb Powers Supercede)
Ann Liv Young (American Crane Standards)
12/8/2004
Outside in the City: Reframing the Kinetic Experience of the Urban Environment
Moderators: Jennifer Monson and Gillian Lipton
Panelists: Simone Forti, Marisela Lagrave, Alejandra Martorell and Yves Musard
This Studies Project brings together four artists who have engaged the urban environment through dance. We'll discuss the ways that each artist uses the context of city as material and metaphor for their work and how the moving body, in particular, cna incorporate, appropriate, interpret and reframe the ecology, geography and geometry of the city.
This Studies Project was funded, in part, by the National Endowment for the Arts as part of our 25th Anniversary Season Celebration.
12/1/2004
The Space of Dance: The Movement Between Inner and Outer Landscapes
Moderator: Margit Galanter
Panelists: K.J. Holmes, Robert Kocik, Yvonne Meier, DD Dorvillier and koosil-ja hwang
This Studies Project will explore the role of space and place in movement construction. Our focus will be on the in-between: the unique interactions of the inner and outer poles of experience. Our mental furniture and imagination affects how we understand the exterior and how we make movement. A layer of observation on space provides tools for improvisation and shows that our actions are, in fact, all creative inventions, but how? What are the similarites between virtual and kinesthetic space? The panelists and participants will investigate the space of dance in dialogue and in action.
2/9/2004
25th Anniversary Program- Beauty
Deborah Hay
Deborah Hay, renowned artist/thinker, presented “a performance of two performances of Beauty”, first performed in London, July 2003, written and performed by Deborah Hay, with video, text and live art making. Beauty asks the question, “Can a formal and stimulating adherence to a prescribed set of hypothetical conditions be seen as choreography if there is not a single learned movement requirement?" The performance was followed by a panel discussion with the artist, performers and audience.
This Studies Project was funded, in part, by the National Endowment for the Arts as part of our 25th Anniversary Season Celebration.
11/3/2003
25th Anniversary Program- Minimalism and Its Dis(contents)
Minimalism, always one to create divergent reactions in viewers, is the jumping off point for the evening's performances and discussion. This Studies Project examines the interest and disfavor in minimalism as an aesthetic in contemporary dance. We will look at how choreographers have used this aesthetic as inspiration, an oppositional point of view and a tool for creating their own compositional rules and theatrical practices. In discussion we will also examine its historical development, (mis)perceptions, and the relationship between minimalism in dance to that of minimalism in music and the visual arts. Curated by Trajal Harrell. The performance was followed by a panel discussion with the artists:
Ursula Eagly and Eleanor Dubinsky
Les Freres Corbusier
David Neumann
9/29/2003
25th Anniversary Program- MRX STUDIES PROJECT: Russian Artists
Anna Garafeeva
Kannon Dance
Oleg Soulimenko
Iguan Dance Theatre
4/21/2003
Studies Project: In association with the Latin American Dance: NOT Festival and Danspace Project
DD Dorvillier
Manuez Perez
Kirstie Simson
Jennifer Monson
Zona Dos (Venezuela)
Alicia Sanchez y CIA (Mexico)
Francisca Silva y CIA (Chile)
Danza Comun (Columbia)
3/3/2003
FLIP
Sita Frederick
Yves Musard
Dana Salisbury
Paul Langland
11/18/2002
Antic Dance: Clowns, Absurdity, Mischief, Innocence, Rebellious Humour and Exaggeration
Kiyoko Kashiwagi
Beverly Blossom
Paul Benney
Ariane Anthony
Pooh Kaye